The idea came to her as she watched Sandra Bullock star in The Heat, a movie about two female law enforcement officers’ attempts to arrest a mobster in Boston. Reflecting on her own career, Jennifer Atherton said one of the actresses’ lines struck her with clarity.
“It’s hard being a woman in law enforcement.”
It was a simple sentiment, but one that years later prompted the veteran officer to spearhead a group to address gender issues in the Dallas Police Department — where she said some women are fed up.
“It’s tough on women — this job, this culture,” Atherton said. “It’s just such a small line that she just kind of throws out there, but it was true at that time. Nobody talked about it. It was whispered about.”
Now president of the newly formed Dallas Police Women’s Association, Atherton said she and other female officers are determined to establish a support system for women, increase their opportunities and fight a culture that can involve harassment and sexism.
Unions created specifically for female officers appear to be rare among local police agencies in the U.S., where women make up about 14% of sworn officers and a smaller percentage of leadership roles, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report published last year.
There are 580 women — about 19% of the department — who are sworn Dallas officers, a spokesman said.
Atherton initially expected the DPWA would attract only about 50 people total. Through June, the association is at 90 — including seven men who joined in support, she said.
Atherton said she was inspired in part by her own experiences. She recalled a past supervisor who she said wouldn’t look her in the eye, communicated to her through her male partner and labeled her — and not her male colleagues — disrespectful if she spoke up during meetings.
Then there were remarks she said she and others encountered: “Let me talk to your husband,” “Listen here, young lady,” “She’s good for a female officer,” being described as a unit’s “token female” and insinuations that female officers did something sexual to be chosen for a coveted position.
“It’s pervasive, and it’s been this way since I’ve been on,” said Atherton, who has been with DPD for 24 years. “You get tired of it.”
The first coalition began in 2018 as a Facebook group now called “Sisters,” which has about 350 members. That informal effort led to change — in 2018, Atherton and other officers communicated there to help one another create lactation rooms in every Dallas police substation. Previously, women had to sit on toilets or in conference rooms to use a breast pump.
Atherton initially planned to stick with the online organization, but a tipping point came for her after she posted an informal survey last year in the group.
The results were telling. Of around 200 respondents, about 80% said they felt harassed, discriminated against or treated differently at some point in their careers, Atherton said. Asked whether they felt comfortable getting assistance from other associations regarding discrimination or harassment, about 65% said no or were unsure, she said.
Only about 15% said they felt a future complaint would be investigated fairly if raised with the department, Atherton added. About 70% said they didn’t feel it’d be investigated fairly, and an additional 15% were unsure, she said.
Dallas police Chief Eddie García said he’s pleased with the group’s formation if it can empower female officers. He said he can collaborate with the association if units don’t have enough women, or for recruiting or workshops.
García said he’s supportive of goals outlined by the DPWA, including calls for implementing a day care for officers’ families. The group also hopes to implement more training through regular events like a “range day” to enhance officers’ skills drawing and shooting a gun, as well as workshops for hands-on defensive tactics.
Dallas police already participate in some initiatives to recruit and retain women. One of the largest, the 30x30 Pledge, is a national program that aims to have women make up 30% of police recruit classes by 2030. Law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., including DPD, signed up.
Asked about the remarks Atherton said were made to her or other women, as well as the broader cultural complaints, García said “it is viewed as a male-dominated profession, which is obviously one of the reasons that we’ve taken part in the 30x30 initiative.”
“Whether those comments exist, they’re inappropriate, and obviously those comments would be dealt with if they occur under my watch,” he said.
Association goals, pushback
The Dallas Police Department has various associations, many of which are separated by race and ethnicity. The three largest, led by men, are the Dallas Police Association, the Dallas National Latino Law Enforcement Organization and the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas.
Senior Cpl. Terrance Hopkins, president of the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, said he has female members on his board, but he’s sure there are issues unique to women that “some of the associations probably don’t deal with.”
Women are better situated to handle some situations because they can relate, Hopkins said. He said some male officers still believe women shouldn’t be in law enforcement.
“It’s important when a group feels that they’ve been discriminated against or that people see them a certain way, I think they do need to get together to strategize about how to overcome some of that nonsense or bias,” Hopkins said. “What they’re doing is right to deal with some of the issues that they face.”
Sgt. George Aranda, president of NLLEO, declined to comment. Sgt. Mike Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association, did not respond to requests for comment.
Despite the support her association has received, Atherton said there’s also been some pushback. She said she was warned about insiders who might sabotage the group, and some people called the idea divisive or questioned whether its formation was possible.
More recently, she said she was told the Dallas Police Women’s Association can’t speak to academy recruits near their graduation date to introduce the group, as other associations are allowed to do. García said there are “other ways to communicate with the academy classes than just going out there.”
Atherton said she doesn’t want to immerse the group in politics or competition with the other associations. The DPWA’s members are dual members with the larger associations, which retain attorneys in case an officer gets in trouble or is involved in a shooting.
The DPWA, whose dues are lower than those of the other groups, hopes to find pro bono attorneys for legal advice on departmental policies related to sexual harassment, but not as counsel on criminal or administrative investigations.
“We’re not trying to change police work,” Atherton said. “I want the women to feel valued, not just tolerated. Because that’s kind of where we’re at. We’re, for the most part, tolerated.”
‘Be part of what can change’
Officer Mariana Cartas, who joined the department in April 2021, became involved in the association as secretary after she was inspired by other female officers who trained and led her through the start of her career with DPD.
She said she hasn’t experienced mistreatment in the department, although she knows it exists. She said she hopes to represent the association’s mission to increase training and learning opportunities for women and boost female representation in upper ranks.
“Men will go out and go shoot more or might go and train more, or might have opportunities to do so rather than women,” Cartas said. “So if we can provide that to ‘em, I think that’d be freaking awesome.”
Cartas, who is assigned to the Southwest Patrol Division, said she’s noticed female officers often interview people they encounter in a more patient manner, which she cited as ways in which male and female officers can learn from one another on the job. She said those conversations aren’t happening now because officers just “go from call to call.”
Cartas said even as a new officer, she believes she and DPWA can improve conditions for all women to ensure that harassment never happens. She said she was “pretty shocked” hearing the stories of other female officers even before she joined the association.
She’s motivated by those experiences.
“I still have faith in DPD,” she said. “If I ever lost faith, I think it’d be the time to go to a different department, right? So although there’s things that happen that I don’t agree with, I think that if you don’t agree, you should be part of what can change and make it better.”
