Published on Sunday, June 4, 2006
in the Daytona Beach News-Journal

Florida Highway Patrol eager to recruit women

Actually, they're looking for a lot of women to become troopers.

In a recent annual meeting where the top brass gathered to look at how the agency can be improved, officials realized one key thing: The FHP is lacking in the female persuasion.

"We saw we were weak in some areas," said Trooper Harry Dennard, a regional recruiter with the FHP. ". . . We realized we needed more women."

Late last month the agency's Orlando office held a job fair designed specifically to attract women to the FHP's fold. A press release announcing the event read: "The Florida Highway Patrol is looking for strong, determined, independent women to become Florida's finest state troopers."

At least 41 women showed up, ready to patrol Florida's highways.

Dennard said he's hoping that all the women who showed up at the job fair go on to the FHP's 30-week training academy in Tallahassee.

Currently, only about 12 percent -- or 189 -- of the 1,650 troopers across the state are women, said Trooper Kim Miller, who handles public information for the agency's Troop D, which includes Volusia County and is based in Orlando. There are 10 troops in the FHP, each one covering a handful of counties. Jacksonville-based Troop G covers Flagler County.

The 37-year-old Miller is the only woman among 10 public information officers in the agency. She has been with the FHP for almost 12 years.

"The last two graduating classes we had at the academy had no women in them," Miller said recently. "I don't know if this is reflective of all law enforcement, or if it's just the FHP, but in the last five years we've had a decrease in the number of female troopers."

Lou Mercer, who runs the Emergency Services Institute at Daytona Beach Community College, said in general law enforcement agencies across the country are seeing lower numbers in their female ranks.

"In the police academy here on the average, about 20 percent or less of the class is female," said Mercer, a former Daytona Beach police commander. "You usually see about 50 people in a class."

Though police work is no longer gender-based, Mercer said he thinks an improved job market with its allure of better salaries may be one of the reasons for the lower number of female law enforcement officers.

Many women also have espoused fears about what the job of a trooper could entail, Dennard said.

"Some women believe you have to be in perfect physical condition and that's not exactly true," he said. "However, by the time they're done with the training at the academy, they'll be in perfect physical condition."

Of course there are risks. Miller underscored the two most prevalent: getting hit by a car while on traffic stops, and pursuing violent criminals who often choose the interstates as getaway routes.

But for troopers Cindy Williams and Roxie Hayes, such dangers are par for the course.

The two women, while on opposite ends of the career spectrum -- Williams is 40, a lieutenant with the agency for 20 years; Hayes is 26, a rank-and-file trooper with the FHP three years -- speak glowingly of their experiences and say their jobs are rewarding.

Williams recalled that when she joined the agency it was pretty much dominated by men.

"I came in 1986 and back then there were hardly any female troopers," Williams said. "One day at the age of 20, I just found myself in the academy in Tallahassee."

A college student at the University of Central Florida and a waitress, Williams said she wanted to become a police officer, but at 5 foot, 4 inches tall, she thought she was too short.

"There was a group of troopers who would come into my restaurant and I told them I wanted to be in law enforcement," Williams said. "They told me that my height was not a problem, that I should join the FHP.

"Six weeks later, I was at the academy," she said.

In the last two decades, Williams, who years ago also became the first female traffic homicide sergeant in the agency, has worked her way up through the ranks and hopes to become a captain. She investigates driver's license fraud, auto thefts and identity fraud out of Orlando.

Hayes is fairly new at the FHP, but already she is one of the troopers assigned to Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings' protection detail whenever she comes to the area. She patrols the Interstate 4 corridor in Volusia. Hayes lives in Deltona and said she became a trooper thanks to the influence of her two uncles, both detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department.

"Coming from a law enforcement background, I wanted to be in law enforcement," Hayes said. "My career so far has been awesome. I've received a lot of training and a lot of opportunities and I want to make this a lifelong career."

Hayes recently married and said she would like to have children. She does not think her job as a trooper will compete with family life.

Local spokeswoman Miller, the mother of an 8-year-old son, can attest to that.

"Many of the women who showed up at the job fair two weeks ago are mothers and that's one of the concerns they had," Miller said. "I can say the FHP is mom-friendly."

Miller also comes from a law enforcement background. Her twin sister was a trooper for 15 years and is now a Coral Gables police officer. Her father meanwhile, was a deputy with the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

Dennard, who has almost 24 years with the FHP, said the agency will continue to recruit women.

"Women are more capable of being good police officers," he said. "I think they have more of a natural intuition about things."

THE NUMBERS

About 12 percent of the Florida Highway Patrol's 1,650 troopers are women. Here's the breakdown for female troopers:

189 in Florida

3 in Volusia County

1 in Flagler County

Source: Florida Highway Patrol