Smith speaks highly of the Washington State Patrol Academy, which she regards as one of the best when it comes to dealing with female searches. We better be teaching male officers how to search female prisoners and detainees.” And a woman can kill you just as quickly as a male. “FBI studies bear this out: Who’s being given the gun to carry? Females. “If there’s a policy that says that a male officer can’t pat down a female, there should not be a policy that says that he can’t at least get her controlled-at the very least handcuffed-in the meantime,” notes Smith, who is a lead instructor for Calibre Press’s “Street Survival” seminars. She emphasizes the need to see female subjects’ hands prior to engaging them, but also the need to address concerns with their brethren so as to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself: Just because a male officer may not be able to search a female doesn’t mean he can’t control her. In those instances where female cops roll up to find an uncontrolled, unsearched female standing outside a male officer’s car, Smith trains them to position their vehicle in such a way as to afford themselves protection prior to verbally and then physically controlling that female. Related Article: Safe Searching: The Standard Basic Search “Departments are notoriously behind and overly sensitive when it comes to dealing with female suspects so that female officer is probably going to have to take it upon herself.” “In an era where we’re trying to do more with less, females are still being called to conduct female searches,” says Betsy Brantner Smith, a noted police trainer and retired patrol sergeant. Male officers are hamstrung by an inability to conduct such pat-downs, and female officers by their male counterparts’ need to bring them to the scene to do the job. And the same male cop who’ll dismiss his sister officer as a “skirt who couldn’t find a felon in San Quentin” will have no qualms asking her to roll 10 minutes to conduct a female search and consume time otherwise available to do her own work.īut then, female searches can be problematic for cops of both genders. Often, she is tasked with handling more than her fair share of sexual assault cases, and dealing with victimized children. Male officers can be heroically accepting of the sometimes thankless roles women cops take on.

Calibre press street survival seminar