Data shows that more women are becoming police officers in Calgary, and while research has shown several benefits, advocates find that full acceptance is still a work in progress.

Statistics Canada updated its annual data on police personnel demographics across the nation on May 21, revealing that since 2015, the number of female Calgary Police Service (CPS) officers has grown by nearly 37 percent. 

Even though women made up less than a quarter of all officers in 2025, the increase ensued while the male officer population remained relatively unchanged. In the last 10 years, the number of men has totalled around 1,700, with little fluctuation.

Staff Sgt. Angie Tetley with the CPS’s recruiting outreach team said that the force seeks to hire the best in the game, regardless of who they are or their gender. In recent years, though, she said that they have tried to motivate women to join, and that this could be part of the reason for the increase. 

“Sometimes women question their abilities,” she said. 

“We have, in recruiting, been putting some effort into encouraging women and promoting the profession of policing to women.”

Tetley said that these initiatives are relatively new and have helped make the career look like a reality rather than a far-off concept to women. 

Gender-aware resources are a key player, says CPS recruiter

From concerns over the job’s physical demands to taking time off and navigating childcare, Tetley said that some of the barriers that limit women from becoming police officers often arise before they even open an application. 

Because of this, Tetley said the CPS began offering weekly information sessions addressing topics that prevent women from pursuing their aspirations to join the force. She said that these have been especially helpful.

“Women experience law enforcement differently, they experience work differently, they experience life differently,” said Tetley.

“I feel that in that environment, women will ask the questions they really want to ask.”

On the physicality side of things, she said that they launched their Women’s Recruiting Bootcamp just over four years ago. The application-only, one-day event is held every year at the CPS’s headquarters, where the 36 selected participants undergo a crash course in policing. 

Tetley said that volunteer officers walk attendees through fitness testing, equipment familiarization, and use-of-force tools to give them an idea of what to expect from the job. 

She said the feedback the CPS receives from participants after the day is done usually falls into one of two categories: either it isn’t for them, or they want to join but need more training and are willing to put in the work. 

“We really beat them up for a whole day, and without fail, the women leave that day exhausted, completely worked to the core, [but with] massive smiles on their face,” said Tetley. 

“I think the women’s recruiting bootcamp has been a really, really positive push for that jump in numbers.”

The CPS has also been paying special attention to athletes, including bringing in players from local and out-of-province universities for team-building days. Tetley said this has helped plant the seed in people who might not have considered policing as a career.

“We found that women who play in high-level team sports, the transition from athlete to officer is very smooth,” she said. 

“It’s the same mindset, same drive, same sort of working on a team to accomplish a goal.”

No matter the recruiting method, Tetley said that having more women involved in the force offers several benefits to the community at large. 

Research shows the positives in deploying female officers

A 2024 research article published in the Journal of Criminal Justice and Behaviour by researchers at Carleton University compared the on-the-job actions of male and female officers across Canada.

For nine years, the study collected use-of-force data by gender and concluded that female officers were, overall, less likely to deploy such tools than their male counterparts. 

Specifically, the odds of female officers finding themselves in situations where force was used were two-thirds lower than those of male officers. In the event that force was used, female officers had 70 per cent lower odds of using lethal tactics.

The study cautioned that situational factors likely contributed to this pattern, as females reported encountering subjects experiencing emotional and substance-use distress more frequently, while males reported subjects in possession of a weapon more often. 

Regardless, the researchers named both this and social conventions as having played a role. 

“It could be that female officers are more skilled at resolving situations without resorting to force,” the article read. 

“Alternatively, the public may be less likely to use violence against female officers due to their smaller stature and less threatening presence, or because of societal norms that violence against women is immoral.”

Whether or not this is the primary reason, the CPS’s year-end report noted that the use of force was eight per cent lower last year than in 2024 — the second year in a row where volumes fell, following the high reported in 2023. 

Tetley said qualities like empathy and compassion as being common, but not limited to, females. She said that the ways in which women experience life differently could be an asset to both the officers and patrons involved in a vulnerable call. 

“Sometimes, even speaking with victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, sometimes people would prefer to speak to a different officer,” said Tetley. 

“If we have a female officer who can attend that call or be that ear or that voice, then we will do our best to make that happen.”

While Calgary and other major municipalities across Canada have made strides in expanding the number of women in their forces, an advocate for women in policing said the work is not done yet.

Rank progression remains a challenge for women in policing

A little over a year ago, Ontario-based Insp. Valarie Gates with the Barrie Police Service attended a conference in the United States. She returned home with a lingering question: How could she start something that addresses the gaps Canadian women in policing face?

Gates later hosted focus groups to learn more from hundreds of women across the country and partnered with Wilfred Laurier University to study trends in female law enforcement. This ultimately led her to become the co-creator of 30Forward.

The initiative aims to support and advance women in police careers by sharing resources, tools, and best practices with local forces. Since it went live in October 2025, it has expanded to every province and territory and signed on with the RCMP. 

She explained that 30Forward’s mission is guided by critical mass theory, which holds that when an underrepresented group reaches 30 per cent of an industry’s population, inclusivity has truly been achieved. 

“It’s called the tipping point. That’s where sustainable, systemic change starts to occur,” said Gates. 

“It starts to affect culture — you’ll see less sexual harassment because the culture no longer accepts it…that’s when policy and reform really start to take place, because lived experience is starting to show up in some of those policies.”

Despite women making up over half of Canada’s population, she said that women make up just 23 per cent of all police officers in the nation.

Gates said that Canada is on track to reach a one-third share of women among police officers, but that, in light of this achievement, women are less likely to be promoted. 

She said that 71 per cent of female police officers are at the entry-level constable rank, and that part of the reason is that women tend to have fewer mentors available to coach them to advance to senior roles. 

“They’ve never seen themselves in those roles,” she said.

“Naturally, men have always had mentors through their careers, because there’s more of them.”

The CPS currently has a female police chief in Katie McLellan, who worked up through the ranks in a nearly 40-year policing career. The Service also has ranked female personnel in various other sections.

To remedy this, Gates said that 30Forward’s online mentorship network serves as a resource for connecting female officers to leaders in their field. She also recommended that recruiting teams target high school-aged girls to reframe the career as something tangible for younger generations. 

“I didn’t have a female leader in my life, and I started in 1997,” she said. 

“I was thinking about trying to get promoted, and there was no one to talk to about that, so those little pieces mean a lot.”