Episode 186 | Just Recruiting Women in Policing
Original Release Date: December 24, 2021
In this special release episode, Just Science sat down with Dr. Jennifer Rineer, a research psychologist and program manager in RTI International’s Center for Policing Research and Investigative Science, and Maureen McGough, Chief of Staff at the Policing Project at NYU Law and the co-founder of the 30×30 Initiative, to discuss efforts to recruit more women in policing.
Women are vastly underrepresented in the policing profession, accounting for only 12% of the police officers in the United States. Women police can increase legitimacy and trust within communities, and also improve department performance. Listen along as Jennifer and Maureen discuss their research on this issue and the steps organizations are taking to increase women representation in policing in this episode of Just Science.
This episode is funded by the NIJ project titled From Research to Reality: Recruiting More Women into the Policing Profession (Award 2019-R2-CX-0027).
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Transcript coming soon!
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Guest Bio
Jennifer Rineer is an expert in the health, well-being, and performance of employees and organizations. As a program manager and research psychologist in our Center for Policing Research and Investigative Science, she applies her academic and applied experience in industrial and organizational psychology and occupational health to workplace and workforce surveys, qualitative studies, employee trainings, evaluations, and experimental research in criminal legal contexts. Her research focuses on worker health, job-related stress, diversity and inclusion, organizational effectiveness, and related topics. Currently, Dr. Rineer serves as the principal investigator for a Department of Justice-funded project to develop programs to reduce stress for law-enforcement officers across the United States. She also leads two National Institute of Justice-funded projects: From Research to Reality: Recruiting More Women into the Policing Profession and Understanding Work-Related Stress among Medicolegal Death Investigators [MDIs]: A National Survey and Mixed-Methods Impact Study. Dr. Rineer joined RTI in 2015. Her professional background includes several positions conducting research on employment-related issues for the Center for Parental Leave Leadership, Catalyst, Inc., and the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, among others. She is a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the Society for Occupational Health Psychology, and the Society for Human Resource Management. View RTI Profile.
Maureen (Mo) McGough joins the Policing Project from the National Police Foundation, where she oversaw the non-profit’s research, training, and technical assistance efforts as Director of National Programs. Prior to joining the National Police Foundation, Maureen spent a decade with the federal government in various roles with the US Department of Justice and US Department of State. She served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Director of the National Institute of Justice – the USDOJ’s research, development, and evaluation agency – where she led agency efforts to advance evidence-based policing, improve the representation of women in policing, and implement systems-level criminal justice reform initiatives. Additional federal experience includes serving as counsel on terrorism prevention to the Deputy Attorney General, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and coordinator for federal AIDS relief efforts through the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda. Maureen is a member of the FBI’s Law Enforcement Education and Training Council, an executive board member for the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing, and is a recent public leadership executive fellow with the Brookings Institution. Maureen is an attorney and earned her J.D. from the George Washington University Law School. View Policing Project Profile.