PEORIA Ill. (WMDB) — The Peoria police department is celebrating women’s history month while attempting to bring more females into law enforcement.
The Peoria Police Department currently employs 195 officers and 24 of those officers are women, meaning only 13% of the department is made up of female officers.
Sergeant Amy Dotson said a police team should be representative of the community they serve.
“Men and women everybody comes with their own life experiences and their own backgrounds and they bring a different layer to the community and the more diverse we get the more we look like the community we serve,” said Dotson.
The department is also a part of the 30 by 30 challenge, an initiative to have 30% female officers sworn in by the year 2030.
Dotson said she hopes to see that happen and offers a helping hand to anyone who might be on the fence about applying.
“Come to the station, take a tour see what it’s all about. You know there are alot of hats we juggle whether you’re male or female we all have lives outside of work but this is an exceptional career,” said Dotson.
To help with the cause, the department is holding a recruitment event Wednesday at 6pm on International Women’s Day at the police station.
Officer Krista Cunningham said at the Peoria police department they treat each other like family rather than like co-workers.
“We both serve a purpose men and women but we work together, we work as a team we both bring things to the table but we’re both very capable of doing this job,” said Cunningham.
