Sexual Harassment, Retaliation Rife In Police Departments Across US - Reports

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2022) Female police officers have little protection from fellow officers or supervisors who prey on them in a number of major police and sheriff's departments across the United States, an NBC news exclusive report said on Friday.

Harassment is present despite existing policies that are supposed to protect female officers, and police and sheriff's departments in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago have paid more than $40 million to settle harassment- and abuse-related lawsuits, the report said.

The #MeToo movement sparked a societal reckoning against sexual misconduct, ushering in reforms designed to reduce workplace harassment and prompting the firing of abusive men in a variety of industries, the report said, but added that many women in law enforcement say the movement has yet to arrive.

A review of more than 60 lawsuits that were settled or won and an analysis of internal police documents show that sexual harassment and gender discrimination remain rife in some of the largest police departments, the report said.

Moreover, many of those accused of harassment do not face significant punishment, the report also said.

Female police officers have pointed out that the harassment and discrimination lawsuits capture only a slice of the problem because many women never pursue legal action and internal abuse complaints are not made public, the report added.

In most if not all of the cases, the settlements have been reached without any admission of liability, according to the report.