A n expanded emphasis on police family violence at the Feminist Majority Foundation's Third Annual National Center for Women and Policing conference has helped encourage almost twice as many people to register for the conference this year than last year. "We expanded the police family violence section of the conference to two days," said Penny Harrington, who leads the National Center for Women and Policing and who was former police chief of Portland, Oregon. "Police departments know they have to deal with domestic violence within police families because of the Domestic Violence Gun Ban law, which prohibits anyone who has been convicted of domestic violence from owning or carrying a gun. But while studies show that up to 40% of police families experience domestic violence, very few of those incidents are reported. Our conference will explore how to get more victims to report, and how to protect those victims once they do report."

The conference, to be held April 19-23 in Las Vegas, Nevada, will also address ethics in policing, recruiting more women into law enforcement, and leadership training for women in law enforcement. "Ethics in policing is a women's issue because women tend not to engage in wrongdoing," said Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation. "More women police officers generally means less police brutality and fewer ethics violations." The featured speaker on this issue will be Chief Joseph McNamara, who has written extensively on how community involvement and command staff accountability can reduce ethics violations.

Other featured speakers include Atlanta police chief Beverly Harvard, the first African-American woman police chief of a major U.S. city, who will tell her story of how she made it to the top; and Dolores Huerta, president of the United Farm Workers, who will share the lessons she's learned in a lifetime of organizing for change. This year's lifetime achievement award will be presented to Chief Roberta Reddick, who was acting chief of the Compton, California police department in the late 1970s, at a time few if any women were police chiefs. "Roberta has done more to mentor women in law enforcement than any other woman in the U.S.," said Harrington.

Harrington is also pleased that more civilian women in law enforcement are registering for this year's conference --women who run the records divisions, the human resources divisions, or the 911 support divisions at police departments. "We've been trying to make the National Center for Women and Policing a place where sworn and civilian women can work together. Generally these women haven't thought about working together before. Civilian women are often subject not only to discrimination like sworn women; but they can also be a sworn officer's strongest ally." Harrington relates a story from her own career to illustrate this point. She was the first woman promoted to detective at the Portland police department, and none of the men would show her how to use the various machines and audio-visual systems. She tried to learn on her own, but one day became so frustrated that she was crying in the women's bathroom. A secretary saw her and immediately brought three other women into the bathroom. The women decided to teach Harrington what she needed to know. "We had regular meetings in the restroom after that," laughs Harrington.

For more information about the conference call (213) 651-2532. For more information about the National Center for Women and Policing, see the Feminist Majority Foundation's Web site: . €