{"id":21765,"date":"2021-02-05T14:45:26","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T22:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=21765"},"modified":"2023-09-19T15:57:33","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T22:57:33","slug":"telling-the-story-of-gender-politics-and-violence-in-america-through-the-eyes-of-women-police-officers","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/telling-the-story-of-gender-politics-and-violence-in-america-through-the-eyes-of-women-police-officers\/","title":{"rendered":"Telling the Story of Gender, Politics, and Violence in America Through the Eyes of Women Police Officers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In addition to her documentaries Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 65,<\/i> and Suicide On Campus<\/i>, a web documentary produced in conjunction with The New York Times Magazine<\/i>, Deirdre Fishel<\/strong>‘s previous film CARE<\/em> peeled back the curtain of a topic Americans often avert their eyes away from, the largely hidden world of in-home elder care. Now she’s made a documentary about another urgent subject <\/span>resonating especially loudly around the country right now: Women in Blue<\/i> <\/strong><\/a>shines a spotlight on the women within the Minneapolis Police Department working to reform it from the inside by fighting for gender equity.<\/p>\n

The New York-based filmmaker connected with us to talk about making a film on women police officers at a time when police are in the spotlight, on how she was able to embed with these women and earn their trust, and about how she managed to finish this story during such a tumultuous period, including the challenges of working on it right up through the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n

What compelled you to want to make a film about women police officers?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

After Eric Garner was put into a chokehold by an NYPD officer and died shortly after, I turned to the only police officer I knew at the time, Lt. Sallie Norris. Devastated by this senseless act of police brutality, I wanted to know if this could have happened on her watch.\u00a0 She told me it absolutely couldn\u2019t have. The Rookie had started the interaction aggressively, quickly letting it escalate out of control.\u00a0 She said she would have started the interaction by simply saying, \u201cHello my name is Sallie Norris, what\u2019s yours?\u201d Those human words started me thinking, do women police differently than men?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I quickly found research from the 1990\u2019s that detailed, with some evidence, that women officers do use less force than their male counterparts and are involved in less officer-involved shootings. They deescalate and communicate better. Given the prevalence of police violence, I decided to make a film that would explore this question, what do women bring to policing and what are they facing in this traditionally, even toxically, male institution?\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

I soon realized that there was no way to make a film just about gender and policing and started to see the film as an exploration of the intersection of gender, race, and violence in policing through the eyes of women officers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Who do you hope<\/b> Women in Blue<\/i><\/b> reaches and impacts the most?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

I hope the film impacts the people (mayors, judges, DAs, legislators and even the new Attorney General) who can work to remove the barriers that keep women out of policing as well as create the protections and support they need to thrive.\u00a0 In order for women to help transform public safety there needs to be a tipping point of 30% women, more than double the number of women in public safety now. I hope the film can help lead to awareness that as we work to reimagine public safety — getting more women, particularly Black women, is one effective step.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n