There are no women officers on the Hanover police force.
Kurt Schimke, the Hanover police chief for the last six years, says this is not unusual.
Few women apply for jobs as officers because societal bias and stereotypes have traditionally defined police work as a male profession, Schimke said.
"It is a complicated issue," Schimke said. "A woman wants to be recognized as an officer, not as a woman officer."
He said gender bias defines a woman's role as communicative rather than physical, which leads to the image of female officers as advocates, not real officers capable of handling the same situations that male officers could.
Schimke, who has been doing police work in New Hampshire for 22 years, said he would like more women to apply to be on the force.
"In practice, we receive few applicants," he said. "We'd like to have more applicants."
Schimke said he discussed the issue with police chiefs of other local departments and all agree they would like to change the makeup of the departments by hiring qualified women.
"We're very interested in having women apply. We regret not being able to hire more women," he said.
Schimke said that during his time in Hanover there have been two female officers on the force as well as other female employees who are not sworn officers and who are unable to make arrests or perform other duties of full officers.
But he said the small size of the Hanover area provides an excellent environment for women to be specialists in dealing with women's issues, in addition to the general duties required of any sworn officer.
"I'd like to be able to integrate women into advocacy roles. There are natural opportunities for them to get involved," he said.
Female officers are required to pass the same written, physical and psychological background tests as men to qualify as sworn officers.
Officer Darryl Zampieri, a member of the Hanover Police force, cites familial obligations as a possible reason why women aren't more willing to enter the police profession.
"It takes a special person to put up with the type of work," Zampieri said. "It's shift work and you might not be spending time with a family like you would in any other job."
During Zampieri's 18 years of police work in New Hampshire, he has worked in departments that have had female officers.
"I was a chief for several years and had a part-time officer who performed as well as a male," he said. "She was aggressive in her patrol work and was willing to get her hands dirty."
Zampieri said a female officer would be accepted and he would have the same expectations for her as he would for a new male officer.
"In a sense, guys might be a little more careful about being guys in their station house talk, but the work wouldn't change," Zampieri said. "Women would be expected to do what everyone else does."
Rebel Roberts, a female Safety and Security officer, said that although she sometimes senses hesitation from people in the community, the Safety and Security Office has always been an accepting environment.
"The Safety and Security office was always open to women," she said. "That is a benefit of working for the College."
Officer Roberts is one of two female officers on the Safety and Security staff, which also has one female sergeant.
Although Hanover and Lebanon do not have female officers, both the Enfield department and the nationally accredited Goffstown department, near Manchester, have female officers.
"It's never been a problem. In fact, I've been here longer than anyone else in the department," Sergeant Jane Carpenter of the Enfield police department said.
Carpenter added that becoming an officer is an individual choice and her decision was not one that required much thought.
Carpenter said being a female officer has at times been an advantage. "I've had less of a problem on some occasions than I might have if I had been a man," she said. "Sometimes it catches them by surprise that I'm a woman."
