Statistics Canada is reporting that Chatham-Kent has the lowest proportion of female police officers in Canada.
The report states that only 13.5% of the 155 Chatham-Kent police officers are women, well below the national average of 21%.
Chief Gary Conn says, historically, relatively few women have been interested in policing.
"It's traditionally been a male-dominated profession and we are in the process of trying to change those mindsets and break down those systemic barriers in regards to our profession," says Conn.
Statistics Canada compared 50 municipal police services that served municipalities larger than 100,000 people in 2017.
The report also shows that Chatham-Kent police hired three female officers in 2017 but lost two. The Windsor Police Service has a 15.9% female officer complement while in London the figure is 20.3%.
Chief Conn says the Chatham-Kent police department tries to attract female recruits through job fairs and other venues but it's tough to do.
"We are actively pursuing qualified females and trying to attract more females to our profession. We attend secondary schools and provide presentations in regards to females taking a look at policing as a job," the chief says.
Conn recognizes the challenges of recruiting women and says it's an issue that won't be fixed overnight.
"We went through a hiring process just a couple of months ago and we had 52 applicants respond to the posting and out of those 52, only six were females," Conn says.
The largest proportion of female officers was reported by Longueuil, Quebec with 35% in 2017.
