By Tanya Meisenholder, Ph.D., Carryn Barker and Terrence P. Dwyer, Esq.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to follow and signup for notifications!
Sexual harassment in policing is often discussed in abstract terms: policies, training, investigations, lawsuits and liability. But behind those conversations are employees whose lives, careers, identities and relationships with the profession are fundamentally altered by what they experience, and by how their organizations respond.
For Detective Carryn Barker, the story began when she started her career as the only woman on the SWAT team at the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. For Barker, SWAT was the pinnacle assignment. She put blood, sweat and tears into proving herself, earning the respect of the team, but one team member, a supervisor, started making comments that were hard for Barker to ignore. Barker says she learned quickly how isolated reporting workplace harassment can feel inside a paramilitary organization. What began as comments about Barker’s body became more explicit and sexual over time.
Barker reported the harassment to a supervisor, but there was no follow-up, no HR conversation and no meaningful intervention. Eventually the comments led to sexual assault, yet she remained assigned to the same team alongside the individual she had accused. Only after Barker filed a lawsuit and the entire SWAT team threatened to resign was the accused supervisor placed on leave.
Barker’s experience is not an isolated story or a relic of an earlier era of policing. Research, officer surveys, lawsuits and investigative reporting continue to document sexual harassment, retaliation and reporting failures across agencies of all sizes. The persistence of these patterns suggests the profession is not dealing with a handful of bad actors, but with systemic accountability and cultural problems many organizations still struggle to confront. Research has repeatedly found that many officers believe reporting harassment will damage their careers, isolate them professionally or accomplish nothing at all.
Why officers stay silent
A recent Police1 survey by Terrence P. Dwyer found that more than 60% of female officers cited fear of retaliation or a belief that nothing would happen as reasons for not reporting harassment. In a prior study of media-reported civil lawsuits, retaliation claims were found in more than 80% of the filings Dwyer reviewed.
Sexual harassment is not an inevitable part of policing culture, nor is it simply an HR issue or legal liability concern. It is a leadership issue and an organizational health issue. Agencies are defined by what leaders tolerate, minimize, ignore or excuse.
| RELATED: Police1 survey reveals harassment and discrimination of female officers
When organizations protect themselves
Too often, organizations respond to harassment complaints as reputation management problems rather than workplace failures requiring intervention. Concerns about public image, internal fallout, lawsuits or damage to unit cohesion can quietly shift attention away from the employee experiencing harm and toward protecting the organization itself. In some cases, leaders may minimize complaints, delay action, discourage formal reporting or frame the issue as an interpersonal conflict rather than misconduct requiring accountability.
Employees notice when misconduct is minimized, when complainants are isolated and when reporting creates more disruption for the person speaking up than for the person engaging in the behavior. Over time, this erodes trust not only in reporting systems, but in leadership credibility more broadly. Officers learn quickly whether organizational values like integrity, accountability and professionalism apply internally or only in external messaging.
Agencies across the country continue to emphasize safety, wellness, resilience, professionalism and retention while failing to address workplace environments that actively undermine all of these. Organizations cannot credibly talk about officer wellness while ignoring workplace conditions that contribute to stress, isolation, burnout, fear of retaliation and career disruption. Nor can agencies meaningfully address recruitment and retention challenges if employees continue to question whether misconduct will be taken seriously once reported. Policing cannot continue asking why women leave policing while avoiding harder questions about what many experience once they arrive.
| RELATED: What female officers say about harassment and culture in policing
Accountability starts with leadership
Barker’s experience also complicates narratives about policing culture. While the organization initially failed to intervene effectively, she describes strong support from many of her male SWAT colleagues, several of whom encouraged her to report the misconduct, accompanied her during the process and later testified on her behalf during litigation. That distinction matters.
Sexual harassment in policing is not simply a story about “bad culture” everywhere or men versus women. More often, it reflects failures of accountability, supervision and leadership willingness to act.
For years, policing has described professionalism, integrity and accountability as core values in interactions with the public. Those same standards must also apply internally.
During a 30×30 conversation, a police chief once asked why agencies should encourage more women to enter policing if they may ultimately experience harassment, discrimination or retaliation. But the solution to workplace misconduct is not excluding women from the profession. It is fixing the workplace cultures and accountability failures that allow misconduct to persist in the first place.
Barker’s experience demonstrates both the consequences of organizational failure and the possibility of change. Today, she continues to work in policing and is helping agencies rethink how they respond to harassment, retaliation and employee support. She describes significant cultural improvements under new leadership at her agency, proof that these environments are not fixed or inevitable.
The solution is not telling women policing is not for them. The solution is building organizations worthy of the people they ask to serve.
About the authors
Tanya Meisenholder, Ph.D., is the Director of Police Research at NYU School of Law’s Policing Project and leads the 30×30 Initiative, a national effort focused on strengthening recruitment, retention, and leadership in policing. Before joining NYU, she served in senior leadership roles with the New York City Police Department. Her work bridges applied research and practice, helping agencies strengthen organizational health and culture.
Carryn Barker is a San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Detective, former SWAT operator, SMCSO Medal of Honor recipient, and doctoral candidate. Drawing from both research and lived experience, she speaks candidly about resilience, institutional culture, and the courage required to challenge broken systems. Her story, culminating in a landmark legal settlement, underscores the power of standing up, standing together, and creating meaningful change.
Terrence P. Dwyer retired from the New York State Police after a 22-year career as a Trooper and Investigator. He is a tenured professor of legal studies at Western Connecticut State University and an attorney consulting on law enforcement liability, disciplinary cases, critical incidents and employment matters. He is the author of “The Badge Between Us: Duty, Marriage, and Family,” Bloomsbury Publishing (2026) and “Homeland Security Law: Issues and Analysis,” Cognella Publishing (2024). Visit his website at https://terrencepdwyer.com.
| WATCH: In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley examines the persistent problem of sexual harassment and discrimination in law enforcement with Professor Terry Dwyer and Detective Carryn Barker, exploring Police1 survey data, the barriers women face when reporting misconduct and the leadership accountability needed to create safer, more professional workplaces.
