Top Female Chief Quits, Accusing N.Y.P.D. of Widespread Gender Bias

Though women make up 18 percent of the department’s 36,000 uniformed officers, a female officer has never been appointed police commissioner, chief of department, chief of detectives or chief of patrol in the 175-year history of the agency. (Alice McGillion, a civilian, briefly served as first deputy commissioner in 1989.)

The scarcity of women in the upper echelons of the police department is not unique to New York. While women are half the population of the United States, they make up 12 percent of the nation’s police officers, less than 10 percent of police supervisors and about 3 percent of police chiefs or executives, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Women have led police departments in big cities like Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, but agencies in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles have only been led by men.

The lawsuit filed in New York City said that there is evidence that gender is a factor in decisions about discretionary promotions.

Women made up 15 percent of front-line supervisors promoted on the basis of exams, but less than 10 percent of the managers promoted at the police commissioner’s discretion, according to a department report prepared in July.

Only 39 of 416 officers who held ranks above captain in the New York Police Department in July were women, the report said.

Five women, including Ms. Pollock, have come close to reaching the top rank, attaining the rank of three-star chief. (Only the chief of department, the highest-ranking uniformed officer, has four stars.) But by the end of the month, all but one of those women will have retired.