Honolulu police are expanding efforts to recruit women into their ranks as part of an overall effort to shore up staffing in all eight police districts.

There are 240 women serving the city as police officers, about 13% of the department’s more than 1,800 officers, up from 212, or about 12%, in 2015. HPD is slightly above the national average.

Currently, women make up 12% of sworn officers and 3% of police leadership in the country, according to the 30×30 Initiative, a coalition of police leaders, researchers and professional organizations trying to get more women into law enforcement.

Women account for 10% of HPD majors, 6% of the department’s captains, 13% of lieutenants, 10% of sergeants and detectives and 14% of officers in a nonsupervisory role, according to statistics delivered Nov. 15 to the Honolulu Police Commission.

“Nevertheless, we can do more to increase women in our ranks,” said HPD Human Resources Division Capt. Parker Bode, speaking to commissioners Nov. 15.

HPD’s renewed efforts to recruit more women and diversify opportunities for current female officers are modeled on the experiences of the first female police chief of the Columbus (Ohio) Police Department, Kim Jacobs.

In remarks in 2015 to the President’s Commission on 21st Century Policing, Jacobs said she was the product of recruiting.

“Women don’t naturally think of the profession because they don’t see a lot of women in it. And recruiting is essential to create interest in people that previously haven’t thought about it,” Jacobs said. “We need to show them that it is an organization where they can use some of those skills that women naturally have in talking to people. Women are good at that because we can’t go up and grab somebody’s arm and push them into the back of a cruiser. We have to talk them into the back of the cruiser.”

Jacobs believes she was good at talking to people and that departments need to share those stories with women conceding the job, according to her 2015 remarks.

“We know that it is not typical for a female to pick this profession,” HPD officer Shellene Ozaki, who is assigned to the department’s career center, told commissioners Nov. 15.

She said HPD’s recruiting of women is attempting to create connections between the natural strengths and advantages women have with policing.

The department holds women-focused informational sessions where officers help address issues like child and health care and how to balance the demands of the job with everyday home life.

For the first time, HPD is going into the high schools and all Oahu colleges to recruit young women. Social media campaigns and efforts targeting standout female athletes in high school and college for recruitment are underway.

Bode said recruitment materials that traditionally highlight the excitement and adventure of the job are being reworked to stress day-to-day police operations, the spirit of service and community policing.

The speakers featured at the informational sessions come from different ranks in the department, Ozaki said, and the hope is they are able to connect with somebody in the audience.

“By bringing in these speakers … telling them they can do this … it’s (a career in policing) not something that is not achievable,” Ozaki said.

Commission Vice Chair Kenneth Silva, a former chief of Honolulu Fire Department recruitment, noted that police recruitment and retention is a struggle. He said the work HPD is doing to recruit women and officers in general is not yet reflected in staffing increases, but “the effort is there.”

“I’m really encouraged by what HPD is doing,” Silva said. “It seems you folks are leaving no stone unturned,” Silva said.

Metropolitan police recruits, while attending HPD’s Ke Kula Makai Police Academy, working in the Field Training &Evaluation Program and 4th Watch service during their first year, earn a base salary of $72,384 per year and up to $80,288 if standard-of-conduct benchmarks are achieved.