{"id":208763,"date":"2026-04-24T20:33:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208763\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T20:33:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:33:34","slug":"brooklyn-park-police-department-makes-strides-recruiting-more-women-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208763\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Park Police Department Makes Strides Recruiting More Women Officers"},"content":{"rendered":"

3:08 PM | Friday, April 24, 2026<\/p>\n

More women are answering the call to serve in Brooklyn Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s police department is reporting a rise in female officers. But leaders say they\u2019re still not where they want to be on their recruitment target.<\/p>\n

Officer Margaret Helbig is among the changing face of a department that seeks to diversify. CCX News caught up with her as she led a refresher course on the use of force to a group of detectives. Her instruction included handcuff techniques and verbal commands.<\/p>\n

But for Helbig, gender doesn\u2019t change her job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of a time where I\u2019ve had that feeling, \u2018oh, they\u2019ve treated me different because I am a female,’\u201d said Helbig. \u201cYou just feel like one of the team. You feel like part of the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Officer Margaret Helbig leads a use of force training class.<\/p>\n

Working To Close the Gender Gap<\/p>\n

Officer Helbig helps make up 20 percent of the nearly 110 sworn Brooklyn Park police officers who are women.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a number that falls below the department\u2019s goal of 30 percent by 2030<\/a>, but Brooklyn Park Police Inspector Toni Weinbeck sees progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started at 12 percent so in the last three to four years that we\u2019ve really had this focused intention of behind hiring females we\u2019ve already added that 8 percent,\u201d said Weinbeck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Weinbeck said she would like to see more women on the force to be more representative of the community they serve, but that\u2019s not all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also been studies that have been conducted too that show women tend to use less force as police officers, you see that nationally. So, it\u2019s another important piece,\u201d said Weinbeck.<\/p>\n

By going out in to the community and showing women wearing the badge, Weinbeck hopes others can see a future in law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking sure that we have women in instructor roles, making sure we have women on the SWAT team, handling K9s because they\u2019re showing that I can do that just as well as you can,\u201d said Weinbeck.<\/p>\n

For Helbig, she\u2019s grateful for the women leaders who paved the way and hopes she can be that same inspiration for the next generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s something you are truly interested in it, go for it,\u201d said Helbig. \u201cDon\u2019t let anyone stop what your dream is to be when you grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Park<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3:08 PM | Friday, April 24, 2026 More women are answering the call to serve in Brooklyn Park.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-208763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}