One of the New York Police Department’s highest-ranking women has quit the force and is suing her employer of more than three decades, alleging that it prevents women from rising to the top. Lori Pollock, who was the department’s first female chief of Crime Control Strategies, says she was forced to retire last week after being moved to head the Office of Collaborative Policing—a role she considered to be a demotion. On Monday, Pollock filed a federal gender-discrimination lawsuit accusing the police commissioner of holding female employees back. Pollock alleges that “intolerable, difficult and unpleasant” working conditions prevent women officers from being considered for “the most prestigious executive positions within the NYPD,” according to ABC News. Pollock contends that NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea “deliberately implemented, condoned, sanctioned, and ratified a glass-ceiling policy and practice within the NYPD.”
An NYPD spokeswoman said the department will review the lawsuit, adding: “The contributions of women, both in leadership roles and in their representation in the uniformed and civilian ranks, across the Police Department, cannot be overestimated.”
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