Not anymore. In January, the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System board voted to add “male only” to its pre-employment physical examination form to ensure that there was no confusion over who was to receive the test.

The clarification was made after a group of female Tulsa Police Department officers — aided by the local police union — brought the issue to the organization’s board.

“Our biggest concern was, one, that it was being done, and two, a lot of girls were forced to do it to be considered for applying, and that you should never be forced to do it,” said Officer Kathy Still, a 31-year-veteran of the department.

Still leads Women In Policing, a subcommittee in the Police Department that advocates for female officers. She said she’s spoken to at least a dozen female officers who had the test performed on them as part of their pre-employment physical.

“I consulted a doctor, an OBGYN, and a couple of other people, talked to a bunch of other girls, and I guess it had kind of been a common practice that if a female applicant didn’t have their own test done by their own physician or their own OBGYN, that the city physician could conduct those exams,” Still said. “Well, that’s fine and good. But then these girls were being told that if they didn’t participate in that exam — they were like, ‘Wait, you’re gonna do what?’ And they were like, ‘That doesn’t seem right’ — then you won’t be considered for employment.”

City Physician Phillip Berry, who began work with the city in late 2005, said historically the state pension and retirement boards for police and firefighters have required the tests for male and female applicants.

“When I first started working here, I contacted both entities about those exams to express my concerns that they were not medically necessary. I was informed those applications would be rejected without all the required exams,” Berry said. “If a female applicant could not get a rectal or breast exam done through their outside provider our office provided those upon request. … Those exams were always done in appropriate chaperoned fashion as they would be in any medical office.”

The test was required of all police applicants who received a conditional offer of employment, Berry said.

“But the offer is contingent upon completing the pre-employment physical and all the pension requirements,” he said, adding, “They can’t start either training academy without the pension medical board accepting the physical that we submit on the applicants’ behalf.”

But Marc Edwards, an attorney with Phillips Murrah, which represents both pension systems, said neither one has ever required female applicants to have a rectal exam as part of the pre-employment physical.

“Instead, the medical professional relies on a ‘fecal occult blood test’ to detect blood in the stool,” Edwards said in an email. “The FOBT is administered by the applicant with a take home test provided by the medical professional.”

Edwards said the rectal exam is given to determine whether an applicant has any pre-existing medical conditions that may impact benefits granted to a member of the pension system.

“In this instance, the medical professional is attempting to determine if there are any markers for colorectal cancer,” Edwards said. “A digital rectal exam is required for male applicants to check the size and shape of the prostate gland, looking for possible infection, masses, enlarged prostate, etc. This exam also collects small amounts of stool to test for occult blood, which could indicate bleeding somewhere in the digestive system caused by medical conditions such as colorectal cancer, polyps, inflammatory bowel disease, and diverticular disease that may require additional testing.”

Ginger Sigler, executive director of the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System, said the rectal exam has never been required of female applicants and she has never told a police department that it was.

“I have only been here six years, but I just can’t imagine them ever being told to do a rectal exam on a female,” Sigler said.

Chase Rankin, executive director of the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, said the same about his organization.

“I have asked that question,” Rankin said. “I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t any miscommunication from our doctors. … I can assure you, it has never been required here.”

Berry, meanwhile, says the test is still required by OFPRS.

Matt Lay, president of the Tulsa Firefighters Local 176, said he is aware of one instance several years ago when a pre-employment rectal exam was given to a female applicant.

“The training chief and myself met with the cadet to discuss,” Lay wrote in an email. “The cadet pleaded that no action be taken for fear it could affect her employment and/or working conditions.”

Lay said the incident was reported to the Fire Department chain of command but he is not aware that any “outcomes or updates” followed, and that he was concerned to hear that the city still maintains that the test is required by the state Firefighters Pension and Retirement System.

“If anyone in the chain of command or city administration had done their due diligence, these inappropriate and invasive exams should have been stopped,” Lay said. “I encourage any member potentially impacted to reach out and seek counsel.”

Still, for her part, said she doesn’t believe Berry was negligent in any way.

“That examination or testing needed to be done, but it didn’t specify how the testing was to be done,” Still said. “And so the city physician’s office just took that as to do the digital exam on everyone.”

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