Minorities remain largely underrepresented in many local police departments despite efforts to improve their diversity programs, a federal report says.
The report published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics says this is particularly true in jurisdictions where there are racial tensions within communities experiencing rapid demographics shifts.
“Racial and ethnic minorities were underrepresented by a combined 24 percentage points on average when shares of police officers were compared to census population estimates for each of the 269 jurisdictions reviewed,” the 2015 report said.
This disproportion was greatest among Hispanics. Their numbers are nearly 11 percentage points below the census population estimates. Blacks and Asians, two smaller minority groups, also remain underrepresented, the report adds.
“In 35 of the 85 jurisdiction where either Blacks, Asians or Hispanics make up the single largest racial or ethnic group, their individual presence in police departments was less than half their share of the population. Asians were most underrepresented, averaging 33 percentage points below Census population estimates in the seven jurisdictions where they accounted for the single largest demographic,” it was reported.
According to the report, “about 27 percent of officers in all local police departments in 2013 were racial or ethnic minorities.” In 1990 the number was only 17 percent. Despite these increases, the report said, diversity efforts still haven’t kept pace with the country’s shifting demographics. “In fact, total minority representation in local law enforcement agencies trails the U.S. population more so now than two decades ago.”
The report shows there are a variety of reasons why police departments have failed to recruit minorities. Some of these agencies have been accused of “unfair hiring practices over the years.” Departments with low turnover are slow in keeping pace with these changes. California law enforcement agencies have been slow in hiring minorities (minus 32 percentage points) among those departments reviewed.
Smaller jurisdictions with fewer officers tend to show slightly greater levels of minority under-representation as well. In the city of Simi Valley minorities represent only 12.3 percent of the total population. However, Hispanics represent roughly 6.6 percent, Blacks 1.6 percent and Asians represent 4.1 percent of that police department’s minority staff, the report adds.
Minorities make up 64.6 percent of the Los Angeles Police Department. The police department comprises 43.4 percent Hispanics, 11.6 percent Blacks and 7.1 percent Asians. Accordingly, this is one of the agencies in the report that stepped up its recruitment of candidates after the White House Task Force made several recommendations regarding this issue.
In the report, police diversity is perceived to be a problem mostly in poor and low-income communities; however, more affluent areas with poverty rates below the national average have levels of under representation roughly equal to the poorest jurisdictions.
