Race

[mroman3]

Is race taken into account in the hiring process? Not necessarily one race is better than another sort of thing, but do certain areas (IE, areas with a high rate of Hispanic citizens) opt for Hispanic officers?

Would that be considered illegal?

 

[Profit5500]

That is a question you might want to ask a supervisor or the chief if you can get a hold of either of them. I think different cities have predominantly more of a certain ethnic group in the force. LA seems to have a mix of African American and Latino officers with some Oriental officers.

 

[Shawn]

I would hope not anymore in 2014. Spanish speaking officers are always needed in most every department. I live in IL, far from the southern border region but we still get a lot of illegals that don't speak a word on English. I am learning Spanish now simply because it pays more money to know it.

 

[wulfman]

Pretty sure no matter how unprejudiced a person who is in charge of hiring is, some bias comes into play when they look at a white, black, hispanic, asian, etc applicant.

 

[stevesxs9]

Its certainly possible if there's a racial quota set in place by Local, State or The Federal Government concerning hiring. There's certainly been suits regarding it.

 

[wulfman]

Yea depeding on the area you are working there probably is a preference of race for an officer to be. And I am sure there is a quota too. Less to do about race and more to do with how the public or ghetto areas would react with a white cop versus a black cop. Or a female cop versus a male cop.

 

[Rainman]

I think following the violence in Ferguson police departments are going to be forced to hire more officers of the same race as the people they'll be serving to avoid being accused of racism should anything bad happen. That though is something [call them new policies] which is/are yet to be executed.

 

[JoshPosh]

i agree with you on that one. Some town are still racist.

 

[Allison2021]

Race does matter!
I would love to say that only the best applicants should be hired. However, in racially polarized towns such as Ferguson Missouri, the local law enforcement must be more sensitive to differing racial groups. For example, if a town is more that 50% Latino and only African American police officers are patrolling the area, then one could say the police commissioner is insensitive to that community's needs. Why couldn't the commissioner actively recruit Spanish speaking officers or officers of Latino/Hispanic descent?

 

[Peninha]

I don't think if race is taken into consideration to be honest, isn't that illegal?

 

[PineappleKing]

I think it's important to have a population officers that mirrors the community it serves. I believe that the people who hire police also have this idea, so race may be a factor.

 

[Peninha]

What do you mean "people that hire the police"? The police works for the government, they are not for hire.

 

[SamClemensMT]

I'm sure it's legal. I think it makes sense to seek to diversify your police force, so that it reflect the demographics of the community. This could prevent a lot of misunderstanding in the future. Ultimately you want the best of the best, but a special effort needs to be made to ensure that the community can relate to the police and the police are able to relate to the community directly.

 

[LitoLawless]

The police force should be diversified world wide. I never saw a police force with a certain race being dominant over any other. I think it's important to have people form all walks of life in workplaces of all kinds. There are some states that have one race just slightly over another, but it isn't a landslide like some people think.

 

[downsouth]

I'm sure it's legal. I think it makes sense to seek to diversify your police force, so that it reflect the demographics of the community. This could prevent a lot of misunderstanding in the future. Ultimately you want the best of the best, but a special effort needs to be made to ensure that the community can relate to the police and the police are able to relate to the community directly.

Absolutely. As kind as an officer of a different race would be, I would feel more comfortable if his partner or some on the force were the same race as me. It is not even about racism or anything. You just want to see a diversified police force serving a population like NYC.

 

[wahmed]

Bias will always be there even a tiny teenie amount. Its not meant to be there and neither is race supposed to be an issue. I think it would violate human Rights to another level.

 

[Clairelouise84]

Is race taken into account in the hiring process? Not necessarily one race is better than another sort of thing, but do certain areas (IE, areas with a high rate of Hispanic citizens) opt for Hispanic officers?

Would that be considered illegal?[/QUOTE
whilst that would make sense I think officially, hiring someone based on their race would be considered prejudiced. But I am basing that on UK "laws" and they are probably highly different than US ones.

 

[Gabe]

In certain areas race may matter because of the population and how the locals will react to police officers. It shouldn't matter, but in reality it does and can make a difference to how a community responds. Most want a diverse force where they reflect all areas of the community because it makes relations easier and also helps build up trust in a community.

 

[lushlala]

In my opinion, it's not right but it almost certainly happens. I don't think it's ever made public for obvious reasons, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are quotas to fill. It happens everywhere, not just in the police force.

 

[Diane Lane]

Departments follow the law with regard to hiring. It's helpful to have officers on hand who speak various languages, and if there are residents speaking those languages, and this is often (but not always) reflected by the background of the person. Hispanics aren't the only ones who speak Spanish, so if it's related to a language barrier, any officer who speaks Spanish should suffice. There are certain areas that believe it's important to try to match the demographics of the force with the community. When I lived in Boston, the Boston Police Department was specifically looking to hire gay police officers, in an effort to connect with that community. It's also important to remember that demographics of areas change. If you look at specific sections of cities, states, and countries, the demographics don't usually remain static, and it would be ridiculous to hire and fire certain people, or constantly shuffle people from one area to the other in order to match the specific racial backgrounds in those areas.