The recent upheavals in Ferguson MO have focused public attention on a number of problems dealing with race and police practices. One aspect that has been singled out is the glaring discrepancy of a predominantly black city with an almost completely white city government and an almost completely white police force. It seems patently obvious that such an imbalance contributes to the problems that have erupted in mass conflict. Such imbalances are by no means unique to Ferguson. They occur all over the country. The New York Times has put together an extensive analysis of national data and a discussion of the complexities of the issue.
Mostly White Forces in Mostly Black Towns: Police Struggle for Racial Diversity
Nationwide, the total number of minority police officers has risen, but they remain heavily concentrated in larger cities, with the numbers falling off sharply in smaller ones, like Ferguson and Maple Heights.
Data from a federal survey of police departments in 2007, analyzed for The New York Times by Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College, found that nearly 400 departments, most with fewer than a hundred officers, were substantially whiter than the populations they served. In these departments, the share of white officers was greater than the share of white residents by more than 50 percentage points.
The Race Gap in America’s Police Departments
This is an interactive database that is linked with the article. It documents the racial disparities all over the country. It makes it clear that these are not isolated problems. Much of it seems to be occurring in older near urban suburbs that have undergone major increases in racial diversity in the population with a white minority holding onto control and power.
The analysis article explores the reasons given for the lack of diversity in police forces.
The obstacles to diversity are many, Dr. Lim, the sociologist, said. Candidates usually must pass written tests, physical agility tests, psychological tests, polygraphs and background checks, some of which can have a disparate impact on minority candidates. Qualified black candidates are sought after not just by competing police departments, but also by employers in other industries. And some police chiefs have cited a negative attitude toward law enforcement among blacks that hinders recruiting.
Police departments have tried all kinds of remedies, from personal trainers to help with physical fitness tests to tailored recruiting. (A RAND survey found that women were attracted to the good salaries in policing, blacks to the profession’s prestige and Asians to the excitement of the job.)
But many small departments lack the resources, or the will, to conduct an exhaustive review of their hiring practices. In Maple Heights, job candidates are ranked by how well they score on the written exam, earning bonus points for factors like previous training, military experience and city residency. For each opening, the candidates are considered one by one, in order of their score.
In any field of employment the criteria for selecting qualified candidates are often not well connected to predicting successful job performance. Written exams were established as a mainstay of civil service systems as an effort to counter political patronage. However, they aren't likely to provide the last word on the skills needed for effective community policing.
Ultimately the problem comes down to the ballot box. Absent some form of blatant electoral fraud, racial minorities who are the majority population of a city have the power to change the racial diversity of city government and of the city workforce. Voting is the necessary step. There are many subtle ways to discourage minority voting turnout. However, determined organized opposition to them can overcome them. The federal Dept. of Justice can conduct investigations but they can't take over control of local governments. It is voters who have the best means of doing that.