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Percentage of African-Americans in U.S. Police Departments Remains Flat Since 2007
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | May 14, 2015 | By Ben Kesling and Cameron McWhirter

Posted on 05/15/2015 5:31:03 AM PDT by KeyLargo

Percentage of African-Americans in U.S. Police Departments Remains Flat Since 2007

But police hiring of other minorities has increased, report shows

By Ben Kesling and Cameron McWhirter May 14, 2015 2:43 p.m. ET 28 COMMENTS

The percentage of African-Americans in U.S. police departments has remained flat since before the recession, even as police hiring of other minorities has increased, according to a U.S. Department of Justice survey released Thursday.

A lack of black officers, especially in communities with large African-American populations, has been cited frequently in the wake of police-involved deaths of black residents that sparked riots in cities from Ferguson, Mo., to Baltimore in the past year.

Black officers make up just 12% of all local police officers, the survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed. The overall U.S. black population is 13.2%, according to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Departments struggle to recruit and retain African-Americans in part because of black distrust of police departments and possibly outdated criteria for employment, according to researchers who have studied the issue.

“The numbers are not so surprising. We’ve known that this is an issue,” said Anne Kringen, a criminal justice scholar at University of New Haven in West Haven, Conn. But she said the report doesn’t address why recruitment has remained stagnant.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: actedstupidly; baltimore; bias; blacklives; blacks; democrats; diversity; ferguson; hiring; holder; lynch; mediabias; obama; police; racialpreferences; recruitment; standards; testing
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"Black candidates face several hurdles, including written tests that may not be culturally neutral or are simply outdated, the experts say. Extensive background checks, credit checks and mental-health checks also tend to reduce black recruits, since poverty and its attendant problems hit blacks more than whites and other ethnic groups, according to Ms. Kringen.

“Many departments attract a diverse pool and subjective admission and hiring policies wash them out after the first interview,” said Malik Aziz, executive director of the National Black Police Association."

1 posted on 05/15/2015 5:31:04 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: KeyLargo
Malik Aziz, executive director of the National Black Police Association

SMH

2 posted on 05/15/2015 5:35:29 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Its the Sixties all over again, but with crappy music...)
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To: KeyLargo

“”Black candidates face several hurdles, including written tests that may not be culturally neutral or are simply outdated, the experts say.”

Translation: Experts say blacks are stupider than whites.


3 posted on 05/15/2015 5:36:07 AM PDT by lowbridge
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To: KeyLargo

As part of her job my sister interviewed candidates for air force security forces. She brushed over the typical questions and told me some of the astounding answers. A typical Q&A was, “Why do you want to be in the security force?/ I want to bust people.” Another answer was, “I want to shoot people.” Yeah, some of them were jaw dropping answers. So, yes, the interview washes a lot of people out. It’s supposed to.


4 posted on 05/15/2015 5:38:00 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: lowbridge

Can anyone advise when “dumbing down” the requirements to become a police officer took place? The timing sure looks pretty suspicious


5 posted on 05/15/2015 5:38:31 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: KeyLargo

So lower the testing standards, right?


6 posted on 05/15/2015 5:38:34 AM PDT by lowbridge
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To: Old Sarge

What does “outdated criteria for employment” mean?

It means that police departments have to continue to lower standards to recruit Blacks.

Is that is what is really needed, considering all of the media and Obama continue to claim that the ‘police acted stupidly’ whenever contacts involve black perps?


7 posted on 05/15/2015 5:38:47 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: KeyLargo

Stupidity.

I recently encountered a sheriff’s deputy who couldn’t have been 5 foot 3. I was thinking, this kid wouldn’t have any choice but to shoot me if I tried to overpower him.


8 posted on 05/15/2015 5:39:28 AM PDT by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: lowbridge

Might also be that “they is mo’ money money to be made” running the streets, selling dugs, pimping prostitutes, and robbing stores. They just want to make a livin’ you know...


9 posted on 05/15/2015 5:40:00 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: KeyLargo
Black officers make up just 12% of all local police officers, the survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed. The overall U.S. black population is 13.2%

OMG.

Lets riot.

10 posted on 05/15/2015 5:42:08 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: KeyLargo

Really??? So they should lower standards?


11 posted on 05/15/2015 5:42:22 AM PDT by ZULU (Boehner and McConnell are Obama's Strumpets.)
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To: lowbridge

WOULD IT KILL YOU TO HIRE MORE BLACK COPS? (YES)
August 27, 2014

ANN COULTER

As the story of Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson’s shooting of Michael Brown begins to look less clear-cut than we were led to believe by Brown’s friend, Dorian Johnson, the “voices of oppression” on MSNBC now say the real issue is that there aren’t enough blacks on the Ferguson police force.

As Brown may or may not have said seconds before his death: I give up.

If the Ferguson police are forced to hire more minorities and women for the sake of diversity, the one thing we can be sure of is that more black people will be murdered, raped and assaulted.

Someone’s got to say it, so it might as well be me: I’m against more black people being murdered, raped and assaulted.

In a massive, detailed 2000 study of the effect of court-ordered affirmative action plans on police departments, economist John Lott found that the more minorities on a police force, the higher the rates of murder, manslaughter, violent crime, robbery and aggravated assault will be. Violent crime increased by a minimum of 3.3 percent every year after affirmative action policies went into effect — and the spike in crime was highest in black neighborhoods.

The problem was not with black cops, Lott’s study showed, but rather with the lowering of standards across the board, resulting in less-qualified officers of every race. To get more of MSNBC’s “voices of oppression” on police forces, requirements are reduced for all recruits. (Just as quality declined at MSNBC when “voices of oppression” had to be added to their lineup.)

We end up with cops who are criminals, the Rampart scandal of the 1990s and great movies like “Training Day.”

About a decade into a federal consent decree requiring the Los Angeles Police Department to hire more minority officers, the LAPD’S Rampart division was employing gang members in uniforms.

Training officer Jim Peasha told investigative reporter Jan Golab that he left his unit because of the preposterous recruits being sent to him as a result of affirmative action. “I had some fantastic minority recruits,” Peasha said. “One black kid was the best I ever had.” But he also had “one guy who I knew was on drugs and I couldn’t get him out. He wound up getting caught working as a guard at a rock (cocaine) house. An off-duty cop!”

READ AT: http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014-08-27.html


12 posted on 05/15/2015 5:42:30 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: KeyLargo

They should never exceed 12.6% of the force - the same as in the general population.


13 posted on 05/15/2015 5:43:34 AM PDT by Ancient Man
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To: KeyLargo

The percentage of Blacks in the US has remained fairly constant for over 100 years.

In 1870 blacks made up 12.7% of the population.

In 2010 black made up 12.6% of the population.


14 posted on 05/15/2015 5:44:50 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (You can't spell Hillary without using the letters L, I, A, & R)
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To: KeyLargo
Black officers make up just 12% of all local police officers, the survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed. The overall U.S. black population is 13.2%....

Seems to me pretty darn representative.....although such "goals" are stupid. If you are the best qualified for the job, you should get the job. The color of your skin need not be a consideration.

What if the NBA had to have 70% of their teams be WHITE in order to achieve parity with the population? That would be wrong, too.

15 posted on 05/15/2015 5:45:37 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: KeyLargo

File that under “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy”, I guess...


16 posted on 05/15/2015 5:46:48 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Its the Sixties all over again, but with crappy music...)
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To: Ancient Man
Comments from article:

"12.2% vs 13.2%? You know what this is called? Within the statistical margin of error. Blacks are fully represented in departments on a macro level."

"at 12.2 percent of the police (see above chart), blacks are already represented in proportion to their share of the population."

17 posted on 05/15/2015 5:47:49 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: KeyLargo

“Black candidates face several hurdles, including...rap sheets as long as their arms and various felonies.”

There. Truth hurts, don’t it?

Thank a Democrat for DESTROYING the Black American Family all in the name of votes and POWER.

*SPIT*


18 posted on 05/15/2015 5:57:08 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set...)
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To: KeyLargo

My son is a member of a police dept. that has about 50 uniformed officers. After trying for years, they finally found one qualified applicant. The only one who could pass the written application/test and also pass the drug test.


19 posted on 05/15/2015 5:59:21 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (`)
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To: KeyLargo
The only logical answer is to go back to separate but equal. Put black officers in black neighborhoods. Let the white officers places like Ferguson and inner-city Baltimore hate and don't trust have the jobs in white neighborhoods.

Then, bygosh, those ravaged communities can set whatever standards they want for their police officers.

Honestly, I'm sick of it. The only logical outcome, from global all the way down to local things, is a complete collapse of government.

20 posted on 05/15/2015 5:59:35 AM PDT by grania
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