Diversity is particularly important in the law enforcement context because policing is most successful when it has the support of the community it serves. A lack of diversity does not mean that individual officers or even the department itself has racist undertones.
Why is diversity in law enforcement important?
Why We Need More Women Working in Law Enforcement
- Primary Benefits of Recruiting More Women in Law Enforcement. While most departments and law enforcement agencies are aware of the need to hire a diverse workforce, diversity initiatives often focus ...
- Encouraging More Women to Pursue Careers in Law Enforcement. ...
- Advice for Women Seeking Career Advancement in Law Enforcement. ...
Why is diversity important in policing?
“Police agencies that are rich in diversity are simply more likely to garner individual trust among a group of citizens because the agency is reflective of the community and is inclusive of officers of many backgrounds and experiences.” This matters for more than just general public perception. Click to see full answer.
How important is diversity in a police department?
Diversity in police recruiting is a key aspect in departments across the nation. As this can be a touchy subject, it’s a common conversation across all industries alike. Your team is a direct reflection of the community and it’s important to have hard-working, motivated team members who come from all different walks of life.
What is discrimination in law enforcement?
Racial discrimination present among law enforcement officials is a constant topic of conversation in today’s society. Police officers are often accused of racial profiling by people who claim that the police target certain races more than others.
Do police departments require diversity training?
Is trust a hard thing to earn in law enforcement?
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Why is diversity critical to law enforcement success?
Additionally, a commitment to diversity by law enforcement agencies ensures that crucial public sector jobs are available to all eligible qualified candidates and therefore helps ensure equal employment opportunity for all.
What does diversity mean in the police?
Communities are diverse and getting to know each and every one within the county helps us do our job more effectively. Put simply, diversity means difference across race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, faith and age.
Is there diversity in the police force?
About 38% of police officers are people of color, but about 59% of the population are people of color, according to an ABC7 Eyewitness News analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2018 Equal Employment Opportunity Tabulation.
Can diversity in law enforcement be a benefit to America's police force?
Compared to white officers, Black and Hispanic officers made far fewer stops and arrests — and used force less often — especially against Black civilians.
What is diversity and why is it important?
1) Diversity drives creativity and innovation Every culture, every nationality, every single person sees the world in a different way. Similarly, every culture, nationality, and person has different knowledge, perspectives, and points of view. When all of these different views are shared together, miracles can happen.
How can diversity be improved in policing?
So How Can Police Departments Diversify?Reconsider physical and written tests that may impact female and non-white applicants.Allow applicants with prior arrests to apply for exemptions.Engage stakeholders to help create diversity reflective of the community.Use proactive and targeted community outreach efforts.More items...•
Why is cultural awareness important in law enforcement?
Individuals who are skilled in conflict management are able to make explicit what may be very real but outside of people's awareness. A culturally competent police officer is able to predict the expectation of the community member even if he or she cannot elucidate it.
Why does police operations must be diverse and flexible?
It is important for police officers to be culturally sensitive and understand how to properly address different situations they encounter. A push for a more diverse police force to match the more diverse public has helped to change the way police communicate and conduct operations.
Why is inclusion important in policing?
Evidence shows that a culture that is inclusive, diverse and fair creates a work force that feels valued and is more efficient and productive. The business case for diversity seems intuitive. Teams of mixed gender, ethnicity, physical ability, age and sexual orientation are more representative of customers.
How does culture affect policing?
Most agree that the organizational culture of a police department affects the behavior of the officers. Thus, the establishment of a professional, moral, ethical culture in a police organization can control, prevent, and punish misconduct and corruption.
Why is cultural diversity important?
It helps dispel negative stereotypes and personal biases about different groups. In addition, cultural diversity helps us recognize and respect “ways of being” that are not necessarily our own. So that as we interact with others we can build bridges to trust, respect, and understanding across cultures.
How important is a diverse workforce within a police department in creating trust within the community?
Police officers are highly visible to the public. Therefore, when a community sees a fully diverse police force, its trust is likely to increase because it's evident that the local police are taking steps to recruit candidates who understand the many needs of the community.
What do you mean by the word diversity?
Definition of diversity 1 : the condition of having or being composed of differing elements : variety especially : the inclusion of people of different races (see race entry 1 sense 1a), cultures, etc. in a group or organization programs intended to promote diversity in schools.
What is diversity in hiring?
Diversity hiring is hiring based on merit with special care taken to ensure procedures have reduced biases related to a candidate's age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and other personal characteristics that are unrelated to their job performance.
How does diversity and inclusion play a role in policing?
Benefits of a diverse police force Exploring the differences between people and cultures enriches learning experiences. Diversity helps with critical thinking and problem solving, especially when applied to real world policing problems.
Why is diversity important in policing UK?
Diversity initiatives have been developed in forces around England and Wales in order to promote awareness of racial issues and discrimination, change police officers' behaviour and attitudes and reinforce relationships with local minority communities.
Diversity among police officers is key, but it won't solve the problems ...
I n Ferguson, Missouri, 50 of the 53 police officers are white in a city that is two-thirds African American. In Connecticut’s state capital, Hartford, 66% of the police department is white but ...
Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement - Policing Equity
Tragic events over the past several years – including officer-involved shootings and attacks on law enforcement officers, and the demonstrations and protests these incidents have spawned – have captured the public’s attention and driven a host of policing issues from the periphery to the center of our public dialogue, including a renewed focus on increasing diversity in the nation’s ...
Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement Report (October 2016)
Summary. In December 2015, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) launched a new research initiative, Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement, to identify barriers that undermine diversity in law enforcement and highlight promising practices that help agencies better reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.
Why is diversity important in law enforcement?
Diversity in law enforcement is a concept entangled with political interpretations and sensationalist media, but just because a question or concept is difficult does not mean it isn’t worth exploring.
Why is diversity important in the military?
However, one of the benefits of having diversity in the force and of diversity training is that officers are able to communicate with cultural nuance. As an example, some cultures have different attitudes to personal space.
Why is it important to have a wider range of communities within law enforcement?
Additionally, having members of a wider range of communities within law enforcement normalizes the behaviors and attitudes of those communities with the wider law enforcement spectrum, allowing officers from across the U.S to reach a greater understanding of the people they protect.
What language do police officers speak?
Addressing this can be as simple as teaching officers some of the major non-English languages spoken in the U.S, such as Spanish or Chinese.
Why is it important to earn the trust of the public?
Just as with proper communication, earning the trust of the public is paramount to effective law enforcement. An understanding of the nuance of other cultures, the perception that law enforcement officers share, or at least understand some of the same experiences as those from other cultures, and the understanding that other cultures ...
How does diversity affect law enforcement?
Law enforcement agencies face a number of challenges when seeking to foster a robust talent pipeline that widens the diversity of their workforces and reflects the diversity of the communities they serve. These challenges, which manifest themselves in the recruitment, selection, and retention processes, are far from insurmountable. And in fact, agencies that have undertaken efforts to broaden their talent pool have found that increased diversity brings a range of benefits that can be seen both within their workforces as well as in their relations with the communities they serve.
How can law enforcement agencies increase diversity?
Promising Practices for Increasing Diversity. By adopting proactive and intentional recruitment, hiring, and retention strategies, law enforcement agencies can address barriers, drive reform, and make progress in ensuring that their workforces better reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.
Why do law enforcement agencies discourage underrepresented communities from applying to be officers?
Strained relations and a lack of trust of law enforcement may deter individuals from underrepresented communities from applying to be officers. The reputation or operational practices of law enforcement agencies may dissuade applicants from underrepresented communities from pursuing a career in law enforcement.
How many law enforcement agencies are there in the US?
There are approximately 18,000 Federal, state, county, and local law enforcement agencies in the United States. [36] These agencies range from police departments employing just one sworn officer to departments with more than 30,000 officers. [37] In 2008, the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) conducted a census of state and local law enforcement agencies. [38] That census, which included 17,985 agencies, found that those agencies collectively employed more than 1.1 million people on a full-time basis, nearly 800,000 as sworn personnel. The census revealed that the vast majority of these agencies - more than 12,000 - are local police departments, a category that includes municipal, county, tribal, and regional police departments. BJS's research also found that there are more than 3,000 sheriffs' offices; approximately 2,000 special jurisdiction agencies, which are agencies that provide police services for entities or established areas within another jurisdiction (e.g., parks, schools, airports, housing authorities, and government facilities); 50 primary state law enforcement agencies; and nearly 700 other agencies, such as county constable offices. [39] BJS also conducted a census of Federal law enforcement agencies in 2008: that survey collected data from 73 agencies, which employed approximately 120,000 full-time sworn law enforcement officers. [40]
How does mentoring help in law enforcement?
Mentoring is a crucial mechanism for conveying critical and often unwritten information about how to succeed and advance within the agency . As in all professions, employees in law enforcement agencies often seek mentors and mentees to whom they relate or who remind them of themselves. Some agencies, recognizing that racial minority and female officers have sometimes struggled to identify mentors, have developed innovative programs that successfully bring mentors and mentees together in ways that enhance the overall diversity of the workforce. Additionally, recognizing that promotion is critical to retaining a diverse officer corps, several departments have begun to place a particular emphasis on providing officers - especially women and racial or ethnic minorities, who are significantly underrepresented in leadership roles - with the support they need from the outset.
What is the advancing diversity initiative?
The Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement initiative was premised on engagement with those who have firsthand experience confronting the challenges related to advancing diversity in law enforcement. To that end, the teams undertaking this effort - at the Department of Justice, the EEOC, and CPE - engaged law enforcement agencies along with other stakeholders through a variety of efforts. Those efforts are broadly discussed in this section.
What percentage of veterans are women?
The provision of a veterans' preference by many state and local law enforcement agencies, while laudable, may disproportionately benefit men to the disadvantage of women in hiring, since approximately only 15 percent of active-duty personnel are women (and historically, that percentage has been even lower).
What happened to the police in Chicago in 2020?
CHICAGO — In the last decade, high-profile police killings — including George Floyd in 2020 — have shaken the nation and led to widespread protests and calls for reform, including hiring more nonwhite and female officers. But there was little research to back that up.
What did Knox and his colleagues find about the Chicago Police Department?
They found that compared to white officers, Black and Hispanic officers made far fewer stops and arrests — and used force less often — especially against Black civilians. They also found female officers used less force than their male counterparts.
Is police violence an issue of representation?
“They don’t go deep enough or tackle the root issues,” she said. “Police violence is not an issue of representation.”
Does diversity in law enforcement improve police?
Now, a new study published Thursday in the journal Science, suggests that diversity in law enforcement can indeed lead to improvements in how police treat people of color.
Do police officers respond to armed robbery?
Most officers respond the same way to violent crimes such as armed robbery or assault. With minor infractions, though, like traffic violations or drug possession, Legewie said, “There’s more leeway for the officer to make a decision.”
Why is diversity important in law enforcement?
Diversity is particularly important in the law enforcement context because policing is most successful when it has the support of the community it serves. A lack of diversity does not mean that individual officers or even the department itself has racist undertones. However, a lack of diversity leads to a deficit of institutional knowledge ...
Why is a diverse police department needed?
Furthermore, police officers—in uniform or in squad cars—are very visible parts of American communities; thus, a diverse police department publicly displays a commitment to equal treatment of the law. This soft capital is needed in order for trust to be established. Trust, then, translates into the community working with law enforcement, as opposed to working against because they are suspects.
What case did the Supreme Court rule that police departments should be more diverse?
Secondly, the Supreme Court has also gotten in the way of more diverse police departments. In a 2009 landmark case, Ricci v. DeStefano , the Court effectively rejected an effort by a Connecticut city to make its fire department more diverse. The Court’s reasoning can and has been applied to the police department context in U.S. v. Brennan. These rulings are unfortunate and devalue state and community interests. However, until these judicial decisions are overturned, police departments must be careful in the way diversity initiatives are structured so they are not struck down by the courts.
Why do minorities view police less favorably?
Minorities tend to view police less favorably when officers do not represent the diversity of their communities. This creates tension between police departments and communities, which makes the job of policing that much harder and ultimately less effective.
Why should we appoint Muslim leaders in the US?
If most of the national security apparatus is unjustly focused on American Muslims and most of our foreign policy is focused on majority-Muslim countries, it would be in the United States’ best interest to appoint American Muslims to senior-level policy positions in order to provide a broader perspective and to ensure that the American Muslim community is involved in the political process and not marginalized. Diversity matters.
Why should recruitment and retention standards be reevaluated?
Recruitment and retention standards should be reevaluated in order to attract and retain more diverse candidates while not compromising the quality of officers accepted. Secondly, the Supreme Court has also gotten in the way of more diverse police departments.
How many black police officers are there in Ferguson?
In Ferguson, two-thirds of the residents are black. The police force is fifty-two strong and of the fifty-two police officers, only three are black. Ferguson is no exception.
How does a more diverse police force affect the community?
This is supported by years of study and research confirming that when members of the public believe their law enforcement agencies represent them, listen to them, respect them and when communities perceive their agencies as fair, legitimate, and accountable, it greatly increases their trust in law enforcement and brings about trust in their government.
Why is there a barrier to law enforcement?
The biggest barrier that must be overcome is the poor relations between the community and law enforcement . This brings about a “catch 22”, diversity may be the answer to better community-police relations but the poor relations may also be the reason why law enforcement has been unable to become more diversified. In communities with poor relations, those tensions can bring about a level of distrust that discourages individuals from considering careers in law enforcement. Research shows that the current climate of distrust between law enforcement and at least some communities they serve as a significant barrier to the recruitment of a diverse police force. Poor relations can also bring about a stigma of becoming a police officer or law enforcement official because of the neighborhood you are from. The community may look poorly on a person and they may receive harsh treatment from their fellow community members if they pursue a career in law enforcement.
What is the task force on 21st century police?
This task force brought together a diverse group ranging from law enforcement executives, community advocates, law makers, and community members, to explore ways for bettering community-police relations, reducing crime, and advancing public safety into the 21st century. In one of its key findings for building better community-police relations, they focused on the need to ensure law enforcement agencies better reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.
Why is trust important in the community?
This trust is crucial to defusing tension in the community, allows law enforcement to better solve crimes, and to creating a system in which residents view law enforcement as fair and just. Members of the public, including victims and witnesses of crime, may not approach or interact with law enforcement if they do not perceive them to be responsive to their concerns. An example of this is urban communities where police are unable to find cooperating witnesses to a crime because the witnesses believe that the police are unable to protect them or do their job correctly. This improved relationship also allows officers to perform more efficiently, safely in the field and rid the neighborhoods of the stigma they have about the police.
What is the biggest barrier that must be overcome?
The biggest barrier that must be overcome is the poor relations between the community and law enforcement. This brings about a “catch 22”, diversity may be the answer to better community-police relations but the poor relations may also be the reason why law enforcement has been unable to become more diversified.
Is diversity a problem in law enforcement?
Diversity is a problem that has plagued law enforcement for years and this is not the first push there has been to diversify the ranks. For the last 20 years departments across the nation have worked towards diversifying their workforce but have had little success. Even departments that have come under federal mandate to diversify have had trouble in meeting their goals. The Chicago Police Department (CPD) has been on a hiring frenzy the last 3 years trying to increase the size of the force to help deal with the increasing crime rate and the increasing retirement rate from the department.
Do police departments require diversity training?
Many police departments require diversity training on some level. It isn’t safe for officers or civilians to leave room for serious assumption-based misunderstandings. But just trying to avoid danger or criticism is a different motivation from truly celebrating the benefits that diversity can bring.
Is trust a hard thing to earn in law enforcement?
When a police department is trusted by its community, the job works like it should. But trust can be a very hard thing to earn in law enforcement —especially since officers tend to appear in a citizen’s life when something has gone wrong.
Better Communication
Earning The Public’S Trust
- Just as with proper communication, earning the trust of the public is paramount to effective law enforcement. An understanding of the nuance of other cultures, the perception that law enforcement officers share, or at least understand some of the same experiences as those from other cultures, and the understanding that other cultures and races are ...
Changing Negative Perceptions
- For some communities, the attitudes towards law enforcement can be overwhelmingly negative. They are often seen as outsiders or as a threat, rather than serving the community at large. Part of this negative perception can be changed through further diversifying law enforcement because having representatives of a certain community or culture within law enforcement helps to preve…
Qualifying For Your Future
- Gaining a qualification from our Criminal JusticeSchool puts you in an excellent position to access a variety of employment opportunities as you look for one that suits your skills and interests. At Northwest Career College, our Criminal Justice instructors include licensed, practicing attorneys and degree instructors able to teach, not only the law but also to guide our s…
U.S. Department of Justice Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Acknowledgments
Executive Summary
I. Introduction
II. Why Diversity in Law Enforcement Matters
- The challenge of recruiting, hiring, and retaining a diverse workforce is certainly not limited to law enforcement. Throughout the country, in nearly every sector of society, people and organizations are grappling with this issue. Employers in a variety of industries have engaged in proactive efforts to expand opportunity and strengthen diversity.Y...
III. Current State of Diversity in American Law Enforcement
IV. Project Methodology
v. Barriers to Diversity
VI. Promising Practices For Increasing Diversity
VII. Case Studies