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Racial Diversity Research Paper

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Date Effective Policing in Racially Diverse Communities
The recent unrest in Ferguson Missouri has brought a number of controversial issues into the national spotlight. One day after a police shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, civil protests erupted, curfews were established and militarized riot squads secured the streets to maintain order. The small town saw peaceful protests quickly deteriorate into riots, violence and looting. The issue raised a number of important topics involving effective community policing, including the racial profile of a police department. Attorney General Eric Holder called for more racial diversity, promising that police departments will be more …show more content…

(Kasdan) Active recruitment strategies would also help address another issue. Communities should strive to make policing more attractive to minorities. Many minorities do not consider law enforcement a possible career choice. Many grew up with a negative perception of police. These adversarial relationships need to change if there is any possibility of creating police departments that mirror the changing demographics of the 21st …show more content…

police departments. African-Americans, who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for about 12 percent of the full-time officers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The primarily white, male police departments of the 1950s have evolved and diversified. Today, there are large numbers of female, gay and minority officers. (Sklansky) However, there is a problem. Departments in large cities are much more diverse than small towns or rural areas. Most of them work in the nation’s largest cities, and smaller communities, such as Ferguson, have much Whiter police forces. Additionally, there is another problem regarding police diversity. The population demographics of the U.S. is rapidly changing. There is increasing Hispanic immigration. Some departments have made more progress than others. It is difficult for any police agency to perfectly reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. This would require a quota system and recruitment strategies that would be impossible to implement. However, communities of all sizes need to recruit professionals that represent, respect and care about the safety and well-being of all citizens. There is no empirical evidence that racially-balanced police forces actually treat their communities with more respect, fairness or diligence, but police must treat people

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