Recruiting Police in the Ghetto
MARGOLIS, RICHARD J.
States of the Union RECRUITING POLICE IN THE GHETTO BY RICHARD J. MARGOLIS FOLLOWING the epidemic of ghetto riots during the '60s, many big-city police departments launched elaborate and...
...A sizable black middle class in the city from which to draw...
...Washington's 4,100-man police department is 30 per cent black and 70 per cent white—exactly the opposite of the city's population...
...Yet the real key to Washington's relative success is its commitment to a continuing program aimed at attracting minority-group police candidates, instead of a temporary, one-shot crusade...
...The black community and the police were at swords' points...
...The recruitmobiles—bearing the message, "stop...
...JAMES MURRAY, HEAD OF THE POLICE PERSONNEL DIVISION...
...Miami "We're suffering from a kind of social hangover...
...Indeed, the schism between the police force and the ghetto community appears to be widening...
...The capital has admittedly had a lot of things going for it: ?A major expansion requiring the addition of 1,000 new officers in a single year...
...Denver "We're doing everything we possibly can do...
...Everyone agrees that the climate has improved, and charges of police brutality have dropped sharply...
...Unlike Washington, Miami has not persuaded its minority citizens that it is genuinely committed to their integration in the police department...
...Black leaders are inclined to write off minority recruiting efforts as empty promises designed to prevent riots...
...They came in here and beat the drum for Negro recruits," a black journalist remarked, "and when the guys responded they were kicked in the teeth...
...black policemen were taken off their regular beats and transferred to "Personnel...
...These drives nearly always began on a note of optimism, sustained by the characteristically American belief that if the "product"—i.e., a police career—were properly "sold," members of minority groups would rush to buy it...
...Today, about 70 out of 700 policemen are black and perhaps another 30 are Cuban—in other words, roughly 14 per cent of the force consists of minority-group members, compared to 45 per cent of the city's population...
...It drew off the poison...
...To this day the policemen maintain separate Benevolent Associations, but opportunities for black policemen have improved...
...new enlistment offices were opened within minority neighborhoods...
...Operation Badge shifted the reaction," the official says...
...What follows is an examination of police minority hiring programs in three cities across the country—Washington, Miami and Denver...
...This not only allows greater flexibility in testing new techniques, but more significantly, it has made possible the building of bases of support within the black community...
...No one knows, though, whether they appeal to the right people, nor has anyone involved in preparing the campaign seriously consulted with representatives of the black and Spanish-speaking communities...
...Clearly, if such experiments as Adams-Morgan are to succeed, and if blacks are to have any confidence in the proceedings, the written requirements will have to be revised...
...Police departments and ghetto communities have endured a long history of mutual distrust and hostility, and this history will not be expunged by brochures and tv commercials...
...To further inspire ghetto confidence in the department, while the complainant waited, an officer with a telephone in the mobile unit began checking out his grievance...
...There's cop brutality every day down here," according to a moderate Mexican-American spokesman...
...A wide-ranging recruiting staff of 99 men and women...
...As the figures indicate, though, the written test continues to be a major hurdle to minority recruitment...
...What we need are not new recruitment "pitches" but new recruitment policies...
...In short, many were called but few were chosen...
...It attracted quite a few black police applicants, too: an average of 12 a week for the first nine months of the campaign...
...Accordingly, they have helped a coalition of neighborhood organizations in the capital's Adams-Morgan section obtain U.S...
...Commission on Civil Rights by Richard and Diane Margolis...
...Convenient access to special Federal funds for recruitment purposes...
...Now what needs to be found is a way to accept even half of them...
...A BLACK POLICEMAN...
...The upshot, as we shall see, has been considerable frustration on both sides...
...were also used as complaint centers, giving ghetto residents an opportunity to cite instances of harassment or other kinds of humiliation at the hands of policemen...
...Yet ghetto resentment of the police is far too deep and widespread to be overcome by smooth tv commercials...
...These programs have been a mixed blessing...
...But during this year the proportion of Negroes has steadily increased, until now more blacks than whites are joining the force, reversing 1970's recruiting ratio of 43 per cent black to 57 per cent white...
...It's the few militants who stir things up...
...States of the Union RECRUITING POLICE IN THE GHETTO BY RICHARD J. MARGOLIS FOLLOWING the epidemic of ghetto riots during the '60s, many big-city police departments launched elaborate and expensive "minority recruitment campaigns" to attract more black and Spanish-speaking applicants...
...Moreover, for reasons no one completely understands, out-of-town Negro prospects pass the written test more frequently than do Washington blacks...
...In the face of daily ghetto experience, these denials do nothing to strengthen the credibility of the minority recruitment program among blacks and browns...
...Advertising in newspapers and on television thus became a primary instrument of recruitment...
...Minority representation has obviously doubled, but blacks and Chicanos comprise only 8 per cent of the force in a city where they constitute 21 per cent of the population...
...In fact, Washington personnel officials are convinced that the minority neighborhood should do its own recruiting in cooperation with the police department...
...And this becomes especially apparent when the scores of local whites and blacks are contrasted...
...It was not until 1963 that the department swore off?abolishing its all-black precinct and attempting to integrate its 65 black policemen...
...The figures are clear enough: In 1967 the department had approximately 20 Negroes and 20 Mexican-Americans...
...let's talk...
...District Civil Service Commission officials who administer the tests say they are doing just that...
...and special brochures, displaying pictures of black policemen, were printed and distributed...
...Following the disturbances that marred the August 1968 Republican National Convention, it launched "Operation Badge," a sophisticated door-die effort that relied heavily on posters, brochures, newspaper advertising, and canvassing in the ghetto...
...There was a period after the riot," notes a city hall official, "when cops wouldn't dare make an arrest in certain parts of the ghetto...
...Yet the same period saw only nine of them make it into the department...
...Like so many other cities, Miami got into minority police recruitment in response to ghetto violence...
...We never used to have any trouble with our minorities," says Chief George Seaton...
...His viewpoint, identical to that of police officials in other parts of the Southwest, can be summarized as follows: Since militant leaders do not represent the rank-and-file for whom they claim to speak, there is no truth to their repeated charges of police brutality...
...on the other, they have disillusioned thousands of minority members who answered ads but did not survive the inevitable civil service obstacle course of written tests, interviews and background investigations...
...Moreover, the relative success of Washington's recruitment efforts is in part attributable to the involvement of ghetto residents, which suggests that the new policies will have to be shaped as much by minority communities as by police departments...
...A sufficient number of Negroes on the force to assure new black prospects they would not be alone...
...Nevertheless, the campaigns have done more good than harm, especially in cities like Washington, where officials seem genuinely committed to bringing about the old-fashioned ideal of racial integration...
...Labor Department funds for the purpose of seeking out black policemen in their area...
...They are rather vague in describing the revisions, however, and it remains to be seen whether the new tests will improve the chances of blacks...
...A POLICE PERSONNEL OFFICER . In the past two years Denver businessmen and media have contributed more than $250,000 in time and talent to help the police department recruit more Negroes and Mexican-Americans...
...there are now four black sergeants and two black lieutenants on the force...
...Washington "We believe it can be done, and we have begun to do it...
...On the one hand, they have produced moderate gains in the number of black and Chicano policemen throughout the nation...
...Before then no Negro had been allowed to attend the police training academy, and blacks were given the rank of "patrolman"—one notch below the lowest white rank of "officer...
...For only about one-third of Denver's minority-group prospects pass the written test, as compared to three-fourths of the white applicants...
...The hangover in the Miami Police Department comes from years of segregation...
...The surprising thing is that many minority members have actually responded to the advertisements and announced their intention to become policemen...
...In the case of all applicants tested in recruitmobiles from July 1968 through June 1969, 85 per cent of the whites passed, as opposed to 47 per cent of the blacks...
...In This is the second of three articles based on a study for the U.S...
...The kids hate the cops...
...today it has 40 of each, out of a total force of 1,007...
...Many blacks and Chicanos are also eliminated by the background investigations—for such matters as bad debts, marital problems, or criminal records...
...If the experiences of Washington, Miami and Denver tell us anything, it is that the problems associated with police minority hiring practices are less promotional than institutional...
...Such accusations seem to puzzle the police...
...The results have been either dramatically successful or plainly disastrous, depending upon whom one talks to...
...police officials, meanwhile, tend to view blacks as either too hostile or too cynical to make effective policemen...
...What strikes one first about Denver's recruitment program is its high technical level...
...In the first three-and-a-half months of 1970, for example, the difference was 57 per cent to 37...
...addition, "recruitmobiles" equipped with loudspeakers were sent rolling through the ghetto...
...The final article in this series will explore and recommend a number of new approaches...
...There is little prospect of a change in this ratio, for black and Cuban applications are falling off markedly, in large measure because the department's sincerity is suspect...
...How can you expect a kid to be a policeman when all he's ever seen a policeman do is bust somebody's head open...
...The ads for television, radio and the local newspapers have been slickly professional...
...Besides focusing on black community organizations in the District, police officials have sent recruiters into the nation's urban centers with encouraging results...
...Even some of Denver's black policemen have been beaten up in the ghetto, and others have requested assignments far from their old neighborhoods...
Vol. 54 • September 1971 • No. 17
