Last week, New York swore in 678 new police recruits of which only 12 percent are Black. The last class of recruits sworn in was 17 percent Black, a more accurate representation of the city, which is 17.6 percent Black.
Mayor de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton have been under scrutiny when it comes to diversity on the force, and both have made statements affirming the department’s commitment to diversity. However, this new class of recruits falls short of those promises.
In an interview withThe Guardianover the summer, Bratton said the “population pool [of eligible non-white officers] is much smaller than it might ordinarily have been” because more Blacks have spent time in jail, which is an automatic disqualifier for joining the force. “We have a significant population gap among African American males because so many of them have spent time in jail and, as such, we can’t hire them,” he said.
