HEAT RELIEF
Pittsburgh police this week graduated the most diverse class of cadets in at least four years, bureau records show.
The majority of the 29 police cadets who graduated Tuesday were still white and male, but the group saw a wider range of gender and racial diversity than the previous seven graduating classes, according to records provided by the city.
White men made up 55 percent of Tuesday’s graduating class, according to the data. That’s a lower percentage of white males than any other class of cadets since 2013.
In 2015, the city graduated a class of 31 cadets that was 89 percent white men. In other classes, white men made up between 62 percent and 87 percent of each group.
As a whole, the city’s police officers are overwhelmingly white and male. In 2015, the bureau had 903 officers, and 776 — about 86 percent — were white, according to the department. That year, there were 118 black officers — about 13 percent — and 10 Hispanic officers. The bureau employed 146 women of all races.
The police bureau is committed to increasing officer diversity, Police Chief Scott Schubert said. Tuesday’s graduating
cadet class included 16 white men, five white women, five black men, one black woman, one Hispanic man and one Asian man.
"Diversity among our police officers remains an ongoing priority because diverse police agencies generally maintain stronger community relationships than those that are less diverse,” Chief Schubert said in a statement Thursday.
Tim Stevens, chairman and CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project, praised the diversity of the most recent class of recruits and said it is a good step forward. He added that there is much work to be done. “We have been advocating for years the importance of having a diversified police force We’ve been dealing with this issue literally for decades.”
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the city in 2012 over police hiring, alleging a “long-standing pattern and practice of racial discrimination” against African-Americans in the officer-hiring process. The police bureau had brought on just 14 black officers between 2001 and 2012, out of 368 hired. That lawsuit resulted in a $1.6 million settlement in 2015 in which the city agreed to overhaul its police hiring practices.
Shelly Bradbury: 412-2631999, sbradbury@post-gazette.com or follow on Twitter @ShellyBradbury.