Diverse police force is needed, but stigma makes recruiting hard

“Whassup black cop, yo, whassup?!

Your authorization says shoot your nation

You want to uphold the law, what could you do to me?

The same law dissed the whole black community

You cant play both sides of the fence

1993 mad kids are gettin tense” — Lyrics- Black Cop by KRS-1 These lyrics written in 1993 are from the song “Black Cop” and discusses how AfricanAmerican men and women shouldn’t be police officers. That time period was after the Rodney King incident in 1991 and the LA riots of 1992 after the officers were acquitted of assaulting Mr. King. This song questioned the role of African-American officers in the United States.

There are many songs from legendary rappers and obscure ones that rap about police violence toward the African-American community. It has been a difficult struggle for the African-American community to move forward in this country from slavery, to emancipation, to Jim Crow, to now. The police being a representation of a system viewed by some as one that has kept them from being truly equal under the law. In the lyrics of these songs, one can see the anger, frustration and distrust toward the police.

During the recent mayoral campaign, the issue of diversity of the police force was repeated countless times by all of the candidates. Looking at the police department at this point in time, one finds that there is an almost 50-50 split in white versus non-white officers. Breaking it down further, the 50% non-white is composed of approximately 35% Latino officers and 15% African-American officers. While the overall numbers are better than most urban departments, the percentage of African-American officers is quite low in comparison to the overall population of the city. What can the city do to improve upon these numbers? What are the issues that keep young AfricanAmerican men and women from becoming police officers?

It is a difficult decision for many young African-American men and women to decide to become police officers. The historical perspective of the police as an occupying force keeps many qualified individuals to look toward other career paths instead of becoming police officers. For those that decide to take on this challenge, it is a career long battle attempting to enforce the law while dealing with the perception of “selling out”.

One of the best partners I had during my career was an African-American officer who served in the Marine Corps prior to becoming a police officer. In one of those, this world is small moments, he actually recruited me into the Marine Corps Reserves while I studied at Rutgers University a number of years prior to actually working together. This man and I worked together in the old Pro-Active Unit and arrested and put away many individuals during our time together. For us, it was not a matter of race, ethnicity, skin color, or gender that was used to arrest individuals. It was whether you broke the law.

This mindset did not matter to some of those in the African-American community who broke the law. The fact that he was an African-American man arresting them was the bigger crime. Several times during investigations he was questioned how he could do it and some actually called him an “Uncle Tom” because of it. This Officer, who carried himself with dignity and respect and was a true representation of the African-American community was viewed as a traitor to his race by many of those we arrested and by many in the African-American community at large.

I discuss my old partner and what he went through because nothing has truly changed since we worked together in the mid to late 90’s. Twenty years later, the perception of an AfricanAmerican officer is still viewed negatively within the AfricanAmerican community. Those words rapped by KRS-1 in 1993 is still the mindset today.

So then where and how do Trenton and most urban areas recruit more African-American citizens to fill its ranks?

There was one plan that was presented that actually provided a positive opportunity to diversify the police force. This plan was a scholastic program within the high school where young students could learn about public safety careers while preparing them for the entrance exams. This program would not just introduce policing but also fire fighting as well as EMS. It is this type of “outside of the box” thinking that will improve the diversification of public safety within the city.

Hopefully, ideas like this and other programs like police explorers will evolve and provide the hiring pool to move in that direction.