Diversity effort will create stronger State Police force
We should know this by now. Policing is less than it needs to be — sometimes catastrophically less — when departments don’t look like the communities they serve. That would be true anywhere, but it’s especially so given this country’s racial history.
That’s why New Yorkers should be encouraged that the state is undertaking a recruiting effort meant to ensure New York State Police reflect the diversity of the state itself. That’s how to encourage the trust that builds confidence in a bureaucracy whose members have the authority to deprive individuals of their liberty. It’s not the only issue influencing effective policing, but it’s a crucial one. It’s also the right thing to do.
Americans got a view of what can happen when police are viewed as more of an occupying force than a valued partner in public safety. The 2014 police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., flowed from a number of sources, including the actions of the victim, Michael Brown, but a primary one was that a mainly white police department dominated a largely Black municipality. Trust there was zero.
But benefits flow when citizens trust and welcome their police. With that confidence, crimes may be easier to solve and public safety enhanced. To build those kinds of bridges, Buffalo Police in recent years have emphasized neighborhood connections and community policing. It’s a work in progress.
Americans — including in Western New York — have also seen what can happen when the wrong people are hired as police or when their training and supervision falls short. Two of the worst examples occurred in Minneapolis, Minn., and Memphis, Tenn. Three years ago in Minneapolis, a white police officer murdered a Black man, George Floyd, in full view of witnesses. Plainly, that officer thought he could get away with it.
Meanwhile, in Memphis this year, five police officers beat a motorist so badly he died three days later. In that event, all the officers and the victim, Tyre Nichols, were Black, raising the crucial issues of both leadership and departmental culture.
In each case, and in others, hiring decisions also play a crucial part. In both Minneapolis and Memphis, it seems plain that the police departments gave badges to people who never should have been allowed close to one. New York State Police need to understand those lessons.
It happened in Erie County, too, where in 2017, a sheriff ’s deputy, arrested and assaulted a Buffalo Bills fan who had cursed at the deputy. The deputy then filed a false report on the matter. Both were white. It was a bad hiring decision compounded by a sheriff, Timothy Howard, who wasn’t up to the hard work of leading a professional department.
But if it’s not enough simply to field a diverse police force, it’s a crucial component of effective law enforcement. Too often we see overt racism within police departments, a fact that cannot help but diminish the quality of policing. Buffalonians have seen that in their own police department, where a captain was recently suspended for making racist comments.
A department that reflects its own community won’t automatically eliminate such misconduct, of course, but that diversity will count as an important step toward an essential goal. That’s part of the promise of the new effort by New York State Police, which figures show is 88% white and just 4.2% Black. That’s in a state whose population is 18% Black. A similar chasm separates the share of Hispanic troopers versus the state’s Hispanic population.
Hiring in any profession has become more difficult since the COVID -19 pandemic and the Great Resignation that it fomented. But it’s one thing to hire the wrong store clerk and another to hire an unfit police officer. It’s even worse when that happens by design, as it did in Memphis. There, as crime soared, the desperate city increased incentives for police recruits while lowering its hiring standards. It was disastrous.
Police departments, including New York State Police, need to be diverse and professional. It can’t be either/or; they must be both. That’s part of building and supporting police agencies with cultures of respect and, with them, cities that are safer for all — civilians and police alike.