MPD struggles to increase diversity

Recruitment efforts include mentoring

Larray Johnson and Laquehia Bray used the same words to describe why they recently applied to become Milwaukee police officers. “It’s my dream.” Johnson, 25, and Bray, 26, work as correctional officers in the Milwaukee County Jail and want to bring that experience, as well as their personal backgrounds, to patrolling city streets.

“You have to explain why we’re here. We’re not only here to enforce laws but to protect people,” Bray said. “I just think being a young African-American I can bring better insights of our young generation.”

If they’re successful, the two women will join a force that remains overwhelming male and two-thirds white in a city where whites account for only about 36% of the population.

The Milwaukee Police Department heavily recruited local candidates throughout March when it took open of-

ficer applications for the first time in two years.

“Clearly, we have to be reflective of all the communities we serve,” Police Chief Edward Flynn said. “That’s part of achieving trust and legitimacy.”

Overall, 34% of the department’s sworn officers and command staff are non-white minorities, a figure that has not changed since 2008, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of department and Fire and Police Commission records.

The analysis of city data from 2008 through 2015, the most recent year available, found:

Black officers accounted for 18% of the department’s ranks, while blacks and African-Americans constituted 39% of the city’s population. In 2008, black officers accounted for 20% of the force.

Hispanic officers made up a growing portion of the department, accounting for about 13% of the force. That growth mirrors the increase in the Hispanic population of the city, which currently accounts for about 18% of the total population.

About 83% of officers are men, a figure that hasn’t changed since 2008.

Those results were not surprising to Fred Royal, president of the NAACP Milwaukee branch and a founder of the Community Coalition for Quality Policing.

“I’d like to see it become more in line with the actual representation of minorities in the city,” he said. “The only way to have an impact on a system is to get involved in the system.”

Staying engaged

More than 2,200 people submitted online applications in March, but that’s just the first step toward becoming an officer.

After being screened for disqualifiers, such as a felony conviction, applicants take a written test and an oral test and complete a writing exercise. They are ranked based on the results with preference points for their education level, city residency and military service.

“Our last academy class we recruited an extraordinarily diverse pool, but they didn’t get into the class because so many of them dropped out,” Flynn said. “... I think so many of them don’t have supporters saying I’ll drive you to the test, set the alarm clock, ask what time is that appointment? Even somebody in their early 20s still doesn’t have their act entirely together.”

The Fire and Police Commission has developed ride-share programs and text and email reminders to address that, said MaryNell Regan, the commission’s executive director.

The measures have been in place for recent fire cadet and police aide classes, but this will be the first time the efforts are available for officer applicants.

“We know the best way to retain candidates is to keep them engaged, so we have assigned mentoring and we have practice test sessions,” Regan said.

The state-required physical fitness test tends to be a stumbling block for potential recruits during the six-month academy, said Capt. Nicole Davila, police training director.

And overall, applicants have had “performance issues” on the tests, Flynn said.

“Even though our tests have been shown to be job-related, we’re still having people fail them,” he said.

Royal, of the NAACP, said he has heard concerns about the psychological test being one area in which “minorities are washed out” and would like to review it.

The Fire and Police Commission reviewed that test more than a year ago but is “always looking” for feedback, Regan said.

“I think it’s absolutely essential to have diversity in public safety,” Regan said. “...It’s a very important goal for the commission, and I know it’s an important goal to the (mayoral) administration and the (Common) Council.”

‘Not a magic solution’

In the wake of highprofile police shootings of black men, policymakers, activists and others have called for police departments nationwide to diversify. But recent research has shown increasing diversity alone doesn’t result in fewer police shootings of black men.

“There’s not evidence that you’re going to see those fatal encounters go down directly from increasing the proportion of officers that are black,” said Sean Nicholson-Crotty, a professor of public affairs at Indiana University and one of the authors of the study “Will More Black Cops Matter?”

Using data from the advocacy group Mapping Police Violence and The Washington Post, the study examined police shootings in the 100 largest cities in the U.S. The Post found a disproportionate number of those killed in police-related shootings during the past two years were black, whether or not the victims were armed.

The study’s findings suggested if a department reached a “critical mass” of black officers, above 35% of the force, there might be a decrease, Nicholson-Crotty said.

The findings are not entirely unexpected, he said, given that past research examining if police diversity results in more or less racial profiling or disproportionate arrests has mostly shown no relationship or sometimes a positive relationship.

Force diversity does have documented benefits — such as increasing perceived police legitimacy and creating a more innovative department — but so far it does not seem to address the fatal use of force on black men, Nicholson-Crotty said.

“Increasing representation is not a magic solution,” he said. “So you need to investigate what problems does the research say it can solve and which ones does it appear it can’t solve. “

Of the three of the most widely covered police shootings in the Milwaukee region, two involved African-American officers, including the fatal shooting that sparked violent unrest in the Sherman Park neighborhood in August.

“The harsh reality is once somebody accepts the challenge of protecting the community, they’re no longer black or white, they’re blue — certainly to our critics anyway,” Flynn said.

“But having said that, it’s still important that we attract more men and women of color into our ranks to connect with the neighborhoods from which they come,” he said.

Johnson, one of the jail guards who applied to be an officer, thinks she could serve as a good connector for that very reason.

“When you come from the same community, it’s easier to help,” Johnson said. “People can relate to you and know that you sincerely want to help the community and help the people who live in the community.”