More black applicants, but not more black officers
Historically, the Chicago Police Department has had a hard time recruiting black officers, who are 23 percent of the force in a city that is about one-third African-American.
In the wake of protests following the 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald by a white police officer and a string of police shootings of African-Americans, Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched a campaign to recruit more black officers in an attempt to improve the department’s relations in African-American communities. Emanuel hired the Brown Farmer Media Group in November of 2016 to oversee the recruitment, which was part of the city’s effort to hire 1,000 officers by the end of 2018. During the months-long campaign, the department received more than 16,000 applications; 33 percent were from individuals who identify as African-American, according to police officials. At the time, Superintendent Eddie Johnson said he was “ecstatic” about the recruiting numbers.
The trend continued beyond the recruitment campaign. Last year, 38 percent of the more than 14,000 people who were invited to take the December entrance exam were African-American, according to a city release. Many of the applicants came from black neighborhoods where some residents have called for more officers who look like them.
All recruits are asked to take a physical and psychological exam and submit to an extensive background check and drug screening. At the end of the assessment, the department recommends successful candidates for entrance to the academy.
Since 2016, of the 990 people recommended for employment, 13 percent are African-American, 37 percent are white and 38 percent are Latino, according to an analysis of CPD application data.
Though some Chicago community groups argue that more police officers of any race don’t solve issues of distrust with the police department, the low number of African-American candidates who make it to the academy is a bad sign for Emanuel’s effort to reform the CPD. The mayor has said that diversifying the force is central to a plan to refocus the department on community policing.
In a statement in October, Johnson said the police force needed to diversify. “CPD should reflect the demographics of this city,” Johnson said. “If we’re going to get there, we have to ensure that we have a viable pool of people to constantly pull from.”