Race In Police Employment Practices

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Race and ethnicity in police employment practices Race and ethnicity has greatly changed since the 1950’s in police employment hiring practices. The almost all-white, practically all-male, homophobic departments have gone away to the new era of hiring individuals that are comprised of the community the police serve. Today’s departments have lead the way in significant hiring numbers of minority, female and openly gay and lesbian officers. Even though there is a prevalent belief that there has not been any change at all in law enforcement and it is scrutinized by many, departments throughout the country have steered away from the homogenous workplace of yesterday. Some departments have changed at a slower rate than others but revolutionary progress has been made and it continues to grow (Sklansky, 2006). The affects caused by the change in police employment practices since the 1950’s has provided greater service to the communities the police serve. Coincidently American law enforcement was structured the same way it is today. Police departments were par militaristic organizations with a chain of command. Patrol officers were recognized as the frontline workers policing communities with a large amount of discretion. Your career started in patrol and if you were successful you were promoted into the detective division. With hard work and successful achievements you were then promoted into a supervisorial position. These units are supervised by a sergeant, lieutenant or both. All though there is a difference of an approximate fifty years, police work operates in the same way except for the demographics of race, gender and sexual orientation for hiring purposes (Wallentine, 2009). The landmark report The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society by President Johnsons Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration held white officers responsible for “lack of
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