It’s Difficult To Hire Black Officers Since Too Many Black People Have Been Arrested, Says NYPD Commissioner

The number of potential police officers of color who have criminal records is too damn high — at least that seems to be New York police commissioner Bill Bratton’s stance on why there aren’t more non-white NYPD officers.

“We have a significant population gap among African American males because so many of them have spent time in jail and, as such, we can’t hire them,” the NYPD commissioner told The Guardian.

African-Americans compose 16 percent of the NYPD, whereas New York City is 23 percent black, according to a New York Times report.

Bratton’s comments come during a tense time. Communities nationwide are calling for more officers of color to be hired in hopes that the high number of police killingswill subside.

The Guardian pointed out that budget limitations, the tense relationship between police and communities of color along with — based on Bratton’s interview — a long history of policing tactics that target African-Americans and Latinos are interfering with NYPD’s diversity goals.

Bratton has a point. Policing began when African-Americans were still widely seen as property to be managed and handled — a sentiment that, arguably, still plays a role.

Police forces are more diverse today than they were 30 years ago, according to NPR. Only one out of every six officers were non-white in the 1980s compared to one in four today. Now, the issue is predominantly white forces policing majority-minority inner cities.

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