The Associated Press
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) -- The Police Department in Indiana’s second-largest city has grown by more than 100 officers since 1990, but has seen a sizable drop in its percentage of black and Hispanic officers.
In response, the mayor has directed the department to increase its search for potential minority applicants. The police chief said the agency has asked minority organizations and churches to look for prospective candidates and placed an advertisement in a Spanish-language publication for the first time.
In 1990, 17.6 percent of the department’s 307 officers were black. Since then, the department has gained 108 new positions, but the percentage of blacks has dropped to 13 percent.
“We are losing ground,” A.V. Fleming, president and CEO of the Fort Wayne Urban League, told The Journal Gazette for a story Sunday. “We don’t want to keep the trend going in that direction.”
The percentage of Hispanic officers has dipped slightly, from 3.25 percent in 1990 to just less than 3 percent this year. A Hispanic liaison officer with the department fears that some of the 10 officers fluent in Spanish are nearing retirement age.
“Right now, we have issues in the Hispanic community we have to address,” Officer Ricardo Robles said.
Mayor Graham Richard said he wanted the racial makeup of the Police Department to become closer to that of the city of about 220,000 people. Fort Wayne’s population included 17.4 percent blacks and 5.8 percent Hispanics in the 2000 census.
“We have a diverse society,” Richard said. “It’s just healthy for the community to have diverse police both in terms of culture and language.”
The shrinking percentage of black officers during the past 14 years is mainly the result of retirements, Police Chief Rusty York said.
Even though more than 30 black officers were hired since 1990, they barely filled positions of other black officers who retired.
Black leaders have demanded the department hire more minorities.
“It’s easier to work with somebody who understands you,” said Hana Stith, co-founder and curator of the African American Historical Society Museum. “There are officers who never have been exposed to black people. Black officers are more tolerant of black people’s behavior.”
Recruiting minority officers, York said, is a difficult task -- not only in attracting them to a career in law enforcement but keeping them in the city.
The Urban League’s Fleming said he believed the city had many good minority candidates for police officer positions, but that the selection criteria to screen applicants might be unfavorable to blacks. He proposed an interview panel that includes civilians from community organizations.
The city will select candidates for about 36 new officers positions this year in preparation for a 2006 annexation will add a 13-square-mile area and at least 23,000 people to the city. York said those new hires would start attending police academy classes in January.