Trending Topics

Feds end probe into Ky. police hiring of people of color

The Justice Department began examining the police department’s hiring practices last summer

Associated Press

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — The U.S. Justice Department has told city officials in Bowling Green, Kentucky, it has ended its investigation into minority hiring practices at the city’s police department.

News outlets report that Bowling Green Mayor Bruce Wilkerson said at a news conference Tuesday that the investigation’s closing indicates federal officials found nothing out of the ordinary.

The Justice Department began examining the police department’s hiring practices last summer, since just 5.3 percent of police personnel were black in a city with a 13.9 percent black population.

Wilkerson says the investigation spurred the city to have a police force that’s more representative of the community. Wilkerson says Bowling Green is no long using a specific written test the city’s analysis showed was disqualifying a disproportionately high number of minority candidates.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU