While most everyone has been celebrating the indisputably good news that
minority participation in the Rochester Police Department is up, I remembered a
fact I learned not long ago: that many, if not most, of the RPD’s minority
recruits traditionally come from the suburbs, not the city.
That’s true of the current recruit class. Sixteen of the 28 recruits — 57
percent — represent minority populations. (That’s the highest percentage anyone
can remember, by the way. Historically, it’s been below 25 percent.) But only
six of those 16 live in the city.
When people talk about the tension between segments of the city population
and the police department, they talk about race, yes, but also class,
economics, and a lack of geographic and, more important, cultural knowledge of
the city. Put race aside, and don’t those other issues still apply? A Latino
from Gates isn’t more likely to have an intuitive understanding of the city
simply because he or she is Latino, right?
I ran my argument by Mayor Tom Richards and City Council President Lovely
Warren, with interesting results. Both said that finding qualified minorities
in the city can be a challenge: they might not be able to pass the entrance
exam, or they might have criminal records, to cite two examples.
“I’ve got to get people in here who can qualify for these jobs and are
prepared for them,” Richards said. “I suppose you could say that if I took some
guy off the corner of Conkey and Clifford, he would
know more about that neighborhood. But I can’t get him in to be a policeman in
today’s environment. You have to have a whole bunch of things to qualify and,
quite frankly, we need that, because we’re putting a lot of faith and
confidence in these people.”
But Richards said that place of origin aside, it’s important for city
residents to see people who look like them on the police force. He also
mentioned the public safety school being formed this year, which will help city
students obtain careers in police, fire, and emergency communications.
Warren said that some of the minority recruits are relatively recent
transplants from the city and maintain their city roots and ties.
It’s against state law to require members of the police and fire departments
to live in the city. Rochester was able to get around that this year by
requiring RFD applicants to reside in the city in order to take the entrance
exam. After applicants passed the exam and were sworn in, they could move
anywhere they wanted, Richards said.
Partly as a result of that tactic, many more city residents came out to take
the fire exam than in past years. But the situation with the RPD is a bit
different, Richards and Warren said, because the requirements are different.
And the fear and animosity some in the city have for police do keep people from
joining.
There may be ways to incorporate some of what the RFD did — the whole
recruitment process was overhauled — into the RPD, Richards said, and the city
might look into that.
This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2012.
