NEWS

A good first step to diversify police department

Bruce Henry

The Zanesville Police Department is currently exploring how it can more effectively recruit ethnic minorities and females as police officers into the department. In a recent Zanesville Time Recorder article, Zanesville Public Safety Director Fred Buck, said, “We know we need more diversity.”

In my opinion, the ZPD should take a strategic, yet holistic approach to recruiting that involves changing the way it approaches defining its target labor pool and identifying potential police applicants.

First, the department should accurately define and analyze the community labor from which it can reasonably draw applicants. Second, based upon the labor pool, the department must set reasonable recruiting goals rather than use arbitrary and perhaps unattainable goals. Generally, when faced with this problem, police departments reflexively and inaccurately compare themselves to the broader population within their respective cities. This is an incorrect approach because included are people within the broader population of which do not meet certain eligibility criteria. Third, using the reasonable recruiting goals, the department can strategically plan when, where, who and how it will seek out potential applicants. All of these activities should occur with input from police leaders, community members, and human resources experts.

First, all too often, we hear the siren call for greater diversity in law enforcement of which is a noble goal. However, this call is usually based on emotion or anecdote, rather than on a precise comparison between the minimal qualifications for the position. For example, most state or local laws require that a police applicant is between a certain age-range, has a certain level of education, possess a driver’s license and shall not have a felony conviction. The department should use the minimal qualifications as a guide-post for accurately calculating how many people in the labor pool present within the confines of the minimum qualifications.

Second, after conducting the initial labor pool analysis and identifying how much of the pool is actually available, compare the external numbers to the internal department numbers. This comparison assists the department in understanding the severity of the situation. Now, the department is equipped with rational data that can be explained to community members. Extracted from the analysis are people that the department cannot hire due to the minimum qualifications set by state or local law. If the minimum qualifications are objectionable, work through the legislative process to revise. Regardless, the guidelines are generally objective – not subjective.

Third, the ZPD can now charge department recruiters with achievable and measurable recruitment goals. For example, if the difference between the labor pool and internal demographics reveal a percentage deficit for some groups, recruiters can plan to focus intently on those groups. The goal is to ensure that current department demographics are recruited so that ZPD does not fall behind further, and increase the target by the difference revealed as the percentage deficit discovered in the labor pool analysis. Recruiters must plan additional recruitment activities based upon the saturation point of labor pool. Meaning, ZPD recruiters may need to go outside the City of Zanesville to find more potential applicants willing to apply to ZPD. The labor pool analysis mentioned above must be conducted for each jurisdiction outside of Zanesville.

In conclusion, the ZPD is currently exploring how it can ensure that all groups are inspired to apply as police officers with the department. The methodology described, is a good first step in resolving the problem of identifying the severity of the problem and setting actionable and measurable goals for the ZPD to achieve rational diversity outcomes.

Bruce Henry is a retired police office, organizational psychologist and president of the Greater Indianapolis Chapter of the National Organization of Black Enforcement Executives.