Convincing young Black people to become cops long been a tough sell at summer job fairs.
But in recent months the pool of recruits at the Los Angeles Police Department has shriveled to the point of running dry. The last two training academy classes haven’t included a single a Black graduate.
Despite offering generous pay and pensions, police agencies across the country have struggled since the pandemic with finding enough new officers regardless of race.
At the LAPD, the number of Black recruits — especially women — has been dropping for years, leaving the department far short of diversity goals put in place decades ago to counter discriminatory hiring practices.
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Compounding matters is President Trump, who has embarked on a far-reaching campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion, or so-called DEI policies.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell quietly shut down the department’s DEI program during an administrative reshuffling this year. Massive cuts to federal agencies and university programs have some officials sounding alarms about a ripple effect in police hiring.
The Oscar Joel Bryant Assn., which represents the LAPD’s 700 or so Black officers, said conversations about responding to attacks on pro-diversity programs “do not need to wait for the future.”
“[T]hose concerns are here today for all groups,” Capt. Capt. Shannon Enox-White, the association’s president, said in a statement. “When we swore an oath to protect the Constitution and the organization’s very mission statement elevates DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) principles, I do not see how we can step away from them now or ever.”
Privately, some Black department officials expressed frustration with recent promotions announced by McDonnell. Only one Black leader moved up in rank. Emada Tingirides, a finalist for the police chief job is now the first Black woman in the department’s long history to hold the rank of assistant chief.
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Many of the department’s older Black officers — who joined the force during a hiring push in the 1980s and ’90s — are now nearing retirement. Several high-ranking Black LAPD officials, including Tingirides and Deputy Chiefs Gerald Woodyard and Alan Hamilton, have already enrolled in the deferred retirement program, meaning they probably will exit before the 2028 Olympic Games in L.A.
The department’s percentage of Black officers has dipped slightly to roughly 8% of the force, just below the percentage of Black city residents.
Diversity issues aside, the LAPD has grappled with other issues when it comes to finding and retaining cops of the future. The hiring process typically takes 250 days to complete after the background check, polygraph screening and a series of tests that each applicant is required to undergo. LAPD officials have said some exasperated candidates have opted to pursue opportunities with other agencies where the wait isn’t nearly as long.
But for some already in the department, the most glaring problem is a lack of support for Black people in uniform. They point to the quiet closure of the DEI office, whose staff members were reassigned and duties absorbed by other units. Proponents considered it a crucial support system for younger Black cops.
Without such support, they say, Black officers will be less likely to receive the professional development or opportunities to work in specialized units that can lead to supervisory roles.
Others argue that stories about the internal mistreatment of Black officers keep people from applying. This year, an officer from the department’s recruitment unit filed a complaint alleging he had recorded racist, sexist and homophobic comments by colleagues, which McDonnell and other officials condemned and pledged to investigate.
Over the last decade, the department has paid out more than $10 million in settlements or jury awards for officers alleging that they were discriminated against based on their race.
Like the city it polices, the LAPD has seen its demographics change dramatically in recent decades. With the department prodded by lawsuits and consent decrees, more than half of the once mostly white force is now Latino. But the number of Black cops — especially women — hasn’t budged much.
Some police critics said that increasing diversity alone isn’t a fix for larger, systemic issues with policing.
But a succession of LAPD leaders have said that diversifying the agency’s ranks is a priority, arguing that doing so can counter generations of distrust of police by Black Angelenos. Still, progress has been slow. A 2022 study by UCLA researchers revealed strong resistance within the department toward efforts to hire more women and officers of color.
Since the start of his second term in office, Trump has called diversity hiring efforts “illegal,” encouraging federal agencies to investigate and withhold funds from institutions that promote DEI practices.
Ivonne Roman of the Center for Policing Equity, a nonprofit think tank based at Yale University, said the president’s anti-affirmative orders will undoubtedly undercut efforts to turn the tide on declining Black officer numbers nationwide.
Even though most local police departments aren’t as dependent on federal funding as, say, public universities, police executives may feel less pressure to diversify their agencies in the current social climate, she said.
Steps such as the dismissal of Biden-era civil rights lawsuits that accused police departments of hiring disparities could embolden discrimination, she said.
“It’s going to have chilling effect,” Roman said.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
