[caption id=”attachment_135884″ align=”aligncenter” width=”4583″] FILE – In this Dec. 29, 2014 file photo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, and NYPD police commissioner Bill Bratton, center, stand on stage during a New York Police Academy graduation ceremony at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
[/caption]
The New York Police Chief Bill Bratton made waves Wednesday, when he said the city had a hard time hiring black police officers “because so many of them have spent time in jail.” His controversial comments to the Guardian point to a larger issue.
A person becomes ineligible to be a NYPD officer when convicted of a felony. Thanks to the “stop, question, and frisk” procedure, Bratton said that the population pool of eligible candidates is smaller than it could have been.
This procedure was shut down in 2013 by a federal judge who said that it was racial profiling.
Bratton is putting a great deal of effort into resolving the issue.
That’s why they’re planning to tailor the application process to minorities and underprivileged applicants. The issue is nationwide, but while resolving it, Bratton said he has no plans to lower standards.
In fact, he has lifted the minimum age to 22 and has started requiring two years of college.
“We’re not hiring to a quota. We’re hiring to a skill. We’re effectively saying to people, we will provide you extra assistance; not just to minorities, to anybody. So the beauty of this system is it pushes back on anybody that says it’s lowering standards,” he told the Guardian.
Part of resolving the issue, for Bratton, is to succeed at reforming the hiring process for African-Americans and minorities.
