Civil rights activists and liberal advocates have loudly charged that behind the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American who died while in police custody, is a racially prejudiced Baltimore police department that continues to torment the city’s poor minority neighborhoods. The critics haven’t looked at the numbers.
Here’s what the data shows about the racial makeup of Baltimore’s finest:
* Of the 2,745 active duty police officers in the department — 1,445 — more than half are African-American, Hispanic, Asian or Native American, according to data provided by the Baltimore police department to The Daily Caller News Foundation.
* Four of its top six commanders are either African-American or Hispanic.
* More than 60 percent of the incumbents at the highest command levels hail from minority communities.
* Among the 46 Baltimore police officers who hold the rank of captain and above, 25 are from ethnic or racial minority groups. That constitutes 54 percent of the command leadership.
In other words, Baltimore is a black-majority city led by a police force whose officers are mostly racial minorities as well.
“I’m not shocked by the numbers. The Baltimore department is representative of the community as a whole at every level of the organization,†said Darrell W. Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association in an interview with TheDCNF. “It’s not just the command staff. It’s at all the way through.â€
His organization is a professional association of police chiefs and sheriffs representing the largest cities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Stephens has served at all levels, from a foot cop to a police chief.
Anthony W. Batts, an African-American, was hired by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, also African-American, in 2012 after serving as police chief in Oakland and Long Beach, Calif. Rawlings-Blake put Batts in charge of reforming the department.
Under Batts, Baltimore was one of eight cities participating in an experimental Obama administration police reform program run by the Department of Justice and its Office of Community Oriented Police Services, or COPS. The program was designed to provide policing that was less adversarial and emphasized a cooperative spirit in poor neighborhoods.
Batts disbanded a tough-on-crime unit called the Violent Crimes Impact Section, the source of many citizen complaints about police brutality against individuals across the racial spectrum.
He also invited community leaders to participate on official promotion boards for all candidates who sought the rank of captain or higher. Promotions were a contentious issue among minorities who felt they were not fully considered when top leadership positions became available.
Captain Eric Kowalczyk, now the police department’s chief spokesman, explained what it was like when he sought a promotion from lieutenant to captain. “I had six people from the community who were on my panel,†he said.
“Community leaders, community association presidents and others asked me very challenging questions about my views on community policing, what it means to me to be a city police officer, my views on crime enforcement,†he said.
Batts also added an Office of Internal Oversight to the department’s Professional Standards and Accountability Bureau, which investigated charges of police brutality.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/14/most-baltimore-cops-are-minorities/
