Improving Diversity and Affirmative Action in Law-Enforcement - Research Paper Example

Improving Diversity and Affirmative Action in Law-Enforcement Abstract Diversity issue in the American enforcement agencies is quickly gaining attention following the realization that diverse background brings on board a wide range of benefits. Such is the case that diversity enriches the forces with a wide range of language skills and cultural understanding. Diversity also plays a key role in implementation of successful community-based policing that entails a close collaboration of the enforcement agencies with Citizens groups in addressing public safety matters. Putting it in a simple way it is said that police present a legitimate outlook and will easily work closely with the community organization in combating wrong if they more closely look alike and identify with communities in which they serve. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the many cities across America, Chicago included. Literature Review According to President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, 1967, the conspicuous disparities seen between the racial composition of the police force and the community in which they serve, bears greater responsibility for the poor police-community relations and the frequent occurrences of civil unrest. In part, this is the drive for the legal mandates that requires law enforcement to ensure diversification of its forces. Several sheriffs and police departments across America have at some point received federal directives to hire more ethnic minorities and or women (McCrary, 2007). Even in the face of these increased efforts for diversification, ethnic minority/racial and female representation in majority of the law enforcement agencies still face a serious challenge. Currently, many law enforcement agencies including that of Chicago have failed in reaching the labor population benchmark, leading to agencies that fall short in representing the demographics of their respective neighborhood (Sklansky, 2006). Finding from a recent Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, for instance, showed that women made only about 12% of the police officers across the nation in 2007(Reaves,2010). This work serves to address one method that Chicago Law enforcement agencies can employ to better identity with and address these challenges in their Police force. Here we will deal with barrier analysis method that is in this case it will help asses and identify possible obstacles to participating in police program. In using this method, the paper will focus on understanding diversity-related problem. While addressing the issue of employment opportunities, this method will examine key areas in the carrier lifecycle including recruitment, hiring, and promotion and retention practices. The drive for addressing this area is the need to find out where racial/ethnic minorities and women face hindrances that might be the contributing factors for low representation among people who apply, those hired and those who attain senior leadership. The work begins by discussing the common hindrances to achieving diverse police force. This is closely followed by a section that describes the process of barrier analysis, pointing out how it will be used in the Chicago law enforcement agencies to create diversity. In the end, the work offers case studies featuring other police departments that have successfully employed this method as a tool to refine and reshape their employment and promotion practices. Common Barriers to Diversification in Chicago Law Enforcement Agencies As addressed earlier barriers to realizing a diverse workforce can prop up anywhere in the long carrier lifecycle i.e. the recruitment phase, the hiring phase, or the promotion phase Recruitment Barriers The primary suggestion of a possible employment barrier is the insufficient number of racial/ethnic minorities and women applying for the police job. In the Chicago law enforcement agencies, as in other sectors of employment, this issue can be linked to one or more factors; the potential group may be unqualified, uninterested, or disproportionately unaware. The last factor suggests a snag in outreach action or simply absence of many recruitment regions where demographics indicate the presence of racial/ethnic minority and female candidates for the job. The other two factors present complex issues, although they still suggest a qualitative outreach problem as opposed to lack effort in recruitment. The law enforcement agencies in Chicago can influence recruitment indirectly by holding fast on the well-established doctrine of policing. These doctrines include ensuring the safety of the city while requiring officers to uphold high standards of integrity and professionalism, building partnerships in the neighborhood, and offering guidance to young people through mentoring and outreach programs. These practices help minimize crime and at the same time build a positive, proactive influence on the attitudes of the people within a community. Such is the case that when a law enforcement agency carries out its practices in a fair and trustworthy manner, or simply said, legitimate way, even the offenders will hold police with high regard (Tyler and Fagan, 2008. It is true that no substitute can be made for on the requirement of effective and fair performance of police as needed in the outreach programs. It is equally true that an outreach program helps enhance a community opinion about the police, especially when considering communities with a long history of low affinity for law enforcement. Having said this is easy to see that outreach programs will ideally present multiple effect; wooing the minds and hearts not only of willing group, but also of cynical family members and friends. Hiring Barriers Majority of the enforcement agencies maintain strict educational, medical, residency, physical fitness, and background requirements. Education, health and other social economic data indicate that some of these prerequisites present barriers for racial/ethnic minorities and women. Marking out this barriers do not straightway suggest the removal their removal; instead , it serves as the foundational step in assessing which issues present greater weight in the police work and which procedures and standards can practically be altered to achieve diversity without interfering with the quality of service. Educational requirement is a major barrier. Here, Majority of the law enforcement agencies in Chicago demand that applicants posses either a general Education Development certificate or a high school diploma. As it is today, blacks and Hispanics present a lower graduation rate when compared to their white counterparts; it is actually 20% points lower (Stillwell, 2010). This gives an explanation to why a smaller percentage of ethnic/racial minorities is expected to meet the educational requirements. Fitness and medical requirements also hinders Hispanics and blacks, who mostly depict higher obesity prevalence (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). Taking the case of Chicago County, white, non Hispanic school-going children presented an obesity rate of about 12.8% compared to 20.6% for black children and 26.4 % for Hispanic children. In addition to its implication on fitness assessment, having a high degree of body fat acts as a major reason for disqualification with some agencies. It is also important to note that with elevated rates of obesity come elevated rates of associate cormorbidities like type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. This conditions present obvious grounds for medical disqualification (Cossrow and Falkner, 2004). U.S Citizen and residency requirement is close to being a universal requirement when it comes to gaining employment in any U.S law enforcement. Across the nation just like in Chicago, this requirement blocks a large percentage of minorities from making successful application for jobs. For instance, in 2009, more than 50% of the foreign-born US residents were not naturalized citizens. As this happen, nearly 50% of the foreign –born populace self-identified as Latino or Hispanic, about 24% as Asians only, and slightly above 8% as black African American only (Batalova and Terrazas, 2010). Residency requirement also carry the possibility of geographically limiting the hiring of racial/ethnic minorities and women, especially if the area cost of living is considerably high compared to the job starting salary. Police serving in New York are required to either reside in one of the five borough or the surrounding areas on to sail through the hiring process. In the same way Chicago police may be required to be residing in the City of Chicago. Back ground history is the other barrier to diversity in the Chicago law enforcement agencies. Such is the case that the background section of the law enforcement process of hiring new employees presents a particular hindrance to ethic/racial minorities. Here, any history of problematic contact with the law enforcement an applicant’s background such as felony convictions almost guarantees disqualification. This is a serious concern as only in 2009 the black’s juvenile arrest rate was twice that for whites in general, double with regard to drug-connected crime, and greater than five times when it comes to violent crimes (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,2011). Financial issues serve as the other area for disqualification when a candidate’s background is put under investigation. According to one congressional report, Hispanics and blacks present a lower credit score compared to Asians and Hispanic whites, a factor that hinders their successful loan application. Blacks, on the other hand, presented a higher delinquency rate on average when compared to other ethnic/racial groupings with comparable credit scores (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2007). This information captures the period before the great depression that realized higher rates of job and homes loss among the blacks and Hispanics (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009; Rugh and Massey, 2010). On the account of the potential barriers presented by the hiring process, there is greater need for outreach programs and recruitment of qualified female and racial ethnic applicants. Here , law enforcement agencies should reevaluate their hiring requirements just to ascertain that all the requirements focus on result of key job performance and do not disqualify any candidates unnecessarily. Promotion Barriers Promotion barriers occurs when law enforcement agencies posses an adequate number of female and ethnic/racial applicants and hires save for the fact that their representation in higher ranks in minimal. S similarly to the process of hiring, promotion process involves both formal examination and informal tests that could potentially affect the demographic s when deciding who should be promoted. For instance, tests administered when selecting persons to be promoted (also hiring) should be revised to ascertain they do not present any predictive bias. Such is the case that a test may be biased against a specific group (such as ethnic/ racial minorities or women) when wrongly predict how such people will work in the future. To put it in other words, the test misjudge the true ability of the concerned groups. The sensitive nature of this matter leaves very scanty information, although the few studies presented offer reasons why officers may be unwilling to sit for promotional exams. One of such studies indicated that both male and female officers showed concern for the decrease in remuneration following the loss of overtime opportunities; however female officers depicted a greater concern that the change in reimbursement was not sufficient enough to cover the extra childcare costs incurred while they attend to the evening or night shift. Another study established that a large percentage of black officers perceived themselves as being less supported by the management (Whetstone, 2001). Failure in addressing issues of this nature has been associated with causes of chronic underrepresentation of minorities and women in leadership ranks, a factor that potentially affect the target group recruitment as well. Retention Issues Barriers to promotion can ultimately lead to turnover. Retention case holds the view that even with adequate representation of female and ethnic/ racial minority applicants, hires and promotions in the law enforcement agencies, the diversity goals may be difficult to attain is the concerned groups leave at higher rates. Even though retentions stand out as the external market’s function, some features of the organization setting and particular policies may dictate who leaves. For instance, Harr(1997) established that females and blacks in one enforcement agency felt marginalized even with their heavy representation in the leadership positions, and that the department affirmative action policy faced greater resentment from the white male officers. In another study, women who opted to quit working with law enforcement agencies reported that gender decimation influenced their decision. In this regard, an in-depth study into the reasons for the differences in who opts to remain in the organization plays an important role in ensuring diversity. figure A Implementation of Barrier Analysis to Improve Diversity Barrier analysis presents one of the possible methods that Chicago law enforcement agencies can use to assess if there are any barriers to diversity, like those identified above. Barrier analysis presents five phases in which phases 1 to 3 represent the diagnostic stage; where agencies try to determine if the barriers really exist. Phases 4 and 5 come handy when nay racial/ethnic or gander group is identified as missing in the agency workforce. The dotted line arrows show that periodic reevaluation should be carried out even if no notable discrepancy is identified between the work force and the home labor population. Combined, each of the five stages will help Chicago law enforcing agency leaders discover key barriers and thus take proactive measures to develop a more diverse workforce. Phase I: Development of a Detailed Flow Chart of the enforcement agency Workforce Management Process Phase I is focused on mapping out the workforce management processes at key stages in the carrier lifecycle, a factor that help spot possible barriers to diversity. This mapping also serves as a basis for later examination and change. In phase the main activities include collection of data on roles, policies responsibilities and procedures at the identified key areas like recruitment, hiring and succession planning. Information can be collected by conducting a structured interview with key personnel serving in each of the identified key areas. Additionally, this information can be gathered through review of policy documents and administrative databases. Figure B For instance, Figure B shows a flow chart of a mock Police Department hiring process that can be used to represent the Chicago law enforcement agencies. In this case, each of the hurdles identified in the process can serve as a barrier is success rates alter considerably on the ground of race/ethnicity or race. Repetition of phase 1 may not be necessary every time there is iteration on the barrier analysis for cases where the workforce management procedures at the key areas of the carrier lifecycle remain unchanged substantially as each year passes. However, barrier analysis posses the potential to bring substantial alterations in workforce management procedures and thus should be incorporated to develop a revised chart. Phase II: Construct Population Benchmarks Phase II seeks to define population benchmarks and thus provide a basis for comparing if particular groups are over-or under represented at particular stages in the carrier lifecycle. A good example is a case in where the question as to whether applicants are representative of the merited labor pool. In the case of hiring and recruiting, population benchmarks need to reflect the local labor market populace by approximating geographical distribution of prospective candidates using the geographical information system software and other information sources. Here, information sources may include the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the American Community Surveys and Census reports. Benchmarks developed based on such data are well suited when it comes to pinpointing real barriers in the entire process and for assessing their influence. Data presented from such information offer greater accuracy when compared to that presented by Census Bureau for Equal Employment Opportunity. Population benchmarks used in later stages of the career lifecycle is then developed basing on the real demographics of the Chicago agency workforce to show how representation differ across particular ranks and within top leadership. The information presented is then weighed against that of the lower ranks. The quality of the population benchmarks depends much on the availability of data and information, which include data on candidates who took part in the hiring exercise. Once again, just like in Phase 1 there may be no need to redo the benchmarks every time a barrier analysis is to be conducted, however agencies should try not to use outdated benchmarks. Phase III: Compare Employee Distribution to Benchmarks Phase three comes handy when trying to establish any discrepancy between the population benchmarks established in phase II and demographic depiction within the agency workforce. This is done to discover areas in the career lifecycle and associated workforce management processes that may be harboring noticeable barriers to advancement. In this regard, this phase of the analysis also show whether desperate or adverse impact is present in the said stages of carrier lifecycle. Desperate and adverse impact is considered unfair under the Civil Right Act, Title VII. Such impacts are deemed present if an employment practices implemented without any discrimination purpose end up impacting members of a certain ethnicity, race, sex, religion or nationality in the negative manner. For instance, particular promotion qualification may realize more men being promoted than women. Adverse influence is generally considered present is the percentage of applicants selected from a protected group falls below four-fifth(80%) of the percentage of applicants selected from the group presenting the highest selection rate. In cases where no adverse impact is identified and there is further no discrepancy with the population benchmarks, the investigation, for the time being, is done. Still, employment barriers may be present, although they may present some difficulty in diagnosis. If, however, desperate or adverse impacts or other noticeable discrepancies are identified, the analysis goes on to identify possible barriers that resulted to the discrepancy. Additionally, the analysis presents measures that will help mitigate or remove them. Phase IV: Identify Potential Barriers The next phase, that is IV, identifies the particular barriers hindering the advancement of women and ethnic/racial minorities. Typically, barriers will begin to show up once diagramming the carrier lifecycle and associated workforce management processes is complete. This will also include observation of discrepancy in Phase III. For instance, it would not be surprising to find that an agency’s minimum height requirement disqualifies a larger percentage of women compared to their male counterparts. In some cases, the barriers are less apparent, such as the existence of differences in work-family conflict or test bias that may influence retention. These barriers can be made clear by examining the administrative information or conducting an exploratory survey or interview with members of the work force to further discover the disparities in turnover decisions. Phase 5: Address and Remove Barriers Phase V comes as the last stage of action that brings up solutions for eradicating or at least diminishing the barriers established in the earlier phase. For instance, is a particular hiring requirement is the reason for the barrier, the soundness of such requirement should be scrutinized to ensure that it is a valid predictor of later job performance. Additionally it should show that there are no alternative tools to it that are equally valid and depict less adverse impact. If the issue is established as being in the recruitment stage, the agency may opt to experiment with alteration in the type and/or targeting of recruiting. For instance, the Chicago Police department can remove a 150-lb dummy drag from its fitness test to qualify more females for carrier with the police. Case Studies with attached Lessons This section offers a further guidance for carrying out barrier analyses in a practical way. In all the cases illustrated below, the concerned law enforcement agencies depicted willingness to deal with the lack of diversity in the workforce; perform analysis to establish loopholes that caused barriers and thus exclude any group on the ground of race, gender or ethnicity. The concerned agencies then took steps to remedy the absence of representation. It is important to note here that while we claim that there is no particular quick-fix solution, every case presents options that may be taken and put to use by Chicago Police Department. Case Study 1: Learning from the Latest Law Enforcement Recruits A study was rolled out by the U.S Department of Justice Office of community Policing services to improve recruitment effort. This survey included new sheriff’s deputy and police officers recruits. Out of the 1,619 respondents who took part in the survey, only 45% were from ethnic/racial minority group, and 16% were females. Castaneda and Ridgeway (2010) established a number of recommendations founded on the survey results that can hopefully work in the Chicago law enforcement community: The first recommendation was to reform the misconceptions and negative perceptions held by recruits and their close associates. Not all demographic representations are equally attracted to work in the law enforcement. According to this survey, Asians recruits showed a greater likelihood of indicating friends’ poor perception of the law enforcement as the reason for their peer’s decision not to apply. In the same study, black recruits were twice more likely the white recruits to indicate family’s and friend’s negative view of the law enforcement as the reason for not following a law enforcement carrier. Similarly, recruits enlisted from the immigrant families (let us say those who are either first generation Americans or are immigrants themselves) showed a significant likelihood than the nonimmigrant families to point out family members’ disapproval as the reason for not joining the law enforcement work. Recruitment programs that depict the agency diversity, display effective community policing and further help celebrate success of officers can assist alter these adverse perceptions. One surprising outcome of the study was that some recruits, regardless of the gender or race, hold the view that death and injury threat were the leading reasons for their peers refusal to apply. This also is a misguided opinion statistical data presented by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010 showed otherwise. According to this data, there were only 12.9 fatalities per 100,000 in the law enforcement; a figure that is said to this job as being three times safer than ranching or farming and 16 times than fishing. To dispel such fears and further boost recruitment efforts, the study recommends a spirited campaign that will make potential recruits conversant with the actual risks in policing. Additionally, the agencies should adopt approaches that will draw applicants in the target groups. The study also established that, in part, women and minorities choose to work in the law enforcement for different reasons. Recruits of female gender as opposed to their male counterparts showed a higher likelihood to cite good salary as their drive, black recruits showed higher likelihood to cite prestige of the profession, and Asians simply indicated the excitement attached to the work. On account of these findings, the study recommends that law enforcement agencies try to make its operation appealing to the varied drives of the recruits and also seek to address the things they view as barriers in the profession. Case Study 2: The Los Angeles Police For many years Los Angeles Police Department was regarded the smallest big-city police across America. It is even said that at some point it held a ratio of 1police officer for 426 residents, a serious scenario as New York which present large population maintained one officer for every 228 residents. On account of this issue a five year ambitious campaign was rolled off aimed at increasing the LAPD’s force. The main areas of focus included evaluation of the recruitment and hiring procedures to ensure the limited resources were being utilized in the most efficient way. As solution to the existing problem, the following recommendations were made. Reflect on location when preparing recruitment procedure. The study identified possible recruitment loopholes; the existence of promising neighborhoods that could have been left out during recruitments. The loopholes were identified by making maps marked by zip codes color, coded based on whether the zip code brought forward more, less or almost the same number of intended-group applicants envisaged by its demographics. The entire recruitment event was then overlaid on a map of Los Angeles County showing the distribution. From the finding certain areas yielded more applicants than projected and some less, although others were very close to the projected number. In this regard it was suggested that the department should design long-range plan for appropriate neighborhoods. In addition, the study supported the implementation of law enforcement programs such as the Police Academy Magnet Schools (PAMS) and Police Explorers (PE) that showed potentiality to boost the quality and quantity of applicants. Such programs were found to provide discipline, law enforcement training, and create a positive setting that kept youths away from trouble. Additional study is required on this matter, but the finding shows that programs focused on long- range recruitment can reduce barriers in the surrounding communities Re-examine how prospective candidates perceive recruitment materials. All potential candidates for the position of sworn LAPD are required to complete a Preliminary Background Assessment (PBA) online. The short evaluation given is tailored to assist recruiters to quickly asses an applicant respect for the law, alcohol and drug use, financial records and driving proficiency. Tailored to block out persons with questionable pasts, the PBA could have served its purpose. However, Only 17% of persons with small PBA issues presented themselves for the written test, although a large number of those present for the test fell in this group. A large group of the candidates identified as having small PBA issues were ultimately hired after recruiters determine that the issues were in fact not very serious, but many candidates were uninformed on this fact. This may have certainly hurt the diversity of the force since a larger percentage (actually 75%) of the blacks applicants had were found to be having some background problem with PBA. Case Study 3: San Diego Police Departments Recruitment Barriers The San Diego Police departments have been operating below its approved strength for a number of years before taking deliberate measures to solve the issue. Following a careful barrier analysis the following findings were tabled. Testing should not present any biases with regard to culture. The written test to be completed by prospective recruits was indeed a revision. A close review of the test showed that some questions presented a level of cultural biases, a factor that prevented prospective candidates from moving ahead with the application. The findings suggested that San Diego police department make an evaluation for “differential item functioning,” a method that would help test for racial or gender bias in exam questions. This move was meant to allow the San Diego police department investigate and hopefully alter the demographic diversity of the recruits. Second, the San Diego police department was encouraged to adopt training and written exam of a police department from a neighboring city that had been extensively validated. The department website accentuated formal requirements more than the benefits of finding a carrier with them. In addition, the website presented difficulties for the recruits when trying to locate upcoming test dates. Here, both the organization and content of the website worked to discourage potential candidates from applying. San Diego police departments restructured its website to reveal the professionalism of the team and offer sample test questions to give applicants a test of the written exam expected. Third, it was proposed that the pass mark for the written test, which blocked roughly 40% of the applicants in the previous recruitment be lowered. The San Diego Police Department could bring down the pass point with a few points and follow up those applicants who scored slightly above the new (old) pass mark to find if they really experienced more difficulty downstream during hiring and while training. Failure to identify noticeable disparity in either case would form a fairly compelling proof that the pass mark could be brought down without affecting the quality standards. Target recruitment efforts: The period during which the study was on, out of state recruitment was considerably rare for the San Diego Police Department. This could have been founded on the basis of the purchasing power. Here, when the starting salaries for SDPD police officers were compared with the cost of living index in other metropolitan areas (actually 116 areas), SDPD’s starting salary stood at 91 following an adjustment on the cost of living. May be of great significance is the idea that its starting salary, as adjusted for the cost of living, fell below that depicted in Arizona, California, Oregon and Nevada. Following this, a suggestion was made for San Diego Police Department to confine its spirited recruitment efforts in regions where it offered an economic benefit. This was more applicable in areas holding criminal justice degree programs and having more graduates than what local agencies could employ. Be willing to modify the application procedure for diversity. Two striking differences were identified when studies were made on the management floe of the applications. First, there was a near 20% likelihood of rejecting black male applications on the account of the initial background review. Here sergeants easily rejected applicants on the ground of their financial problems, poor driving records and drug use. Proposal was made to have the applicant packages less keen on race at this level and as such sergeants should not complete this part of the information on the applicant evaluation. Second, women were more than two times likely than their male counterparts to receive constructive waivers issued when candidates have not been declared unfit but only withdrawn from the practice. This large difference could indicate a lower tendency for policing or a greater number of women being pushed wooed away from San Diego Police Departments by other agencies operating in the same industry. At that moment SDPD’s approach was to have the persons responsible for the background investigation make phone call to remind candidates of their remaining obligation in the recruitment process. Here, it was proposed that recruiters call these candidates instead, encouraging them to carry on, and then evaluate if the persuasion caused any difference on the constructive waivers issued. This move also helped asses the change in the number of women hired at the end of the process. Case Study 4: Barriers to Promotion in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency There is very little information published on the later carrier life cycle stages owing to sensitivity of such information. Despite this, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has successfully managed to publish some barrier analyses in the U.S federal government; the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is one of the publications. A good example of such publication is the case in which a federal district court ruled in favor of a black agent at DEA who filed a suit claiming biasness in the DEA’s discipline and promotion practices. In this particular case, the court compelled the DEA to deal with the negative impacts of its assessment, discipline and promotion systems. Later, after twenty years have elapsed, GAO evaluated the DEA’s policies and work force to ascertain its compliance with the Court order. As standards for the DEA diversity, GAO employed diversity in the federal government in its entirety as well as the diversity in the area of criminal survey within the various government levels. Despite DEA being found short of the federal Government requirement for diversity, its criminal investigation force was at par with the government standards, but for the number of agents that were of female gender. According to GAO findings, Minorities depicted a higher representation in the senior executive service and supervisory special agent positions. For instance, Hispanics accounted for 22.4% of the senior executive service special agents, 10% of supervisors and 8.2% of nonsupervisory special agents. Despite this, women, who constituted 8.8% of non supervisory agents tended to go through a barriers of sorts; their number went down to 6.6% at the level of supervisor before going up again to 10.2 at the position of SES special agent. While looking at the positions of GS-14 and GS-15 no statistically notable disparity were identified with regard o promotion rates instituted earlier. Surprisingly, the GAO analysis indicated that Hispanics and Black special agents were less represented on the best-qualified listings submitted by the office heads to the selecting authority. It is easy to see here that while the GS-14 and GS-15 promotional plan appearing impartial cumulatively, a possible bias was identified in a sensitive part of the process. Conclusion Diversity issue in the law enforcement is a key factor that needs constant address with a keen interest on placed on achieving both public safety and equal employment opportunity. Such is the case that it goes deep to affect the police –community rapport; making it to flourish where it is upheld and suffer when absent. Barriers to betterment of agency diversity can be identified and eliminated or lessened by employing the barrier analysis method. This analysis should be carried out with utmost care so that we can remain faithful to the ideals propagated in equal opportunity employment. For instance, the people given the duty to carry out the exercise should ensure the process doesn’t violate the existing laws since some departments maintain laws that prohibit such moves. Commitment to ensuring a fair and transparent workforce management process is of equal importance. As suggested in the various case studies presented in this work, several methods can be used to diagnose and mitigate issues the serious matter of diversity within the law enforcement agencies. References Batalova, J. & Aaron, T. (2010). “US in Focus: Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States,” Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved from: http://www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?id=818#2d Cossrow, N. & Bonita, F. (2004). “Race/Ethnic Issues in Obesity and Obesity-Related Comorbidities,” Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol. 89, No. 6, pp. 2590–2594, 2004. Haarr, R.(1997). “Patterns of Interaction in a Police Patrol Bureau: Race and Gender Barriers to Integration,”Justice Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 1,pp. 53–85. McCrary, J.(2007). “The Effect of Court-Ordered Hiring Quotas on the Composition and Quality of Police,” American Economic Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 318–353. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2011). “Statistical Briefing Book: Law Enforcement and Juvenile Crime,” United States Department of Justice. Retrieved from: http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/JAR.asp Reaves, B.(2010). Local Police Departments, 2007, United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington DC Sklansky, D. A.(2006). “Not Your Father’s Police Department: Making Sense of the New Demographics of Law Enforcement,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 96, No. 3, pp. 1209–1243. Stillwell, R. (2010). “Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2007–08,” National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, D.C.: Department of Education. Tyler,T. & Jeffrey, Fagan.(2008). “Legitimacy and Cooperation: Why Do People Help the Police Fight Crime in Their Communities?” Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, Vol. 6, pp. 231–275. Read More