Last Sunday Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor, who’s hardly unfamiliar with public speaking, found herself with a new forum: a pulpit. Literal, not bully. The one at the black-congregation Bible-Based Fellowship Church.
She was there to show the flag, not just the badge, and she was there to recruit.
The city of Tampa is 26 percent black and TPD is 14 percent black. These are not Ferguson, Mo., numbers, but they still reflect a police department not racially reflective of its community. It’s hardly an American anomaly.
“It’s important that when citizens look at us,” Castor explained, “they see themselves.”
We get that. And it goes for Hispanics (23 percent of the population, 15 percent of TPD) as well as females (51 percent of the population, 16 percent of TPD). But black ratios are the tinderbox issue. So, Chief Castor was where she should have been, proactively reaching out. In fact, TPD representatives will be addressing a number of black churches this Sunday and again on Nov. 23.
But this is about more than proactivity, as admirable–and necessary–as that is.
Nobody questions racial composition when it comes to accountants, chemists, nurses, preachers or NBA players. It is what it is. Societal subplots and personal callings have everything to do with it.
A police force has requirements beyond the acceptance of serious risk, which is a stark given–as we know all too tragically around here. This means a high school diploma and, increasingly, college credits. It also means a background check that doesn’t yield mug shots.
It’s no secret–and the reasons are as familiar as they are regrettable–that black graduation and incarceration rates are major barriers in the recruiting of African-American police officers. It’s also lamentable that the police are too often regarded as the white establishment, with a cop of color too easily stereotyped as a uniformed “snitch.”
If none of this changes, then racial ratios and racial bias will remain a constant.
If diversity progress is to be forthcoming, enlightened proactivity will need to be complemented by change from within the black community. That means zero tolerance for academic achievement being perversely perceived as “acting white.” It also means high-profile campaigns that denounce the scourge that is black-on-black crime.
If there’s no reciprocal grassroots, community change, there will be no success in efforts to racially diversify police forces.