LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - The Lincoln Police Department recently launched a new website with the goal of recruiting a more diverse department. Those new recruiting efforts come with a price tag of $70,000, so 10/11 NOW wanted to see where LPD’s demographics are at now and how far they need to go.
“In a perfect world the department would reflect the face of the community,” Lincoln Police Captain Jeri Roeder said. “That’s what the goal is, what we’re working toward so we keep chipping away.”
Right now there are 393 Lincoln Police Officers. 82% are men and 18% are women. 91% are white, 5% are Hispanic, 1% are Black, 1% are Asian, fewer than 1% are Native American or Indigenous and 1% have identified as two or more races.
Mayor Leirion Gaylor-Baird also told 10/11 NOW ideally those numbers would reflect those of the city. In 2019 the most recent data available, 50% of the Lincoln population was male and 50% was female, 84% was white, 8% was Hispanic, 4% was black, 5% was Asian, 1% was Native American or Indigenous and 4% identify as two or more races.
Roeder, who is the head of the LPD unit responsible for recruiting and hiring, said she believes these numbers do make a difference in policing.
“I think the biggest thing it impacts is the comfort of the community,” Roeder said. “That they know there’s an equal possibility when they call the police that they’ll see an officer of an underrepresented population, than they would just get a white person which is what most people expect.”
She said the more comfortable the community is with officers, the more likely they are to trust officers and report incidents to them when needed.
But the department isn’t there yet.
“There’s always room for improvement,” Roeder said. “I would say in the last five years we’ve made good strides in the Hispanic community but not so much the others.”
Roeder said it’s been a challenge to recruit diverse candidates, especially after the civil unrest that occurred over the summer.
“I think a lot of it is acceptance in communities,” Roeder said. “If you live in a community where your family and those around you don’t think it would be a good idea to be a police officer or wouldn’t be supportive of that, it’s kind of difficult for us to recruit them.”
Roeder said the department does focus recruiting efforts on under-represented candidates, by hosting community events in areas with high minority populations and reaching out to community organizations for candidate suggestions.
Roeder said the Spring 2021 recruiting class is the closest the department has ever come to its goals, with women making up 29% of the class and white people making up just 67% of the class.
“As we kept building that class and the number of women kept going up that was really exciting,” Roeder said.
However, who the department recruits doesn’t tell the entire story. 10/11 NOW also looked into who the department is promoting to leadership positions and specialized units.
The Department has 70 leadership positions, 52 sergeants, 16 captains and one chief. Of the sergeants, 83% are men and 17% are women. 90% are white and 10% are people of color, with three Hispanic sergeants, one Black sergeant and one Asian sergeant.
The department said these numbers show people of diverse backgrounds are being promoted right along with their white, male counterparts.
“I think it shows we’re providing equal opportunity for all people,” Roeder said.
However, the department’s specialized units, while small, don’t all show the same diversity. The traffic unit is made up of 10 officers and all 10 are white men. The canine unit is also made up of five white men. The narcotics unit, with 15 members, has one woman but each member is white. The Special Victims Unit is all white with seven men and one woman. The SWAT team, though racially diverse, is made up entirely of men.
Roeder said the department can only pull from the officers who choose to apply to these positions and the application process is typically based on a point system.
“I can’t say we put a focus on making sure there’s a balance of people,” Roeder said. “Generally the people who finish at the top of the process and are best equipped to do the job are selected.”
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February 05, 2021 at 07:43AM
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10/11 NOW Investigation looks into diversity within Lincoln Police Department - KOLN
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