City Faces Challenge with Decline in Black Cops

Summary

---

Like the perpetual drip, drip, drip of an unrepaired faucet, Columbus has found itself over the past decade slowly leaking African-American officers. In a city that is now about 26 percent African-American, African-American officers now represent about 13 percent of the division's officers - and dropping.

"We're not going to lower our standards," [Michael Coleman] said. "We don't need to lower our standards to get more African Americans on the force. It's imperative we look at the processes and procedures, and recruitment."

"We will be right where we were with our 1973 lawsuit," said [James Moss], who became a police officer in Columbus in the wake of that landmark lawsuit, which forced the integration of the city police. "[City officials] haven't done a good job of recruiting Blacks in the police department. The numbers are going down every day."

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

City Faces Challenge with Decline in Black Cops

A Columbus Police Chief James Jackson and Mayor Michael Coleman recently sparred over the chief's call for the hiring of an additional 550 police officers, the city faced another, more hidden, crisis: the decline in the number of A...

See the full content of this document

---