Principles of law Enforcement

1
Principles of law Enforcement

• Chapter 7
• Minorities inPolicing

2
Objectives

• To acquaint you with the history and problems of
  women and minorities in policing
• To show how discrimination affected women and
  minorities in obtaining employment and promotions
  in policing
• To acquaint you with the provisions of the U.S.
  legal system that enabled women and minorities to
  overcome job discrimination

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Objectives Cont..

• To introduce the student to the academic studies
  showing that women and African-Americans can
  perform police patrol duty as effectively as men
• To give the students a sense of the problem women
  and minorities still face in law enforcement

4
Introduction

• Today all groups are represented the law
  enforcement agencies in the U.S. Women and
  African-American police officers seen patrolling
  are now very common.
• Traditionally both women and minorities were
  excluded from police departments which were
  dominated by white males. The Atlanta Police
  department excluded African-Americans for
  employment until 1948. However, the
  underrepresentation has not been limited to just
  southern cities.

5
Intro Cont..

• Although the US has has paid police departments
  since the 1840s the 1st female officer was not
  appointed until 1905.
• By 1919 over 60 department employed females but
  work was limited to clerical duties and dealing
  with female prisoners
• This chapter will show the extent to which women
  and minorities have influenced police departments
  and the capabilities of women to perform the
  duties of a job traditionally viewed for males

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Discrimination In Policing

• Historically there has been job discrimination
  against women and minorities
• Discrimination is the unequal treatment of
  personnel in decisions (hiring, promotion and
  firing) on the basis of race, religion, national
  origin, gender, and sexual orientation

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Discrimination Cont..

• Only is the past few decades have women and
  minorities been able to share the American dream
  of equal employment
• Early on there was unequal treatment due mostly
  to race and gender
• Departments have also discriminated against
  homosexuals
• Much of this has disappeared

8
Discrimination against Women

• Woman have faced enormous uphill struggles to
  earn the right to wear the blue uniform and
  perform the same basic duties as men
• Why have they been excluded from the police
  profession?

9
Discrimination against Women

• Until the 1970s it was presumed that women
  because of their gender and typical size were not
  capable of performing the same type patrol duty

10
Discrimination against Woman Cont..

• Other reasons why they were kept out
• Men did not want to put up with the social
  inhibitions placed on them by the presence of
  women
• Men did not want to be overshadowed or take
  orders from women
• Men did not want to be supported by women in the
  face of potentially dangerous work

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Discrimination against Woman Cont..

• One of the biggest reasons was many cops wives
  did not want other women in the ranks for so
  called safety reasons
• The truth was that they feared that male cops
  would fall in love with their partners and the
  introduction of sex would fall into the equation
  (jealousy)

12
Discrimination against Woman Cont..

• In 1967 Women only made up a very small
  percentage in the U.S.
• In the mid to late 70s they still were only
  allowed to worked with juveniles
• The 1980s to present saw many significant changes

13
Discrimination Against Racial and Ethnic
Minorities

• The 1st African-American police officer was
  appointed to the Chicago Police Department in
  1872 and another to the Washington DC Police
  Department in 1890.
• By 1890 there were 2000 African-American police
  officers in the U.S.
• They made up 2.7 percent of all security, police
  and fire fighters at that time

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Discrimination Against Racial and Ethnic
Minorities

• The number employed actually decreased until the
  1970s when job discrimination was abolished
• Since the 1940s departments have hired minorities
  because of political pressure of black
  communities complaints about white officers

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West Palm Beach Motor Unit 1955
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Louisville Ky Police Dept Today
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Woman Motorcycle Cop
Sgt Myra James Hamilton, Ontario Police Department
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Discrimination Against Racial and Ethnic
Minorities

• African-American Officers were
• Restricted to patrolling African-American
  neighborhoods
• Chances of promotion were restricted
• Were subject to prejudice attitudes of the white
  officers
• Were excluded from detective work
• Were eventually accepted by white officers but
  socially excluded from white officers off-duty
  activities

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Discrimination Against Racial and Ethnic
Minorities

• African-American policeman suffered double
  marginality
• White officers accusing them of giving members of
  their own race better treatment
• Hostility from the African-American Communities
  that they were traitors from their race

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Discrimination Against Racial and Ethnic
Minorities

• Still in the 60s the New York Police Dept only
  assigned African-American police officers to
  black neighborhoods
• Institutional discrimination has now largely
  disappeared
• The National Advisory Commission on Civil
  Disorder stated that the discriminatory practices
  against African-American policeman largely
  contributed to the riots of the middle and late
  60s

21
Discrimination Against Racial and Ethnic
Minorities
Cleveland 34/7 Detroit 39/5 United
States 12/4.8
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Minority Recruiting Goals

• National Advisory Commission made these
  recommendations to reduce job discrimination
• Every police agency should ensure that no policy
  exists that discourages qualified women from
  seeking employment
• Every police agency should ensure that no
  artificial or arbitrary barriers should exist to
  discourage qualified individuals from seeking
  employment and becoming police officers
• Departments should engage in effort to employ
  ethnic minority group members and the community
  ratio should be achieved to balance the
  department with the community

23
Discrimination of Gay Officers

• There has been a history of discriminating
  against job applicants because of their sexual
  orientation
• In 1969 the IACP rescinded its policy of
  oppressing the employment of gay officers
• Currently 20 of the San Francisco PD is gay and
  10 of the Los Angeles PD is gay or lesbian

24
How Did Women and Minorities Achieve Equality

• They did it through the Federal Court System
• Primary instrument was the 14th Amendment which
  stated .No state shall make or enforce any law
  which shall abridge the privileges or immunities
  of citizens of the United States, nor shall any
  State deprive any citizen of life, liberty, or
  property without due process of law
• Two other milestone pieces of legislation were
  the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Equal
  Opportunity Act of 1972 (EEOA)

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Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Was passed by Congress and signed into law in
  1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson
• Title VII of this law specifically prohibited all
  job discrimination based on race, color,
  religion, sex, or national origin
• It covered all employment practices including
  hiring, promotion, compensation, dismissal, and
  other terms or conditions of employment

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Equal Opportunity Act of 1972

• Strengthened the 1964 Civil Rights Act and
  empowered the Justice Department to investigate
  any complaints of discrimination
• It further stated that all procedures regarding
  promotion in agencies including application
  forms, written tests, probation ratings, and
  physical ability tests are subject to EEOC review

27
Federal Courts in Overseeing Job Discrimination

• The obvious discrimination was clear and explicit
  policies where minorities and women received
  separate job titles, lower pay, and different
  recruitment efforts
• The most common was de facto discrimination
  where policies do not intend to do so but do in
  fact discriminate
• Example- A physical agility test that only men
  can pass

28
Affirmative Action Programs

• In 1965 Lyndon Johnson gave an Executive Order
  11246 which stated that all federal contractors
  and subcontractors had to develop an affirmative
  action program
• It stated that employers had to not only stop
  discrimination but had to give jobs to those who
  were discriminated in the past
• It was to make up for and undo past discrimination

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Affirmative Action Continued

• The main purpose of Affirmative Action Programs
  was to establish quotas which was very disturbing
  to many
• In the 1990s the concept of affirmative action
  came under attack on numerous fronts, ranging
  from US Supreme Court cases to state and local
  laws

30
White Male Backlash

• As more minorities and women were hired and white
  males were passed over even when they scored
  higher on entrance and promotion exams, anger,
  resentment, and counter suits followed.
• Critics argued that selecting police officers
  based on race and gender actually violated the
  1964 Civil Rights Act
• They further argued that selecting officers who
  scored lower on tests lowered the overall
  personnel standards which would result in poor
  performance by the department

31
White Male Backlash Cont..

• In Chicago white officers intervened on the side
  of the city when an African-American police
  officer organization filed suit to change
  promotion criteria
• In Detroit the Detroit Police Officers
  Association filed suit to prevent the police
  department from setting up a quota plan to hire
  African-American sergeants
• In 1995 a sergeant with the LA County Sheriffs
  Department formed the Association of White Male
  Peace Officers to protect the rights of white
  male officers through zero discrimination in
  hiring, promotion and assignment

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Can Woman and Minorities do the Job?

• The perceived beliefs that women could not do the
  job equally as well as men because of required
  physical strength and a tough masculine attitude
  was bull
• LEAA study showed women were as equally effective
  on patrol

33
Female Officers

• The study further showed women responded to
  similar types calls as the males and their
  arrests were as likely as the male officer's
  arrests
• Women were found to receive more support from the
  community
• Were less likely to be charges with improper
  conduct
• Were perceived by the public to be more
  competent, pleasant, and respectful than males

34
Female Officers

• Were also found in most cases to be far more
  emotionally stable than their male counterparts
• They also lacked the need to project the macho
  image
• They had less aggressive personalities and were
  more likely to calm a potentially violent
  situation
• Less likely to use a firearm and no more likely
  to suffer on the job injuries
• Women were better at negotiating and resolving
  conflict

35
Woman and Minorities in Policing Today

• The departments today have intensified the
  recruitment of women and minorities
• Today more departments are balanced
• Today more women and minorities serve in every
  capacity of police work in all neighborhoods,
  cities, and towns across the US
• With diversification comes more public trust
  knowing others of the same race, gender, and
  ethnic makeup are on the force

36
Problems for Woman and Minorities in Policing
Today

• Women still face problems involving acceptance
• Men still harbor reservation about women and
  their suitability to be competent peace officers
• Females have been forced to perform their jobs
  under extreme pressure
• To neutralize their threat to male dominance, men
  use a term called defeminization whereas the
  women are labeled as bitches or lesbians

37
Problems for African-American and Other Minorities

• In 1995 thirty African-American and Hispanic
  police officers filed suit in Suffolk County New
  York regarding employment discrimination
  practices
• In 1996 the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms,
  and Tobacco agreed to a 5.9 million dollar
  settlement in damages and legal fees to
  African-American agents who filed suit claiming
  they were assigned lower ranking ATF jobs that
  whites and paid less

38
Problems for African-American and Other Minorities

• Some minorities feel the race relations has
  improved in the departments but the minute they
  are off duty you are no longer a partner
• Several incidents have occurred where
  African-American police officers have been shot
  while doing undercover work in black
  neighborhoods by fellow officers who thought they
  were the suspect

39

• Women and minorities have proven they can perform
• as well as anyone else.
• Most of us hope discrimination in US police
  departments
• will be completely eliminated

• The End