Officer Demographic Characteristics
Increasing diversity in law enforcement has been a goal since the 1960s. Through the 1960s, American policing was almost exclusively a profession comprised of white males due to legitimate discrimination in hiring. In the wake of the civil unrest/urban riots during the decade, both Lyndon Johnson’s President’s Commission on Law Enforcement Administration and the Kerner Commission recommended increasing diversity, particularly that of racial/ethnic minority groups, as a solution to address problematic policing and poor community relations. The same recommendations were echoed nearly 50 years later in the final report of Barack Obama’s President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
Much progress has been made since the 1960s in the realm of improved representation among both women and racial/ethnic minorities. The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey provides the most comprehensive examination of agencies’ demographic characteristics. Collected every few years since 1987, LEMAS presents data from a nationally representative sample of police departments. All of the charts/graphs were made with data from the various waves of the LEMAS (1987, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2013, and 2016.
Race/Ethnicity
It is important to note that these aggregate figures mask differences across agency size and region of the country. Departments serving more diverse, metropolitan areas tend to have higher levels of racial/ethnic diversity.
Gender
Similar to race/ethnicity, female representation throughout law enforcement ranks varies across agency size. Bigger local/municipal departments do much better hiring and retaining women. The following chart, created by BJS, illustrates this point:
“Positions of Power”
There is evidence that minority and gender diversity is more underrepresented as officers rise through the ranks in their departments, particularly at the top. Fortunately, the 2013 and 2016 waves of the LEMAS surveys provide measures of the composition of officers in supervisory (e.g., sergeants), mid-level management (e.g., lieutenants), and chief executive positions. The 2013 LEMAS was the first time that the gender breakdown was included, and the 2016 LEMAS included the racial/ethnic composition of officers in these positions for the first time.
According to the 2016 LEMAS, women made up:
2.9% of chiefs
7.5% of mid-level managers (e.g., lieutenants)
9.7% of sergeants/equivalent
Natalie Todak and I wrote about females in these positions of power using the 2013 LEMAS data. A link to the paper can be found here.
Black officers made up:
4.0% of chiefs
9.2% of mid-level managers (e.g., lieutenants)
9.4% of sergeants/equivalent
Hispanic officers made up:
3.1% of chiefs
6.4% of mid-level managers (e.g., lieutenants)
9.6% of sergeants/equivalent
I’m finalizing a paper that explores the racial/ethnic composition of officers in these positions of power. Hope to have more to share soon.