Critics Sound Off After Bratton Says It's Difficult To Recruit Blacks To NYPD
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police Commissioner Bill Bratton faced a backlash Wednesday over his assertion that the NYPD has a hard time recruiting African-American men as officers because many have arrest records.
It was supposed to be a big day for the NYPD and Mayor Bill de Blasio -- Day 1 of a special program to put 330 more cops on the street to bring the murder rate down.
Instead, part of the focus was on Bratton's statements about the arrest records of African-Americans.
"The numbers are shocking," Bratton said. "The numbers range, depending on which you look at, from 20 to 30 percent. That's 20 to 30 percent of what would normally be a pool that we could reach into that I can't touch under any circumstance."
As CBS2's Marcia Kramer reported, critics charge it is Bratton's own "broken windows" police policy of arresting people for low-level offenses that has given minority men and women the records that keep them out of the NYPD.
"We have witnessed an overaggressive, targeted behavior on those low-level marijuana offenses that turned into misdemeanors based on the policies that we carried out in the city, and this has given a lot of black men police records," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a former NYPD cop.
City Public Advocate Letitia James agrees, saying in a statement: "This is a teachable moment that affirms that broken windows policing destroys lives and opportunities. Individuals who are otherwise qualified to be police officers should have minor infractions forgiven."
Bratton said that in addition to the criminal records, it's hard to recruit blacks due to a lack of trust because of strained relations with members of the community.
But as WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reported, Bratton is vigorously disputing that he ever connected the stop question and frisk tactic with an inability to recruit young African-Americans to the NYPD.
Bratton said the British publication The Guardian took his quotes out of context, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported.
"Stop question and frisk is not a disqualifier; summonses are not a disqualifier; misdemeanor arrests are not a disqualifier to become a New York City police officer," Bratton said. "The only absolute disqualifier is a felony conviction."
Bratton added that the reason why more blacks are on the hospital police force and are school safety agents is because those jobs don't require two years of college like the NYPD does, D'Auria reported.
Published reports indicate blacks make up 23 percent of the city's population and 16 percent of the police force; whites make up 33 percent of the population and 54 percent of the NYPD; and Hispanics comprise 28 percent of the population and 24 percent of the department.
"This commissioner has been one of the strongest voices for racial fairness and racial harmony that we've seen in the history of this city," Mayor Bill de Blasio told Kramer. "And he said -- and I was so struck by this last year -- he said his mission was to weed out racism from the NYPD. I had never heard a police commissioner say it so bluntly."
Kramer asked the mayor if minor infractions should be forgiven for those who want to become cops.
"I'm not an expert on the current standards. I would say we need to always look at what's going to work, obviously, but I think we need to separate that from the question of broken windows and quality of life policing. I believe in that broad strategy."
Kramer also asked the mayor if he thought it would get more blacks to join the NYPD if they were given five extra points on the entrance exam. He said no, adding that recruitment efforts have to be improved, and it would help if the recruiters were also African-American.
Bratton said he is actively working with NYPD fraternal organizations to recruit minority men and women.