Say Anything Blog

The Grand Forks Herald has two articles up today basically advocating for some race-based hiring in North Dakota's law enforcement agencies.

First is this:

A look at the number of black law enforcement officers in North Dakota and nationwide:

Nationwide: About 10 percent of the 800,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the 18,000 departments nationwide are black.

North Dakota: There were 10 black law enforcement officers in the state in 2000. Census Bureau figures showed of the 3,570 officers, 54 were Hispanic officers and 435 were American Indians, who mostly serve on the state's four Indian reservations.

Cities: Fargo, Bismarck and Minot have no black officers. The North Dakota Highway Patrol, with 136 troopers, has no blacks in its ranks.

Comparing the national ratio of black to non-black officers to North Dakota's ratio is pointless. Blacks make up 0.6% of North Dakota's population. According to the article there are 10 black law enforcement officers among the state's 3,570 officers. That's .2% of the total number of officers. That's lower than the .6% that blacks make up in the total population, but it isn't far off the mark either, especially considering that most of the blacks who are living in the state are probably serving at one of the state's military bases and thus would be unavailable for hire in law enforcement.



Here's an excerpt from another article on the same issue from the Herald:

Law enforcement agencies across the state say they are trying to recruit more minority officers from the state and elsewhere, but they say the candidates don't exist.

"We work very hard and have tried every niche but we are not getting enough people to apply, not even white officers," said Col. Bryan Klipfel, commander of the Highway Patrol.

The lack of black officers is not unique to North Dakota, said Ronald Hampton, director of the National Black Police Association.

"Whether it's way down South or in North Dakota, it's the same issue," said Hampton, a retired Washington, D.C., police officer.

"The relationship between police and people of color has always been strained," Hampton said.

Hampton said a culturally diverse department is valuable. He calls it "respecting the collective of the people you're dealing with."

He said departments with no black officers have a tougher time luring black applicants.

"It's no secret there are very few black people in North Dakota, but there are black people who live there," he said. "You have to put together a strategy to hire officers, otherwise it's just lip service."

Marigny said the lack of black officers in North Dakota "is not an issue."

"I've been to pretty much every department in the state, and I've met with nearly every chief and sheriff," Marigny said. "I know that they are not getting applications because the pool is not that great for black candidates."

Yet now the state's two largest newspapers, the Herald above and the Fargo Forum two weeks ago, have come out with articles casting this issue as though it were a legitimate problem.

I don't think it is. For one, there just aren't a lot of blacks in this state who want to be in law enforcement. Should we start programs to encourage more minority applicants? Maybe, but I'd just as soon encourage any interested party to apply regardless of race. After all, the best applicants are going to be people who don't have to be convinced that law enforcement should be their career.

Should we start unequal, affirmative action hiring practices to boost the number of minority officers we have? Absolutely not. In a job as crucial as law enforcement we cannot afford to hire any but the best available applicants. Hiring one applicant over another because of his/her gender or race could very well result in somebody getting hurt or killed because we do not have the best officers on the street.

I am convinced that the racial makeup of our law enforcement officers is not a problem in this state. I think its clear that our law enforcement agencies are hiring the best officers available to them and certainly aren't engaging in any race-based selection.

That's how it should stay.