The Boston Police Department is undeniably more diverse than it used to be.
From the early 1970s until 2004, the BPD operated under a federal consent decree requiring it to adhere to strict hiring practices meant to diversify its ranks and create a police force that more closely resembled the city itself.
By the early 2000s, the number of black police officers had increased from single-digit numbers in the 1970s to nearly 20 percent of the force. The consent decree was terminated in 2004.
But while the BPD has made strides—in some cases great ones—towards a police force that more closely resembles and represents the population it serves, and in which advancement is enjoyed equally by all racial groups, progress in recent years has been halting—a fact highlighted by a recent court finding the BPD’s civil service exam unfairly disadvantaged nonwhite applicants for promotion.
Today, despite fears that the department would revert to its old homogeneity, black officers make up about 22 percent of the sworn police force, while about 22 percent of Boston residents identify as black.
Hispanics and Asians, the other largest ethnic groups in Boston, are underrepresented in the police force; but the overall nonwhite representation is substantially higher than it used to be.
But imbalances when it comes to higher-ranking positions within the BPD are much larger.
In recent data provided by the Boston Police Department, only three of 24 police captains throughout the city were not white (one was black, one Hispanic, and one Asian).
Of nearly 300 hundred police sergeants and sergeant detectives citywide, fewer than sixty, were not white.
Of 78 lieutenants, only seven were not white. And of 26 captains in the police force, only one was black, one Hispanic, and one Asian.
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, Speaking on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio, acknowledged that the BPD still struggles to maintain and promote racial diversity in its ranks, and said he’s used his own limited powers in hiring and promotion to promote diversity.
“Where I can make appointments, I’ve done more than anyone has ever done in this department,” Evans said.
And when it comes to the high-ranking positions of superintendent and deputy superintendent, the force does look more diverse—two of seven superintendents are black, and half of the 12 deputy superintendents are nonwhite (five are black; one is Hispanic).
But Evans said that when it comes to diversity in the rank-and-file members, his hands are largely tied by the civil service exams that are the required means by which officers advance through the ranks.
“I’ve done everything I possibly can—I realize the value of diversity,” Evans told hosts Jim Braude and Jared Bowen, “but there’s a strict process.”
Charts researched by Isaiah Thompson; designed by Brendan Lynch.
