Social and Political Pillars of Police Diversity
Agustin Leon-Moreta (University of Minnesota) and Omowonuola Fayemiro (University of Illinois, Chicago)
Police officers serve a public service role, as highlighted by scholarly literature on street-level bureaucracy. Thus, it matters whether police departments represent the social characteristics of communities. In socially diverse cities, police diversity promises to facilitate police–community interactions. However, to what extent are US police departments diversifying their personnel?
The Diversity Gap
Nationally, the share of Black population and the proportion of Black officers are comparatively similar. The LEMAS 2020 reports that Black officers comprised 12.5% of police personnel, while the Census of Population 2020 reports a Black population share of 12.4%. However, there are significant differences among departments, resulting in a standard deviation of 13.3% for the proportion of Black police officers. Many departments have no Black officers.
Hispanics are relatively underrepresented in police personnel. The LEMAS 2020 reports that Hispanics comprised 16.7% of police personnel, whereas the 2020 Census of Population reports a Hispanic population share of 18.7%. However, there are significant differences among departments, resulting in a standard deviation of 14.9% for the proportion of Hispanic police officers. Many departments have no Hispanic officers.
Why Does Police Diversity Vary?
Some police departments broadly diversified their personnel decades ago, yet many others have not. Institutional theory suggests that social and political contexts create differential incentives for departments to diversify their personnel. The institutional pillars framework (IPF) integrates social and political hypotheses explaining why police diversity varies deeply. The IPF identifies regulative, normative, and cultural mechanisms underlying organizational reform and change.
Three Institutional Pillars
Cultural Pillar: Community Demographics
The cultural pillar consists of shared understandings, perceived legitimacy, and belief systems that form cognitive frameworks through which people interpret organizational reality. The demographic presence of Black and Hispanic populations represents a social mechanism; as minority populations grow, shared expectations develop that police departments should reflect community demographics.
The share of Black population is statistically significant while controlling for other variables. As the Black share shifts one standard deviation from the mean in the dataset, the proportion of officers of color shifts by roughly 3.9%. The share of Hispanic population is statistically significant while controlling for other variables. As the Hispanic share shifts one standard deviation from the mean in the dataset, the proportion of officers of color shifts by roughly 2.4%.
Regulative Pillar: Protests and Accountability
The regulative pillar involves rules that promote collective rights and public accountability. Fatal events such as those of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Michael Brown in Ferguson—and others in recent years—have reflected tensions between minority groups and police. The Ferguson crisis showed that differential demographics between police and communities reproduce tensions in police–society relations. While 67% of Ferguson's population was Black, merely 7% (4 of 54) of the police force were Black officers.
Protests reveal gaps between police demographics and communities, pressing city officials to reform departments. As the number of protests shifts one standard deviation from the mean in the dataset, the proportion of officers of color shifts by roughly 2.9%.
Normative Pillar: Professional Management and Political Values
The normative pillar involves values and professional standards that establish prescriptive norms for social life, including governmental reform and public service values. Local liberalism reinforces political will for change, while managerial government reflects the role of professional standards influencing diversity initiatives.
Managerial cities have been linked to professionalism and organizational innovation. Professional managers have advanced organizational reforms in cities, including police departments. The effect of managerial government is statistically significant while controlling for other variables. Managerial cities employ on average 9.7% more diverse officers than other cities in the dataset.
When Politics Matters
Political variables have differential impacts by quantiles. The effects of political variables are significant on higher quantiles. Local liberalism is insignificant in lower quantiles and becomes significant in the high quantile of diversity. The managerial type of government does not influence police departments with low diversity, suggesting that a base level of diversity is not controversial. Beyond a basic level, increasing diversity may need a specific type of government.
The interaction between local liberalism and managerial government is statistically significant while controlling for other variables. The negative interaction signifies that managerial government is crucial in conservative cities while becoming less crucial in liberal cities. In highly liberal cities, ideology drives police diversity more than their form of government.
Examples
Ferguson, Missouri, illustrates the social context of minorities and protests. The death of Michael Brown in 2014 showed how differential demographics between police and communities reproduce tensions in police–society relations. The limited presence of officers of color in the Ferguson Police Department became a reason for community groups to advocate for police diversity.
San Jose, California, illustrates the influence of political ideology and managerial government. The city has a council-manager government and has implemented broad outreach to underrepresented communities, multilingual recruitment strategies, and mentorship programs pairing candidates with officers from similar backgrounds. That approach reflects both political commitment and professional management practices.
Implications
Quantile analyses reveal that, while social factors consistently influence police diversity, political factors have a differential effect on departments that already have some diversity. The demographic presence of minority populations (social conditions) and collective action and protests (political pressure) represent different mechanisms.
Political ideology and the form of government are institutional factors that influence how city officials make decisions. Political variables have an insignificant effect on the low-diversity quantile but a significant effect on higher-diversity quantiles. Police departments in progressive cities may find it easier to build on existing progress, and highly diverse departments may be more responsive to political pressure.
Police diversity is neither a panacea nor a sufficient means to resolve all challenges pressing law enforcement today. Still, a representative police workforce may facilitate civil interaction between police and communities, and minority communities in particular.
Agustin Leon-Moreta has a Master's and PhD in Public Administration from FSU. He is a UNM associate professor who has contributed to urban and regional studies and local public finance. His work has been recognized with the American Political Science Association's Volcker Junior Scholar Award and the Public Administration Review's Brownlow Award for the best article coauthored with a practitioner. He is a founding member of the Arizona Research Center for Housing and Economic Solutions.
Omowonuola Fayemiro is a public and nonprofit management scholar. She is a PhD candidate in the Department of Public Policy, Management, and Analytics at the University of Illinois Chicago, and holds an MPA from the University of New Mexico. Her research explores how organizational structures, leadership practices, and strategic decision-making processes influence governance, policy process, and service delivery in the public and nonprofit sectors.