LAW ENFORCEMENT Police diversity remains slow in coming BY PETER IAN ASEN

When Dean Esserman was named chief of the Providence Police Department in January 2003, he promised to improve its relations with the community. Many observers, including Esserman, see building a more racially diverse force as an important part of this objective. As Charles Wilson, president of the Rhode Island Minority Police Association (RIMPA), puts it, "People have to see that there is a face that looks like them, that thinks like them, and that will understand their concerns."

Esserman announced a major effort to recruit more minority and women applicants to the force’s academy earlier this year, and he has solicited the aid of groups like RIMPA and the NAACP. In the wake of such efforts, the department attracted more minority applicants for the academy than at any time in the past. The Rhode Island State Police have pursued similar efforts. The first academy under the leadership of Colonel Steven Pare, who became superintendent in 2002, includes six minorities and seven women among 35 cadets, says Major Steven O’Donnell, who oversees the training.

Despite this progress, however, the process of diversifying police departments remains a slow one. Although 54 percent of Providence’s residents are people of color, according to the 2000 Census, the Providence Police Department remains more than 75 percent white and more than 90 percent male, according to department figures released in January. The state police are more than 90 percent white and more than 90 percent male. Advocates also remain concerned about the lack of minority officers in leadership positions in Providence and throughout the state. Wilson, for example, the fourth in command in Rhode Island College’s police force, is one of only about a dozen minority officers above the rank of sergeant in the state.

Esserman — who says he wants to see better results — promoted a Latino officer, Frank Colon, to the position of department inspector, but the PPD has no other minority officers ranking above sergeant, according to human resources director Adrienne Newsome. Although the police contract influences the slow pace of change — testing and sequential movement through the ranks generally governs promotions to major — Newsome says that promotional testing in September may at least allow some minority officers to move from patrolman to sergeant.

Wilson praises the efforts by Esserman and Pare, but he notes that the state police and PPD are two of only a handful of departments that appear to taking a "very proactive approach" toward improving diversity. Though half of the state’s minority population resides in Providence, many see a need for a statewide focus on minority recruitment. "There are police departments in Rhode Island that don’t have a [single] female or minority officer," says Cliff Montiero, president of the Providence chapter of the NAACP, "and that’s wrong."

Recruitment alone will not alleviate the problem, says Lloyd Monroe, executive director of the Rhode Island Select Commission on Race and Police-Community Relations. Residents of minority communities must also trust the police for applicant numbers to continue to grow. "When you have a troubled past," Monroe says, "such as the history of police departments and black communities across the country, people do not necessarily see the law enforcement profession as something that’s desirable."

In Providence, that troubled past is not very distant, since the shooting death of Sergeant Cornel Young Jr. in 2000 by two of his fellow officers still lingers in many minds. Montiero, though, who spent 25 years working in law enforcement, believes that Esserman, by easing community concerns and fostering more professionalism, will spur greater minority officer recruitment. "People know that they need to have a safe community," Montiero says. "But they [also] need police persons to be professional and treat them with respect."