New Jersey’s law enforcement officers are overwhelmingly white and male, which does not reflect the diversity of the state’s population, new data from the Attorney General’s office shows.
The Police Recruiting Data Dashboard, the result of a 2020 law passed in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, provides demographic information on officers in police and sheriff departments, prosecutor’s offices, college police and state law enforcement agencies as of December of last year. While the 2020 U.S. census found just 52% of New Jersey’s population was non-Hispanic white, the dashboard shows that almost 70% of police officers statewide were white. The percentage of officers who were Hispanic, Black or Asian, meanwhile, was less than those groups’ share of the state population.
The New Jersey State Police, the premier law enforcement agency statewide, which also provides local police services for dozens of smaller communities throughout the state, was even less representative than the state population. Almost three-quarters of troopers were white, and 95% were men.
Sen. Joseph Cryan (D-Union), a former Union County sheriff, said the racial and ethnic disparities statewide were not surprising and the data, which was reported for the first time this year, will provide a good baseline for determining the success of the other part of the law that requires agencies to boost efforts to recruit minorities.
“I look at it as a baseline number,” Cryan said. “I’ll be looking at it to see if the recruiting efforts are working.”
Civil service requirements
Police officials have said that civil service requirements play a role in their ability to hire officers of color. They point to the civil service system’s requirement to prioritize hiring applicants who live in that town, are a veteran and achieve a certain score on the law enforcement exam, regardless of their race, ethnicity or gender or whether they are the most qualified candidates. The data reported includes which agencies follow civil service rules — 205 of 528 do.
“Collecting data on the demographics of the state’s police officers is vital for transparency and building public trust,” said Kristin Golden, a data officer in the Attorney General’s office. “These data put New Jersey law enforcement in the unique position of being able to understand the current demographic pattern of officers today, which allows for the accurate assessment of efforts to improve the recruitment of new officers in New Jersey.”
Under guidelines issued in December by then-acting Attorney General Andrew Bruck, all law enforcement agencies are required to evaluate any underrepresentation in their police forces and develop a program to improve recruitment to create a more diverse workforce by race, ethnicity and gender by June 7. Plans should be posted on the department websites, and some already have begun doing so.
In some departments, the disparities are much worse than the statewide average.
For instance, Fairview in Bergen County has a majority Hispanic population of two-thirds. But its police force is almost 82% non-Hispanic white. The department has no Black or Asian members and no other race reported. The Prospect Park police department in Passaic County was three-quarters white, while almost six in 10 residents are Hispanic. In Salem City in Salem County, Black residents comprise close to 60% of the population but less than 10% of police officers.
Almost 15% of law enforcement agencies statewide, or 78 in total, had no officers of color.
Rebuilding trust in police
When Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law requiring the reporting of race and ethnicity, several of the bill’s sponsors cited the civil unrest that followed the killing of Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by the white police officer. Lawmakers said that to rebuild trust between communities of color and police, law enforcement agencies need to better represent the communities they serve. The law also requires all police agencies to establish minority recruitment programs, set goals for improved diversity and take corrective action if they don’t meet their goals. County prosecutors are to monitor the recruitment efforts at the local and county levels, with the Attorney General’s office monitoring state agencies.
The data also shows the vast gender disparity in law enforcement. Men comprised almost nine in 10 officers, according to the data, while women make up more than half the state’s population.
Most police officers in the state were between ages 26 and 35 (36%) or 36 and 45 (33%), the data shows. Police are allowed to retire with benefits after serving 20 years, no matter their age.
Law enforcement agencies provided race, gender and age for nearly all of the state’s 30,505 officers. Two agencies, the Somerset County Sherriff’s Department and Plainsboro Police Department, did not report any data on the race or ethnicity of officers, and Plainsboro also did not provide the gender of its members. Some other departments did not report some or all information for a limited number of their officers.
The law also requires the state to report the demographics of applicants for law enforcement positions and break them down by those hired and those denied employment, but that data will not be available until sometime next year.
