AG starts initiative to boost diversity in police departments
12/4/2015, 7:17 p.m.
Attorney General Mark R. Herring is seeking to help police departments across Virginia recruit more minority applicants and build police departments.
The goal of the initiative: To reflect the cultural and racial makeup of the communities they serve.
Mr. Herring said the initiative would begin in Danville and Martinsville with the aim of creating model programs that other law enforcement agencies could use.
He said that his office is putting up $50,000 to help finance the effort.
As part of the initiative, he will assign staff to work with Danville and Martinsville officials to identify barriers to recruitment and to identify data and strategies to overcome them.
Danville Chief of Police Philip Broadfoot and Martinsville Police Chief Sean Dunn said the initiative would help them do a better job of recruiting a diverse pool of officer candidates.
Danville’s population is 49 percent African -American. Currently, 19 of the police department’s 128 officers are African-American, or 15 percent. That total includes nine African-American supervisors out of 44.
Martinsville has a 45 percent African-American population. However, there are only four African-American officers out of 51, or 8 percent, including one supervisor.
