Anatomy of a Black Police Officer
"Red Flag" Often Hampers Minority Recruitment
By MARK R. MOSS
Chronicle Stiff Writer
In their efforts to increase the
number of blacks applicants to the
Winston-Salem Police Department,
recruitment officers visit colleges
and military installations throughout
the state.
'We don't get a large number of
minorities, compared to white
males, applying," said Sgt. J.C.
Samuels, one of five full-time
recruiters, four of whom are black,
including Samuels. "We find our
selves wishing thenrwere more
- applying."
Samuels, who has headed the
recruitment unit since January, said
the unit works with contacts and
career counselors at the predomi
nantly black colleges and military
installations, which, he saidrfs
where the best recruits come from.
"There's that built-in discipline
at the installations you won't find at
the colleges," he said. "If a person
has that discipline, they won't come
in with that cowboy attitude."
Senior Officer Jijnmy Boyd,
who has been in the recruitment unit
for two of the three years he has
been on the force, said the unit
looks for a person who wants a
career more than a job, which, he
said, is not what he finds in the
recent college graduate.
"The average person without a
degree wants a career more than a
job," he said.
The beginning salary for a
police officer is about $20,100.
"We cannot find a great number
who are interested/' Boyd said,
when asked about other efforts to
recruit blacks. "Then when we find
someone who is interested, there's
this red flag."
One of the unit's responsibili
ties involves thoroughly checking
the applicant's background. That
red flag.' Boyd explained, some
times has to do with what the unit
has uncovered - for example, not a
good employment history or unfa
vorable character references.
S?ome are just not physically
abl^^ro pass the physical tests,"
Boyd said.
Police officers do a lot of writ
ing by filling out reports, so the
recruiting unit gives applicants a
writing test, Boyd said. Because a
person has a college degree does not
mean he can write well enough to be
understood. Boyd said.
"Some of them major in basket
weaving," he said.
Black Numbers Low
than any department," said Alder
man Vivian Burke, who is chairper
son of the Public Safety Commit
tee. "We're subtly going back to the
'6QL* : ? ? ?
Recently black leaders have
complained about the attrition rate
of black officers and the overall low
morale in the department That con
cern was amplified last month when
several community leaders met with
Police Chief George Sweat
"Ain't no way this is representa
tive of the demographics of this
community," said the Rev. John
Mendez, a leader of the activist
group. Citizens United for Justice,
who attended the meeting with
Sweat
Sweat did not return repeated
telephone calls for comment for this
article. Stuart said the city is intensi
fying efforts at minority recruit
Top Cop
lion into the death.
I McKellar, a black woman, died
48 hours after police officers stuffed
I her mouth with gauze, placed tape
1 around it, shackled- hen arms and
legs and placed her face down in a
r hoWin? cell. Last week, five police
officers were cl&fared of any wrong
domg in her death. -*
Redd agreed with the district
attorney's findings and addressed in
an interview some of the police
involved issues that have divided the
city.
On Stonen "You have people in
the community who say it was
racially motivated because of the
people alleged to be involved,"
Redd said. "I don't think the police
department approached it in any
other way than it's a tragic thing. It
was an unfortunate incident for the
entire community ? not just for the
black community, but for the entire
city as a whole. We treat them all
the same ? as important cases that
need to be cleared by making an
arrest"
On McKellar: "The public
should be made aware of the facts
that the justice department and the
district attorney looked at," he said.
If all the information is laid out to
the public, they will have a clear
idea of why things went one way or
another. The problem has been that
people have felt they were excluded
or felt out of the loop of knowledge.
Once someone suspects that, every
thing that comes after it has a cloud
over it. Once people become dis
trustful of the process, people will
say, 1 knew this was going to hap
pen all along."'
On the lack of trust blacks have
toward police officers: "In the last
decade, it has been the thing to not
be pro-police," he said. "Hopefully
that has started to change. People
need to realize that the police are
ours. This is all we got So how are
we going to respond to them? Are
we going to work with them or are
we going to work against them? We
have to learn to work together to
reach a common goal."
Although Redd no longer
patrols a beat he said he is still very
much aware of the danger that patrol
officers face every day. Recently,
| that danger led to death when Senior
- Officer Bobby F. Beane was shot in
the head during a drug raid. Redd
said every death ? whether the per
son is an officer or not ? is just as
serious.
"I still hurt just as much as I
would if something happened to
anybody else," Redd said. "We re
talking about people s fathers, hus
bands, daughters, sons. I see it all as
ment. He said advertisements have
been placed in minority publica
tions, and the police department's
recruiting unit has been in contact
with military installations and has
increased visits to predominantly
black colleges.
For some reason, said Stuart,
the ci fy has had "a much higher suc
cess rate in placing minority folks in
the fire department" although the
requirements are the same. Lt. J.C.
Berry, who is a 16-year veteran with
the department, served as an instruc
tor for 18 months in the police acad
emy.
The negative image of the
police department that blacks have, '
said Berry, who is black, "is some
thing that has built up from pas!
legacies."
"You have ambitious and pro
from page A1
a life. I have never allowed myself
to consider it to be just another sta
tistic."
As a native of Winston-Salem,
Redd said some of the victims of
crimes investigated by the depart
ment have, been people with whom*
nc wasicouainted. L
"You can connect with the fam
ilies," Redd said. "That is some
body's child, and somewhere along
the line you have come in contact
with that person or dealt with them
or heard of their family. Too often
it's somebody that's a cousin of
^ somebody that you went to school
with or grew up with. When you
understand their hurt, you can't |
become callous."
He said an officer should also
be able to relate to the families of
people accused or convicted of
crimes.
"When a person goes off to
prison, the family is hurt and dis
turbed about it," Redd said. "People
might sit around and laugh about it.
but it could be your child one day.
When they go to jail, they leave
behind all their family. There's a
void there, and there's hurt
"If you go to the jail on visitor's
^ day and look^t ~att these people
lined up with small kids trying to get
in to see somebody, it really is an
eye-opener, and it's sad. Anytime
you see something like that, if you
don't feel something for the people
that are standing there, you need to
back up and re-evaluate where you
are and who you are.''
Redd said the best officers are
able to balance their compassion.
"They can talk to the victim's
family and show compassion, but
can also talk to the suspect's family
and get them to understand where he
or she is coming from and what
needs to transpire once we finish
talking," Redd said. "The best offi
cers can deal with both of them with
the understanding of what both sides
are feeling. When you have the vie- *
tim's family saying 'the officer did
an outstanding job' as well as the
perpetrator's family saying that's a
good officer,' then those officers are
quite successful in what they do."
Redd's ability to show compas
sion is partly responsible for his
longevity.
When he graduated from the
police academy in 1968, he was the
only African American ill his class
of 22 graduates, and he received one
of only two awards ? the Colleague
Award ? that were offered to grad
uates.
"I knew then that I sort of had a
knack for it," said the former U.S.
Air Force military policeman.
gressive blacks asking themselves,
"Why should I be part of something
that has a reputation for hurting
us?'" he said.
Police departments in general
have a history of not promoting
blacks as rapidly as other sectors of
the work force, Berry said.
"The people that we ultimately
get sometimes don't have that level
of enthusiasm we wish we could
get," he said.
But once the black applicant
becomes the black recruit, there are
other problems. At that stage, Berry
attributes the dropout rate to three
factors: academics, pe'rseverance
and misconduct.
The state requires that the
police academy student maintain a
70 or better average. Berry said. But
what the department has found out.
from page A1
he said, was that the student who
has gone to college on an athletic
scholarship hasn't gotten the basics.
"We give them simple reading
and writing tests and ^irtd^hat
they're reading at the ninth- and
tenth-grade level. I don't think our
people are getting the basics," he
said. - ? ? - ? ? _
He said that there are certain
physical and mental tests that
recruits have to take.
'^'Once people get into the pro
gram and see the intensive training
they have to go through, they end up
saying, "This is a little more than 1
expected,'" he said.
He tells the~~story of one
African-American recruit who,
while in training, got drunk one
weekend, then got arrested. That,
Berry said, ended the recruit s brief
law-enforcement career.
Sheriffs Dept. Numbers Epy,
By mark R. MOSS .# department has *p face 'Tiead-on"
Chronicle Staff Writer ^y {naming sure toaf md?t black
deputies are on paflfo^^
Of the 327 swor^ Blakely said tffgoal of the
unsworn officers in the |?ors^fh.>^ department is to have the number
County Sheriffs DeparuiienjL V 0f African-American personnel
percent are African American^ : ^ matche and surpass the 33.6 per
It is a number that departfjieijj cenj African- American population ?
officials hope to improve. 1 . in tto cminty. He <partiaily blames*^
"We think that there ought to the small nuJnbcr ^ blafckfrin the ;
be more (black officers), sajd ^ dep^n^nt tom^|ie . c
Col. Robert Blakely, who is in from the couotttflftfeh won't
allqw him u
woild like.'
? t
k r Unlike the Winston-WBem
Police Department, which^nas a
recruiting unit that pursues black
applicants, the sheriff s depart
ment relies on off-the -street appli
cants and those referred by black
deputies, Blakely said.
* "I've put the word out to sev
charge of the department's recruit
ing* ...
That 17 percent translates
into 56 black deputies, most of
whom serve as detention officers
in the Forsyth County Jail.
Blakely said that a disproportion
ate number of new black employ
ees ask for assignment to the jail,
while more are needed out on ^
patrol. ?... Val of our black officers,** said
I think the sheriff is doing ?Bla-kely, "to tell us about good
pretty good, especially in the area ' -qw$fied people."
of promotions," said County;^ - -
Commissioner Mazie Woojiniff. ? Blakely saidthetowrjMl ?nd
"I would like to see more out on its size will mean addition*
patrol, more in the streets. ^ /r t emjn>qi>fe?, kitd.th; depi
"I just hope the racial issue .* wifs6o# be 1o?(ftn| for q
isn t so bad that people wouldn t candidates. Of the 33 sworn and
think that a black deputy doesn t unsworn officers who got'pro
have the same authority as a white - moted ln the detention since Octo
one," said Woodruff. If that is the feer;1991; 15. or 45 percent, were
case, she said, it is a problem the. 1 jd; < >.-? ikm*. ? ?%
Am
?
ople's
ice
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