Multiculturalism Is the Focus Of Police Class
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The police recruits set to graduate from the police academy next week is the most diverse group ever, but it’s not the most educated.
With lower police starting salaries, the department has seen a drop in the percentage of police recruits earning a four-year college degree to fulfill their 60 required college credits, to about 23% from about 30%.
That has not affected the quality of the 1,100 recruits who hail from 60 different countries, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Mr. Kelly has increased expectations for this class, as he revives a community policing program he helped develop under Mayor Dinkins.
The extra training in multiculturalism comes as the NYPD has faced criticism following two high-profile police shootings in the past year.
“After a controversial shooting, we will hear complaints from the community,” Mr. Kelly said. “We want to give the recruits a sense of what the community assessment is of our relationship.”
The training started off with a bang yesterday as Mr. Kelly enlisted some of his biggest critics to assess the police at the Apollo Theater in Harlem yesterday.
“I would characterize it as very tense,” an African-American minister, the Reverend Herbert Daughtry, said. “We have not fully recovered from the Bell shooting.”
