Highlighting the New York Police Department’s push to improve relations between police officers and minority communities, Commissioner Raymond Kelly yesterday announced the hiring of a new deputy commissioner with a history of recruiting diverse police officers to head up training for the police force.

Wilbur Chapman, who was commander of the NYPD’s Recruiting and Applicant Processing Division in 1992, the year the department hired its most diverse list of qualified police recruits, will serve as deputy commissioner of training under Mr. Kelly.

“Having previously succeeded in recruiting the most diverse pool of candidates for the Police Department in its history until that time, he returns to make certain that we deliver the best education and training available to new recruits,” Mr. Kelly said in a statement.

Mr. Chapman will be the leader of a training program introduced in June that is designed to improve strained relations between police and minority communities. Mr. Kelly announced the new program in the wake of the shooting of an unarmed man, Sean Bell, in Queens. The program will put police cadets through intense training in community relations, including requiring the new officers to visit gatherings held by ethnic organizations.

“The Department needs Bill Chapman’s depth of experience and talent to tackle the enormous training needs of conventional crime-fighting, counter-terrorism, and community relations in the nation’s largest police department,” Mr. Kelly said.

Mr. Chapman joined the city’s police department in 1969 and retired in 1998 as the highest-ranking African American. He most recently served as chief of the Bridgeport, Conn., police department and was commissioner of the Department of Transportation under Mayor Giuliani.