Abstract
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2004), there are 836,787 full-time, sworn, law enforcement officers serving in the United States. Of the 836,787 listed, 731,903 worked at the local and state level(s) and the remaining 104,884 worked in federal agencies. The Bureau also disclosed that of the federal officers, 33.2% were members of racial or ethnic minority groups. In regards to the local and state agencies, 42.4% were members of ethnic or racial minority groups. The above numbers look encouraging until there is greater scrutiny on factors such as community populous and future projections. The America.gov website (2008) projects that by 2042, minorities, collectively, will make up more than 50.0% of the U.S. population. That is compared to the current 32.0% that currently makes up the minority population. Another problem with taking the above numbers as true representation is that many communities are still “segregated,” thus we have a high concentration of minorities in some neighborhoods. With that high concentration, it could be expected that a high number of minority officers would be needed in order to maintain fair representation in that community. Also, the high concentration of minorities should influence/increase the number of applicants from minority groups. Saltzstein (1989) suggested that a high African-American population in a city means more minority candidates are going to apply for and be selected to receive a police officer’s job notwithstanding any other factors that may come into play. Saltzstein went on to offer that the African-American population in a city was the strongest predictor of the increase in the hiring of African-American officers. Although Saltzstien provides some very valuable insight(s), his offerings implicitly discount the importance of other factors argued to be significant in minority inclusion in American policing. The authors will examine select law enforcement agencies in the State of Florida in order to glean what factors play a significant role in minority applicants securing or not securing jobs in law enforcement.