Numbers Show Most Baltimore Cops Are Minorities

[Editor’s Note: The Department of Justice has issued a report accusing the Baltimore Police Department of discrimination against blacks. The report fails to mention the statistics included in this article, which are highly relevant to the department’s findings.]

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Here’s what the data shows about the racial makeup of Baltimore’s finest:

* Of the 2,745 active duty police officers in the department–1,445–more than half are African-American, Hispanic, Asian or Native American, according to data provided by the Baltimore police department to The Daily Caller News Foundation.

* Four of its top six commanders are either African-American or Hispanic.

* More than 60 percent of the incumbents at the highest command levels hail from minority communities.

* Among the 46 Baltimore police officers who hold the rank of captain and above, 25 are from ethnic or racial minority groups. That constitutes 54 percent of the command leadership.

In other words, Baltimore is a black-majority city led by a police force whose officers are mostly racial minorities as well.

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Anthony W. Batts, an African-American, was hired by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, also African-American, in 2012 after serving as police chief in Oakland and Long Beach, Calif. Rawlings-Blake put Batts in charge of reforming the department.

Under Batts, Baltimore was one of eight cities participating in an experimental Obama administration police reform program run by the Department of Justice and its Office of Community Oriented Police Services, or COPS. The program was designed to provide policing that was less adversarial and emphasized a cooperative spirit in poor neighborhoods.

Batts disbanded a tough-on-crime unit called the Violent Crimes Impact Section, the source of many citizen complaints about police brutality against individuals across the racial spectrum.

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