Your argument would be so much more compelling if your math wasn't so WAY OFF.

You got the White and Latino percentages right, but the other ones were way off. I will help you:

Black: 61.5% LESS
Asian: 91.7% LESS

The percentages represent your criteria of what "you'd expect if JCPD mirrored the city's population". Not sure that is a valid criteria, but there you have it.

As a rule of thumb, if something is over 100% LESS, you would be talking about a zero, or a negative. Since the participation of people in the police force couldn't be negative (as in, you can't possibly have negative x number of Asians in the JCPD) then your percentages fail the common sense test.

NJ.com seems to have closed down the comments on their article.

Here?s the problem?

White in JC 33% - in JCPD 63% - 91% more than you'd expect if JCPD mirrored the city's population
Black in JC 26% - in JCPD 10% - 160% LESS
Latino in JC 28% - in JCPD 25% - 11% LESS
Asian in JC 24% - IN JCPD 2% - 1200% LESS

You can?t tell me the JC police force has so many white officers because whites are 91% more qualified. But they have been better prepared, through family connections, social networks, etc, so that they know when the tests are being given, and how to prepare for them. If you know someone on the force, just ask them how they got the job. They?ll tell you that someone showed them the path and helped them get started.

This recruitment drive aims to do exactly the same thing for minority officers. The police force has Latino representation that comes close to representing the Latino presence in JC?s population because for more than 20 years the Latino community worked to get candidates prepped (in addition to official recruiting efforts aimed at getting Spanish-speaking officers).

The TEST is the same for all. No standards are being lowered. Instead, there is help being offered across the board to JC residents to help get a more diverse, better-prepared pool of applicants taking the test.

100% win for Jersey City in drawing the cream of the crop from ALL across the city.

Minority recruitment drive for Jersey City Police Department attracts more than 300 interested residents

JERSEY CITY ? More than 300 interested candidates turned out for an informational session last week as part of the Jersey City?s minority recruitment drive for the Jersey City Police Department (JCPD). The informational session was held at City Hall on Friday, Aug. 23.




The recruitment effort was launched by Mayor Steven Fulop and City Council President Rolando Lavarro Jr., in cooperation with several local nonprofits, including Puertorrique?os Asociados for Community Organization Inc. (PACO), the Asian American Law Enforcement Association, the Philippine American Friendship Committee, Urban League, the Hispanic Law Enforcement Association, and the Inter-Minority Police Action Council.

?We are thrilled that more than 300 residents came to City Hall on a Friday night because they are interested in joining the Jersey City Police Department,? said Mayor Fulop. ?These young men and women represent the diversity that is Jersey City and we are committed to ensuring our Police Department reflects that diversity. We hope that everyone who attended the session applies and enrolls in the free prep courses being offered by PACO.?

Senior Police Department officials, as well as current JCPD police officers, and community leaders discussed the application process and answered questions about careers in policing. While Jersey City is among the most diverse cities in the state, the JCPD has only a handful of non-white officers, detectives, and senior personnel, which Fulop and Lavarro have pledged to change.

The filing deadline for the next police entrance exam is Wednesday, Sept. 4. By state law, interested applicants must apply online. To assist Jersey City interested applicants, particularly those who do not have internet or computer access at home, the city?s minority recruitment drive includes four locations where applicants can gain access to the internet and a staff member to assist them in the filing process. Those four locations and their office hours are:



Resident Response Center, City Hall, 280 Grove Street

Monday through Friday

8 a.m. to 8 p.m.



Immunization Clinic, the HUB, 360 MLK Drive

Mondays and Wednesdays

5 p.m. to 8 p.m.



National Urban League, 253 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive

Monday through Thursday

2 p.m. to 5 p.m.



PACO, 390 Manila Ave.

Monday through Friday

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.



The requirements for the police test are a high school diploma, Jersey City residency, and U.S. citizenship.

Once an applicant?s candidacy has been approved by the state through the required online application process, the Jersey City Minority Police Recruitment Drive will offer a series of free police test preparatory courses, a $500 savings, prior to the next police academy.

?I am deeply committed to realizing the untapped potential of Jersey City's great diversity, including the diversification of our police force,? said Council President Lavarro. ?I?m very excited that City Hall is taking actions consistent with such a commitment and look forward to working with our community partners in this recruitment effort.?


Read more: Hudson Reporter - Minority recruitment drive for Jersey City Police Department attracts more than 300 interested residents

Quote:

This isn't the city, it's how the US Census approaches it. JC's census numbers for 2010 (available at http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/34/3436000.html) are:

White alone: 33%
Black or African American alone: 26%
American Indian and Alaska Native alone: 1%
Asian alone: 24%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone: 0%
Two or More Races: 4%
Hispanic or Latino: 28%
White alone, not Hispanic or Latino: 22%

As the census web site says w/r/t the definitions of categories, it considers that "The concept of race is separate from the concept of Hispanic origin. Percentages for the various race categories add to 100 percent, and should not be combined with the percent Hispanic."

This still doesn't help me reach a total of 100%, but it does explain how a total exceeding 100% would be possible.

Quote:

Surprised I'm the first to comment on this aspect, but the city needs to work on its math. At 34% white, 28% Latino, 27% black, and 25% Asian, they are accounting for 114% of the city's population without even covering all present ethnic groups. Just sayin'

You don't find enough comments like that here, so you have to copy them from NJ.com?
There is some overlap of posters, you know.

Love all the racist rants on JJ LOL


Mo Ma
Simply being able to achieve the highest score on a simple police trainee examination test does not ensure that you would be the best candidate for the position of police officer trainee.

The infamous Unabomber Ted Kaczynski had an IQ of 170 at the age of 10 and he could have attained the highest score on any police entry examination. The same can be said for serial killer Ted Bundy, who had the IQ of about 130 and Bernie Madoff's level of intelligence was more than enough to pull off one of the biggest ponzi schemes targeting the educationally and financially elite.

Your collective prejudices and ideas of determining another human being as being less intelligent, or somehow lowering testing standards, thereby result in candidates less able to perform a job description, is an age old political tool used to objectify any person or group of persons as being projected as valueless. It is also used to project the image of a group of folks being less than human and subsequently the atrocities committed against such persons would be more socially acceptable to the weak minded insecure individuals. Unique display of tribalism mentality.
40 Minutes Ago ? Reply

rstix
Apparently Ohio was forced by our idiot AG Holder to lower the standards needed for passing the test to become a cop,but only for minorities. If thats true, it's a scary thought if that same thing is done elsewhere.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-rele...

1 Hour Ago ? Reply

Mr.Budget
The same guy is responsible for the special minority Sergeants lists that help Hispanics and Afro Americans getting promoted. Its an absolute MOCKERY !!!
1 Hour Ago ? Reply

Dogeatdog12
this D and I crap is just the beginning of the dumbing down of america.
when you start employing people who's color only matter and not the best overall candidate. you perpetuate the dumbing down of america america will one day wind up as a 3rd world nation and we can all thank the liberal democrats for it.
KM0429 and rstix like this.
1 Hour Ago ? Reply

80sdude
Open your window. We are already there..
1 Hour Ago ? Reply

rstix
Sad but true.. They ,like many private companies too, are forced to pass on excellent prospects until they find the right color, sex, sexual preference, size, weight, or whatever other "minority or specialized" group of people that they happen to be low on as specified by the politically correct pansies out there..
1 Hour Ago ? Reply

Mo Ma
It is very easy to see that the vast majority of the ignorant race laced comments, that you have no idea concerning the hiring process in any type of law enforcement work.
Just because someone is hired for a trainee position doesn?t guarantee that the trainee will pass the police academy require courses of study and automatically obtain a permanent position. And just because a trainee passes the police academy doesn?t meant that the trainee with pass the background investigation, post academy probationary training, firearms qualifications, laws of arrests required training, pursuit drivers? training or other training as required. Oh yeah, if you have a distant uncle who just happens to be associated with any type of mafia, mob or organized criminal activities, forget it altogether and don?t waste their time. In addition, if you take the test and receive a low score and subsequently not selected, be advised that you are not the best candidate. Seek another career better suited to your personal physical and astrophysical intellectual limitations.
Mr.Budget likes this.
1 Hour Ago ? Reply

80sdude
Then overhauling the system is the way to go. Some on the force are not fit for duty. Racism does exist in the Jersey City police Dept. and need to be addressed. Starts at the top.
1 Hour Ago ? Reply

Loonie2oons
"And just because a trainee passes the police academy doesn?t meant that the trainee with pass the background investigation, post academy probationary training, firearms qualifications, laws of arrests required training, pursuit drivers? training or other training as required. "
Except for post academy training the background is done prior to employment and the others during academy training, not after. Duh.
27 Minutes Ago ? Reply

80sdude
Do we really need more racist minorities on the force? Too much tension with the current police department. Additional training at the academy needed to combat racism. Maybe reevaluating or over hauling current policies and practices are in order.
40calinJC likes this.
2 Hours Ago ? Reply

clarkchik
I don't think training at the Police Academy is going to do anything to combat racism. Either you are racist or you are not racist. It usually has something to do with your upbringing. No amount of training is going to change that.
50 Minutes Ago ? Reply

Dogman219
How about this lets try to recruit the best possible candidates who will care about the people they serve and the laws they uphold. Let the chips fall where they may.
40calinJC, KM0429 and Marc Shakter like this.
2 Hours Ago ? Reply

Susanschultes
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character."

-MLK, 1968
40calinJC likes this.
2 Hours Ago ? Reply

40calinJC
By the content of their character... Wise man.. Shot dead.. Sad.
37 Minutes Ago ? Reply

al
They should hire the best qualified and should not be based on color. Not a good idea to give a dummy a gun.
2 Hours Ago ? Reply

Liberty_and_Justice1
"requirements for the city's police test are a high school diploma"....herein lies most of what's wrong with local law enforcement. Minimally educated men/women, often with no real life work experience, poor social skills, many of whom simply hang around town delivering pizza or working pt jobs until their mid to late 20s or early 30s waiting to "pass the test". At which point they are given a gun, powers of arrest and detainment, and a badge which often acts like a shield of invincibility.
80sdude likes this.
2 Hours Ago ? Reply

clarkchik
That maybe true, but I have also met some near idiots with a college degree too.
rstix likes this.
48 Minutes Ago ? Reply

stuckinnewjersey
So by having a college degree you will make the perfect police officer. Said no one ever.
44 Minutes Ago ? Reply

Liberty_and_Justice1
Don't mind recruiting of minorities, just don't skew the test or lower requirements to hire them.
rstix likes this.
2 Hours Ago ? Reply

40calinJC
And Oh! Let;s not forget the requirements..

The requirements for the city?s police test are a high school diploma, Jersey City residency and U.S. citizenship...

HS diploma... WoW! The standards sure have come down.

And you wonder why you get the bottom of the barrel. Smh...
3 Hours Ago ? Reply

40calinJC
No Knock on HS dimploma grads, But in my opinion the position should require at least some college degree... Maybe an Associates or something.
3 Hours Ago ? Reply

40calinJC
Hahahah Meant Diploma. hahahhahahha Damn typos...
3 Hours Ago

40calinJC
It is not diversity we need. What we need is to change the mentality. So what if they hire a bunch of minorities.

It is just when they abuse you that you cant run the race card.

The abusive mentality will still be there. Add more stable people to the training process.
Liberty_and_Justice1 likes this.
3 Hours Ago ? Reply

Doghouse
Can you imagine if the private sector did this when recruiting for administrative candidates. The EEOC would be filing complaints, audits, fines.
3 Hours Ago ? Reply

cloverman
Do they have editors at this site ? Let's add shall we ?
34% White, 28% Latino, 27% Black and 25% Asian comes out to 114%. Hmmmm. Hopefully the candidates for the test are better at rifmatic than the journos at nj.com.
3 Hours Ago ? Reply

IreallyreallyNeedHelp
Good news. It's good to have the police reflect the neighborhoods and people they are supposed to be protecting and serving. Hopefully they recruit more Asians next.
3 Hours Ago ? Reply

mattvtnj
Asians are not minorities?
1 Hour Ago ? Reply

JCDude
The black community has too many racists in its mix to get the numbers to be close to what the politically correct media wants them to be.
Too many people calling the current black police Uncle Toms for many more to stand up and stand for whats right.
3 Hours Ago ? Reply

dadpetkong
why are they not smart enough, if they want the job, to apply why do you have to have a drive to get them? again, the whites are put to the back of the list. is that not discrimination? on and on it goes in this state.
3 Hours Ago ? Reply

Mike DiVito
just another case of blacks getting preferential treatment, why dont they recruit Asians or Latinos? Must be a Demorat controlled city.
80sdude likes this.
3 Hours Ago ? Reply

Mo Ma
Perhaps you should learn reading comprehension #101 all over once anew. The article definitely stated that,? Jersey City will host a recruitment drive seeking minorities to join the Police Department.? No where did it state, in the aforementioned article, anything concerning blacks getting preferential treatment in the hiring process, as you ignorantly stated. If you desire to apply, do so, but feel free to share you racist rants with your close friends and family, not on a public forum. JCPD needs to hire more Boriquas and will do so with or without your permission.
2 Hours Ago ? Reply

acopcops
Hopefully there will be one test for all and the list will be based upon the individuals score. Lowering the score for some only benefits the individual not the group. JCPD needs "qualified" individuals not those that are unable to pass the exam with a score that lets them be appointed.
stuckinnewjersey, JCDude and Clivus Multrum like this.

Quote:

That's a distortion of a point that's far more nuanced, but if that's your takeaway from what I wrote, you're welcome to it. Still, you often make some really insightful points so I?m a little surprised that you?d use me as a straw man here.

My argument - which you've missed or chosen not to address - follows this line of thought:

1) The most qualified candidates should be hired. So you see, we agree on that fundamental point.

2) The current composition of the force skews to an extent beyond what would be expected to occur randomly. The JCPD has roughly 800 members. Think of it this way: if you picked 800 people from JC at random, what are the odds that 63% would be white, 25% Latino, 10% AA, and 2% Asian?

There's a statistical test that measures this; it's called the chi-square goodness-of-fit test. When I run the test, it indicates that the difference between the proportional makeup of the force vs. that of the city is highly statistically significant.

In statistical terms, this means that if you randomly picked 800 people from Jersey City's population as in my example above, there's a much less than 1% chance that you would wind up with a group that's 63% white, 25% Latino, 10% AA and 2% Asian. (For more info on using chi-square to test the representativeness of a sample, see pages 710-715 of this document: http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/ch10.pdf)

3) What would explain the above? One hypothesis could be that there?s an imbalance at the hiring stage; in other words, that whites are for some reason more likely to be qualified than other groups which is why they?re overrepresented on the force. I disagree with that hypothesis (quite strongly).

My hypothesis is that there?s an imbalance at the application stage. In other words, there are lots of qualified non-whites who could be potential candidates, but they?re choosing not to apply. By encouraging these people to apply, we would presumably increase the pool of talent to hire from as well as the competitiveness of the application process. Which would in turn elevate the overall quality of the force, which is the goal of every institution. Is there a problem with increasing competition?

4) As for your nonsense about ?only an AA person would understand needs of the AA community,? if you think that a dynamic organization in any sector ? be it business, government, non-profit, etc. ? doesn't need or benefit from a diversity of perspectives, be my guest. But please don?t distort what I wrote, talk-radio style, to score your political points. Thanks.

Your argument is based on the assumption that only a white person would understand the needs and trends in the white community and similarly only an AA person would understand needs of the AA community. This is wrong. If there are any such special needs, trends, sensitivities, etc that need to be taken care of, education and training can help with that. Hiring a qualified person without looking at his or her age/color/gender/sexual orientation is the moral thing to do.

Quote:

It should be. So, to keep that logic going, why then is there such a discrepancy in the current composition of the force?

Let's take the high road and assume that all hiring decisons to date were made based only on qualifications. One could try to suggest that this is because whites are proportionally about twice as likely to be qualified as non-whites (63% workforce vs. 34% representation). I don't think anyone on this site would try to argue that, one comment below notwithstanding. Another hypothesis then is that non-whites have been underrepresented in the pool of applicants. I won't venture into the possible reasons why.

I'm a middle-aged white guy who's observed and been troubled by the lack of diversity in my own profession. And that isn't likely to change soon if a broader spectrum of qualified candidates doesn't start to feel like it's even worth the trouble to apply. (My profession is research analytics & strategic consulting.)

There's also a business impact to insufficient diversity. It means compromised perspective, efficiency and competitiveness in a seriously diverse world; in other words, for my company to do better research than our competitors, we need to be sure that we employ a workforce that deeply - innately - understands needs and trends across demographics. I can't imagine that law enforcement would be otherwise, especially in a city as diverse as ours.

This is a bad move. Qualification should be the sole criteria.

Quote:
Guess you never heard of Essence Magazine the cable network BET they solicit non blacks all the time to keep diversity.

God help the backlash if anyone ever advertised that they were looking for whites.....

What makes the police department think they would want to join if they haven't come by now, plus isn't this a bit one sided ??

Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Jersey City will host a recruitment drive this week seeking minorities to join the police department, which is largely white despite the diverse population of the city.

The recruitment drive launches this Friday at the City Council chambers in City Hall, and a host of community groups are partnering with the city in the effort.

According to city officials the police department is 63 percent white, though Census figures show the city is only 34 percent white. Meanwhile, 25 percent of the department is Latino, 10 percent is black and 2 percent is Asian. Meanwhile, the city?s population is 28 percent Latino, 27 percent black and 25 percent Asian.

James Shea, the city?s acting public-safety director, will be on hand at Friday?s meeting along with other top police officials to discuss the application process and answer questions about law enforcement as a profession.

The requirements for the city?s police test are a high school diploma, Jersey City residency and U.S. citizenship.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 16 at City Hall, 280 Grove St.

Office hours will be available at the following locations for residents to apply online until the filing deadline of Sept. 4: Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Resident Response Center, City Hall, Room 105; Monday and Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. at the immunization clinic at The Hub, 360 Martin Luther King Dr.; Monday through Thursday from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Urban League of Hudson County, 253 Martin Luther King Dr.; and Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at PACO, 390 Manila Ave.

Once an applicant?s candidacy has been approved by the state, PACO will offer a series of police test preparatory courses free of charge (the prep course is usually about $500).

An earlier version of the story understated the number of Asians in the Jersey City Police Department.