Recruitment
President Obama established a Task Force on 21st Century Policing for the purpose of identifying "the best means to prove an effective partnership between law enforcement and local communities that reduces crime and increases trust."
Among its recommendations, the Task Force identified increasing the diversity of the nation's law enforcement agencies as an important aspect in developing that trust.
The BPOA's training programs over the last five years have led to the most diverse classes in Omaha Police Department history. We have accomplished this by being intimately involved in the hiring process of new officers from start to finish. We regularly have meetings with the Omaha Police Command staff to address the concern of disproportionate minor representation on the department.
Our work assisting the Omaha P.D. in recruiting, hiring, retaining and promoting officers that reflect the diverse communities we serve has been noticed by the City's HR department. In an unprecedented move, members of the BPOA along with other organizations have acted as structured interviewers for the Omaha Fire Department's Firefighter position as well as the Omaha Police Department's Police Officer position.
On The Job Training
The BPOA takes a purposeful aim at diversifying the department, and even more importantly, ensuring minorities are included in decision-making. That inclusion is created by the promotion of minority officers.
Since the creation of our BPOA promotion curriculum and training we have had numerous black officers and BPOA members promoted. We offer one-on-one training to our membership for promotional and specialty positions.
We have created written test and structured interview preparation training courses that we offer to all candidates, bur we specifically target the minority classes that are deficient on our department. Our BPOA Test Prep courses have produced 22 new officers hired but the Omaha Police Department since 2015. Below is the breakdown of the demographics.
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11 Black males (1 being OPD's first Sudanese officer)
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3 Black females
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4 Latino males
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1 Latino female
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1 White male
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1 White female
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1 Pakistani male
