will my race hurt me or help me to get into the academy

[driven21m]

I am applying for a few different police departments and on of the ones I am applying for is Santa Clara Police department. Santa Clara police department is a pretty good deal good pay, ($80,000 starting), good retirement, and a nice area. But it is also a highly white area and department. I am a 22 years old black male, in good shape and have 2 degrees one in business and the other in Political Science. But I am wondering why there is such a lack of minorities on this force is it because lack of applicants or if they such don’t hire them. The job announcement even said women and minorities are urged to apply what ever that means. Im not one to play the race card I just hope this doesn’t hinder me from getting admitted into the academy, what do you guys think, is the race thing going to hurt me, help me or not even matter?

[zander_zye]

I live faily close to Santa Clara. I have noted that a lot of the departments in the Silicon Valley are predominately Northern European (aka "white") or Asian. I don't know actual numbers, but I would say that your supposition that these departments don't hire minorities is incorrect (what is a minority anyway - hate to say this, but in CA, the majority is the minority). In SC, the competition is pretty severe. And I know that most departments are readily recruiting woman, hispanics, African-Americans, and others to their ranks. SJPD, SFPD and OPD are prime examples of departments which are better integrated than others. However, don't let your race deter you. SCPD is pretty competitive due to the high pay, but go for it and don't look back.

Actually, if you look at the general population of Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, I bet you would find a higher Asian (which includes eastern Indian and all other Asian cultures) population than the typical "white" population. You will also see a heavy influence of hispanic population especially near Alviso and parts of eastern San Jose. As I stated before, you will not find a large African-American presence except in parts of SJ.

[mcsap]

Since you don't know the answer to your question , why don't you apply and see what happens. The worst that could happen is that you don't get hired, the best is that you do get hired. If yourself and other minorities form such an opinion about a certain department, than you perpetuate the belief of some sort of racial inequity by the lack of minority applicants.

I applied for 2 YEARS before I got my current job ( I am white). It is not a good plan ( in my opinion) to set your sights on ONE department anyway.

I believe in apply , apply and apply.

[spyman]

Chances are close to 100% that the minorities haven't applied, or those who did apply weren't qualified.

[zander_zye]

Originally posted by mcsap

I believe in apply , apply and apply.

Especially here. I found that a good plan is to get in with a department that hires more people. These include SJPD, OPD, SFPD, CCSFSD, SCCSD, and ACSD. Pay your dues (2 years) and lateral out once you have your basic POST. You will find that departments such as SCPD, SDPS, Mipitas, and others are made up of a high precentage of laterals anyway.

good luck - apply apply apply (I think I have taken tests for 15 departments in my life - whoa!)

[Eurocentric.org]

I doubt anything will happen to you but nevertheless it has happened before. Just give it a go and if you don't get the job because you're white then find a lawyer. You will most likely win if that is the case.

http://www.detnews.com/2003/metro/03...a07-187228.htm
http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas..._firefighters/
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2003061150/
http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore...16/story7.html

Best of Luck

[Norm357]

($80,000 starting)


Are you sure that is correct? Holy crap that's a high starting salary!


Norm

[zander_zye]

http://www.scpd.org/we're_hiring.htm

63600 starting in the academy
nearly 100K base salary -- but this includes longevity pay. This is among the highest in California.

Of course, the average 40 year old 3bd/2ba home on a 50x100 lot costs you around 600K so I guess it is pretty relative. Of course, this is still more than most engineers are making...

[P01IC3M4N]

i find a lot of minorities don't particularly like to get involved in police work; hence the push to encourage them to apply. i personally think it falls on the stereotypical attitude a lot of minorities have towards the police. i know plenty officers of different races and they are very fine officers. one friend of mine does take a lot of flack from his kin though. they think he's going against their culture by joining the police. ???

if you want to be an officer, keep trying until someone says you're hired. even if you're rejected, you'll take something away from that process that'll help you on the next one.

good luck.

[sbrad]

$80,000?
Jesus H. Christ

[KottonmouthKING]

forget it man...you gonna have a hard time

[sparrow803]

I'm movin to Californie and gettin me a badge - wowza 80,000?

[Dan]

Originally posted by bustytatas
I'm movin to Californie and gettin me a badge - wowza 80,000?

]

Yeah, and a decent house would probly cost 500K, doesnt look to good when the cost of living is outrageous

[replay]

Driven21m,
I can't imagine too many west coast departments being like the deep south in terms of hiring minorities, not especially in California with our huge population of minorities. I don't know about the Bay, but Sacramento PD actively recruits minorities and has recruitment drives in black colleges/fairs, etc. Even with that, our minority population seems to be fairly small and not appropriate to our citizen's makeup. Here are the numbers I found from a study our department did:


Percentage
of Each
Race
Percentage
of Drivers
Stopped
Hispanic/Latino 19.9 18.9
White, non-Latino
47.4 40.9
African-American, non-Latino
14.3 26.8
Native American/Alaska Native
.8 .2
Asian/Pacific Islander
17.3 9.9
Other
.3 3.4
Total Individuals 301,488 36,854

City of Sacramento Police Officers, September, 2000
Hispanic/Latino 11.5%
White, non-Latino 71.0
African-American, non-Latino 6.2
Native American/Alaska Native .6
Asian/Pacific Islander 8.7
Filipino 1.9
Total Officers 676

[zander_zye]

Originally posted by bustytatas
I'm movin to Californie and gettin me a badge - wowza 80,000?

don't forget to check out the housing prices before you come over. I used to recruit techs and engineers from DeVry in Phoenix. We paid them all the same fixed rate: $14 an hour for techs, 35g a year for engineers. They all thought that this was a lot of money until......


($1400 for a 2 bd apartment within a noseful of the Milpitas dump - lol - )