Visible minority applicant concerns and assessment of occupational role inthe era of community-based policing

Attempts to recruit minority officers are an integral component of communit y-based policing initiatives in Western democracies. To better understand h ow to optimize these initiatives, 80 African-Canadian police applicants wer e surveyed for perceptions of occupational role, career aspirations and obs tacles to minority recruitment. Although service to the Black community was a high priority, applicants reported this goal as secondary to providing s ervice regardless of ethnicity. further, applicants reported they would be as effective policing the White community and more effective policing the B lack community than their White counterparts. Racial prejudice on the part of police officers and society were viewed as the most significant obstacle s to minority recruitment. Two tests of potential perceptual distortions in dicated that applicants perceived African-Canadian acquaintances to be more frequent targets of police discrimination than they were as individuals, a nd perceived themselves as relatively less alienated from the police than w ere the police from their group. Discussion focuses on obstacles to minorit y recruitment, the fit between applicants' attitudes and the demands of mod ern policing, and the potential impact of a more ethnically diverse force f or police-minority relations. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.