NYT: Three Lower Westchester Police Forces Have High Percentages of White Officers

An eye-opening interactive report in The New York Times shows the disparity between the races of a majority of police officers in a cross section of municipalities and residents in the communities they serve.

Three of lower Westchestcher’s communities - Harrison, New Rochelle and White Plains - are highlighted, and the disparities are significant.

In New Rochelle, the percentage of white police officers is 29 percentage points higher than the percentage of white residents in the community, according to the Times, followed by White Plains, where the percentage of white officers is 23 percentage points higher. The number for Harrison is 19 percentage points higher.

The report comes on the heels of the racial unrest in Ferguson, Mo., following the shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer. More diversity within a police force can increase a department’s “credibility” within its town, according to the Times.

“Even if police officers of whatever race enforce the law in relatively the same way, there is a huge image problem with a department that is so out of sync with the racial composition of the local population,” Ronald Weitzer, a sociologist at George Washington University, told the Times.

Click here to read the full report on The New York Times website.