Reader Fred Ray alerted me to an interesting editorial in the Raleigh News and Observer about the need to increase the numbers of blacks in the police department.
Fortunately, Raleigh Police Chief Jane Perlov shares those concerns. And she has a strategy to correct the department’s racial imbalances that makes good sense.
Top priority goes to filling jobs with the best qualified people, and in that, the chief is so right. The five who will fill the new job of district commander must be the strongest leaders to give the department’s reorganization a chance of working. Besides, filling jobs with under-qualified people only reinforces stereotypes.
Better to begin with diversity in entry-level jobs and offer more training for the new hires to advance….
Some might be tempted to wonder why we don’t approach education the same way, improving the quality of the education the diverse receive in K-12 so that the top positions in selective universities can go to “the best qualified.”
