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Your Call

Your Call: What does it take to create diverse police forces?

 

On the September 23rd 2014 edition of  your Call, we'll have a conversation about the ethnic and gender makeup of the US police departments. The shooting of the unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white officer in Ferguson, Missouri where only three of the 53 officers are African American, has reignited the debate on the lack of diversity in many police departments across the country. It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar, and you.

Guests:

Thomas Peele, investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group, author of killing the messenger and co-chair of the society of professional journalists freedom of information committee.

LeRonne Armstrong, lieutenant with the Oakland Police Department

Akil Truso, community organizer in Oakland 

Web Resources:

Oakland Unite: programs that target the highest risk community members and neighborhoods, with a particular focus on interrupting violence now as it is occurring and preventing future violence.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel: Bay Area police departments say census data on diversity flawed

San Jose Mercury: Ranks of Bay Area police departments largely white

Washington Post: Do diverse police forces treat their communities more fairly than almost-all-white ones like Ferguson’s?