Among the recruits from the Philadelphia Police Academy's latest class to graduate and become sworn officers was an individual who is openly transgender.
Agencies are being forced to embrace new ways of reaching potential hires to fill their ranks.
New York City’s Police Commissioner James O'Neil made a dozen high-level promotions in a shakeup late Monday that also saw several minority officers and women moved into top spots, chiefs being asked to retire and scores of other commanders told they are being transferred.
Outreach efforts toward prospective female applicants are part of a series of responses by Austin police to address a recruiting problem that a consulting group's recently released report said is the biggest challenge facing the department.
An analysis by The Associated Press found that the racial gap between black police officers and the communities where they work has narrowed over the last generation. A much larger disparity, however, is now seen in the low number of Hispanic officers in police departments.
As Garaad Sahal becomes the St. Paul Police Department's first Somali officer, he hopes to bridge the gap between his community and police.
There's a pattern across police departments in this country where the physical ability hiring standard is higher than the physical ability post-hiring standard. A major problem with using physical ability tests as hiring criteria is that an applicant must be fit when hired, but in many police departments, they can deteriorate significantly once they obtain seniority.
Chief Nate Harper told KDKA he was disappointed the Pittsburgh Police Bureau had "no diversity in this last [academy] class," and promised more minorities and women in the next recruit class.
Nearly four years after the U.S. Department of Justice accused Dayton of systematically discriminating against blacks in the hiring of police officers, 24 police recruits entered the city's Police Academy.
American Muslims have never been much of a presence in the Los Angeles Police Department, accounting for less than 1% of its nearly 10,000 officers, but department leaders eager to improve relationships with local Muslims have named the force's first Islamic chaplain, the Los Angeles Times reports.