I think that the police unions put up the most resistance to any stricter residency requirements. In other words, these police forces were less demographically similar to their cities.7, The following chart shows the top 75 cities by police force size and their dispersion scores. "I don't think it accomplishes anything," Taylor said. / CBS Pittsburgh. Throughout history, there have also been some economic incentives for having these requirements. The makeup of the Chicago policeforce today is not proportional to the demographics of thecity as a whole, with a greater share of white officers than city residents. The error did not affect the dispersion index scores or rankings mentioned in the text or the overall analysis, except for the average dispersion score, which is 39.3, not 38.6. The authoritative record of New York Public Radios programming is the audio record. while 15% of Lansing police . Again, to Marq's point, they're seeing that as the way to try and improve these community relations as opposed to necessarily forcing officers to live there. "Realistically, it's not going to change," he said. In Rochester, New York, following the police killing of Daniel Prude, Mayor Lovely Warren recently announced a proposal that would require new police officers to live within the city's limits. Negotiations don't work with police entities generally speaking. The Kansas City Board of . "Look, to be a police officer in this city is a very high calling. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com. We start at the top and work our way down. However, as Mayor Lori Lightfoot gears up for contentious, fiery negotiations with the Police Departments main union, the Fraternal Order of Police, she can expect new FOP President John Catanzara to push to eliminate the residency rule from the contract. For the EEOC police force statistics, the range of each citys cumulative percentage total is 94.4 to 100.7, with a mean of 98.5; and for the ACS population statistics, the range is 92.20 to 99.70, with a mean of 97.5. ", "Most officers I encountered in my career, they were Detroiters. In Cleveland, Ohio's second-largest city roughly 71% . Push-ups and bench presses dont matter; instead, ask about how the candidate has and is now serving in a community, wherever the candidate now lives. It's hard to quantify whether or not there is an actual benefit to require residency. We want to know that those we hire understand the place we live, share its values, and look like us.. Theres an allegiance to the community they serve other than a paycheck.. Other pluses: Residency rules in diverse cities tend to make department rosters more diverse, as long as officials who do the hiring genuinely make diversity a goal. In Baltimore, for example, where the vast majority of officers live outside the city, there is a documented pattern of hostile police tactics against those who officers are meant to serve. Grace: I think it's a kind of police reform that people can get their heads around. Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who began his career in the department in 1977 during the era of mandatory residency, now shuns the philosophy, arguing it's not a viable approach to community policing. Murphy thinks the explanation lies in the constraints the requirement puts on a departments recruitment efforts, though he hasnt been able to test the theory. But the community policing model touted by top brass doesn't necessarily translate into better relationships between cops and Black Detroiters, some say. According to the city's Department of Employee relations, 925 officers live outside of city limits about 50 percent while 911 live in Milwaukee. When it comes to role models or empathy, it would certainly be extraordinarily valuable if the police force could reflect our communities, Police Chief Edward Flynn said. It's a debate at the very, very local level all the way up through the systemic city official and police union level as well. In the ensuing years, the effects of police residency requirements have gotten scant academic attention, even as theyve come up for debate on city councils and in state capitols. Chicago police officers stand outside Nini's Deli in Chicago on June 7, 2020, during a protest. Diversity depends on recruitment, Latimer said, not residency. Overall, in communities where the nonwhite population was less than 10%, the average police residency rate was about 47%. But only 9 percent of Oakland's police officers live in Oakland. Cities have the authority to regulate land use up to one mile outside city limits. In 2010, Philadelphia's police union got the city to allow officersto reside outside city limits if they hadbeen on the force for at least five years. These simplifications still capture the vast bulk of demographic detail. "They say Detroit is the best training facility and (recruits from) many other states, they actually come here to be trained," Burch said. The 1999 law allowed municipalities to contractually require police officers to live within 20 miles of a city's boundaries. "What other kind of business puts those kind of restrictions on a person?". In the Twin Cities, police live in the cities where they work less often than in most other large American cities. Instead, they wanted officers who could display good judgment, respect for others, creativity, tolerance, compassion, and honesty. They are anchors in a neighborhood. Memphis PD requires officers to live within the county. There are many potentially lasting lessons that will come from the George Floyd tragedy. And what kind of communication abilities does the recruit have? The Newark police department, which has a residency requirement, also has the second-highest dispersion score: 85.1. Willie Bell, chair of Detroit's Board of Police Commissioners, retired from the police department in 2003 after 32 years on the force. To figure out whether police forces with the requirement were more or less demographically similar to their cities, we calculated a dispersion index a measure of how much the racial and ethnic composition of a citys force differs from that of the population. Everyone should be able to look at a police officer and identify with them.. Click below to see everything we have to offer. In Lansing, 15 percent of the police force resides in the capital city. There are many ways to nurture those connections. A lot of these cops are living in suburban communities and surrounding areas where there's also just an ideological disconnect. The Common Council of the City of Detroit has made a difficult legislative judgment, weighing the desirability of having a resident police force on the streets against the detriment of losing many experienced, dedicated and courageous officers who choose to live in the suburbs.". Resolution Calling for NYPD Officers to Live - New York City Council Data gathered from three cities Madison, Milwaukee and Racine were precise in noting whether police officers live within city limits or not. In Madison, about 34% of the 517 police . Since 2020, the Philadelphia Police Department has required that new recruits have to live within city limits for at least one year before they can apply. Reexamining residency rules for Detroit police officers In Minneapolis and Ferguson, Missouri, it's around 6 percent. As we require de-escalation tactics over confrontation, these skills have emerged as the key to cultural change in the department. Recruiting a diverse police force is challenging regardless of residency requirements. Since 1902, the city has required police officers to live within the city limits, but an arbitration panel recently ruled in favor of allowing officers to live within 25 air miles of downtown. Heres a basic one: It makes sense to require police officers to live where they work. The test adds to the hurdles we face., Believe me, someone shows me that solution, Im there, Flynn said. A certificate of insurance listing the City and County of Denver as the certificate holder. David A. Harris is a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and author of A City Divided: Race, Fear and the Law in Police Confrontations (Anthem Press, 2020). There was a time when some Ohio cities required municipal employees to live within the city limits. ", Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook PageStay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter, ( Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Only about 8 percent of Minneapolis police officers live in city limits John Engler's desk for his signature. Police associations and unions have argued residency requirements limitthe talent pool and breed corruption. The settlement outlined a series of police reforms, including a housing credit program to incentivize police officers to live in certain areas of the city. Tanzina: Marq, given that this has been debated since the 19th century and we're obviously not going to solve it today, but I do want to ask you about how you achieve "community policing" with or without a residency requirement. Police Demographics (7) In the mid- and late-1970s, more than half of the biggest American cities had such requirements, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld them in the case of a Philadelphia firefighter who was fired for moving to New Jersey. And, in a city that struggles to keep its middle class from pulling up stakes for the burbs, a residency requirement serves as a stabilizer. Tanzina: Also, with us is Grace Hauck, breaking news reporter at USA Today. Some community advocates believe police would be more sensitive to the community if they were required to live in the city they serve. According to government data, in 75 U.S. cities with the largest police forces, on average 60% of police officers live outside the city limits. The settlement also is encouraging officers to do community service in those neighborhoods. Grace, thanks for being with me. The Real Reason Presidential Candidates Form Exploratory Committees, Oct. 1, 2014, According to the leader of Pittsburghs civilian review board, police officers who moved outside the city after its residency requirement ended in 2017 didnt appear to be any more likely to show up as the subjects of citizen complaints than those who stayed in the city. Daniel Pearson is an opinion staff writer at The Inquirer. Tanzina Vega: In the months following the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others, calls for police reform are reviving a long and contentious debate over whether or not police officers should live in the communities where they work.