As police conduct has come into focus in recent years, some departments have made an effort to hire officers who better reflect the communities they serve.

But in spite of those efforts, more than two thirds of police officers in New Jersey are white.

Close to 90% are male.

That's a far cry from the diverse population we have here in New Jersey.

Senior writer and projects editor Colleen O'Dea is here with me to break down the numbers and discuss some recent changes that have been made.

Always good to have you here on the set.

Break down the numbers that you found when you analyzed police officer hiring and recruitment data.

Yeah.

So, you know, the state population is about 52% non-Hispanic white at this point and 68% of police are are white.

So that clearly is out of sync.

You know, we only have about 9% of officers who are Black.

12% Hispanic, 2% Asian.

You know, well below those, you know, the way those groups are represented in the state.

And of course, the biggest difference is 88% male and, you know, 12% female.

Women are you know, little more than the majority in the state.

What do we know, Colleen, about the importance of having a police department, police officers who reflect the communities they serve?

You know, it's a case of, you want to see officers who look like you.

You don't want to see or, you know, if you're a community of of Black or Hispanics, you don't want to see all white officers.

You don't It's a question of not relating as well.

What what.

Mutual understanding.

Exactly.

Exactly what someone the way someone put it to me is that you don't want to feel like you're being policed.

You want to feel like you're partners.

So when we look at some of these departments, transparency has really been a challenge.

And the state actually created some laws, passed some laws just a few years ago that would require police departments to make their data transparent.

Where are departments falling in terms of that transparency process.

So, you know, there's more than 500 departments.

We couldn't look at all of them, but we looked at a good number and only about half are meeting.

It's probably a stretch to even say meeting the letter of the law.

There are only a few that really give the specifics that they need to, which is you want it.

You're supposed to be putting all that demographic data that we talked about for your department on your website, but you're also supposed to create a plan to try to improve minority recruitment, to try to diversify your force.

And very few departments had had a real robust plan where it showed that they are.

Woodbridge was one, for instance, where they show, you know, these are the groups that we're going to be talking to to try to get more people interested in policing.

So in other words, they're looking specifically at data.

If we're if we have a 10% Asian population and 2% police force, that reflects that.

We need to fill that gap.

Right?

Exactly.

Exactly.

And so in a case like Woodbridge, they're saying which which has a large Asian Indian community, they're saying, you know, they've they've made a partnership with an Asian Indian business association where they're going to try to be using them as an entry way to try to better reach the Asian Indian community.

But a lot of departments had had nothing No demographic don't know demographic data and no plan at all on their site.

So, Colleen, when we talk about passing laws, right.

It's one thing to pass a law, but how do you enforce it?

How are these police departments in violation?

And is there are there any consequences on the back end?

If you ask me, I would say, yes, they are in violation.

If you ask the attorney general's office, which we did.

They are trying to be a little bit kinder about it and say, well, it's going to take some time to make sure that everyone is following the rules.

And we're going to try to just nudge people into doing that.

Colleen O'Dea, senior writer and projects editor, thank you so much.

Thank you, Joanna.