Rewind: The push to diversify the Detroit Police Department

With spring comes a number of Detroit traditions, which include the mayor’s annual State of the City Address. Mayor Mike Duggan is set to deliver the speech April 17. Public safety is usually a cornerstone of these addresses, as is employment.

Looking back at one of Mayor Coleman Young’s addresses to the city, we can see the emphasis on efforts to reshape the city’s police force through affirmative action to make it more representative of the city’s population.

Young was the city’s longest-serving mayor, serving from 1974-1994. When Young first took office, almost all Detroit police officers were white. By his 1986 State of the City Address, Young celebrated an increasingly diverse Detroit Police Department (DPD) as it was inching toward a 50-50 balance of Black and white officers.

“No other city in the nation can make that claim,” Young said in his address.

A foundational promise in Young’s 1973 mayoral campaign was to reform DPD, specifically to diversify the overwhelmingly white, male police force that Black residents viewed as an occupying army in a growing majority-Black city .

Young’s election was during a critical time in Detroit history, a handful of years after the 1967 uprising . The city’s population was dramatically shifting. By 1970, Detroit’s population was 43.7% Black, a significant jump from 28.9% in 1960, according to the U.S. Census.

Shifting the force’s demographics did not follow from the population changes at large or come without a fight. From the 1970s into the 1990s, white officers and the Detroit Police Officers Association (DPOA) filed several lawsuits challenging affirmative action policies that sought to increase the number of Black officers and female police officers.

Young announced several plans to reform DPD shortly after entering office. His main goal was to hire enough Black officers to reach a 50% Black force by 1977 . Young argued that having Black officers on a force serving an increasingly Black-majority population would improve the police department’s community relations and address racism issues. Then-DPOA President Gary Lee expressed the union’s opposition to affirmative action plans and claimed the goal would lead to lower standards.

“Everybody they recruit will have to be Black … we’re opposed to lowering standards to get that quota,” Lee said.

In June 1974, Police Commissioner Philip Tannian announced a formal policy to increase the number of Black officers . He sought to hire one Black officer for each white officer, hoping to get closer to Young’s 50-50 goal. At the time, the Free Press reported that 14% of the city’s 5,500 officers were Black and only 2% were women.

Lee claimed in response that white officers “don’t even have a chance” to be promoted. The DPOA, other police officers and even newspapers maintained the narrative that Black and female officers were getting promoted over white male officers with higher scores on the police exams.

Young argued that Lee and others had it wrong: Affirmative action was simply a measure to ensure fair employment practices. Young said exams tended to be “biased in favor of middle-class whites” and the new promotions considered more than test results. These included service ratings, seniority and education levels.

Lawsuits against affirmative action efforts continued in 1983. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Affirmative Actions program. Black representation in the force grew , with almost a third of the department’s 203 lieutenants and nearly a quarter of 817 sergeants being Black. Young said this accomplishment helped address racial bias and reduced tensions between the mostly white department and the city’s 63% Black population.

Young’s quota was finally met in 1993 after nearly two decades of fighting for the police force to more closely reflect Detroit’s population. More than 56.9% of the force was Black and more than 20% were women . The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that race no longer needed to be a consideration when promoting officers to sergeant.

Despite the long timeline, some, like ACLU Executive Director Howard Simon , said the 50% Black officer representation would be remembered as “this mayor’s major achievement.”

Today, DPD demographics are still a topic of discussion. In January, 47% of 127 Detroit police academy recruits were Black, despite the city’s population being 77.8% Black. In 2020, a DPD spokesperson said it searches for diverse recruits, however, there doesn’t appear to be an affirmative action program in place.

Rewind: The push to diversify the Detroit Police Department · Outlier Media