The Dirty Diaper

I have a friend in Boston who is a long-time veteran of security and pursuing a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice. He is a Caucasian Irish-Catholic and knows more ways to bring a man to his knees than the pope with a bottle of Bushmills. Yet for all his experience, he’s having a difficult time gaining employment with the Boston Police Department as a full-time officer. He sent me this article:

Saturday, March 31, 2007
BOSTON -- The Boston Police Department were out at the South Bay Mall recruiting today. The BPD has extended the sign-up deadline to April 23 for anyone who wants to take the state civil service exam. Candidates must be between the ages of 21 and 32 and be a US citizen. The recruitment drive is part of an effort to attract more minority candidates.

He writes:

I can understand the US citizen requirement, but the rest baffles me, given that at full capacity, there should be approximately 1,200 BPD officers and there are currently approximately 800, and the violence has gotten so bad that the
Guardian Angels have arrived and begun walking our streets (to little avail considering there has already been one fatal shooting and two nonfatal shootings since Friday morning when they arrived in town).

BPD is notorious for having an extremely difficult hiring process that begins with a person's ethnic, police, or military background (or lack thereof).

Should these be the frontline requisites for determining who may be qualified to best serve the greater Boston public interests? Or are the requirements to become a Boston Police Officer not only stringent but also politically and sociologically biased?

This disturbs me because Boston PD already has one of the most diverse
Police Departments I have ever heard of. I can confidently state that this PD has everyone from lesbian minorities to ethnic males who would be otherwise stereotyped as terrorists, employed and performing their assigned duties to the best of their abilities. I feel that this is as it should be in a major metropolitan area.

When a PD already has that, why would it limit itself to a certain pool of applicants instead of getting the largest pool possible and determining from there who the most qualified candidates are?

Considering that Boston PD promotes the fact that it is the oldest Police Department in the nation, there is little doubt that anything said herein will change a well-ingrained tradition, but haven't we been taught for generations to question authority?

This is the second time I have heard of this. Previously it was with another friend in another city. He’s a white guy with more credentials than he can pin on his lapel and jobless because the PD was hiring minorities.

My two friends and I can’t imagine handing a badge and a gun over to anyone less than the most qualified personnel. It seems we are in the minority.