Editor’s Note: Upon receiving a reader’s inquiry about the topic, we decided to see how the Milton Police Department and other local law enforcement agencies handle diversity in staffing.
Although most currently employed officers at the Gulf Breeze, Milton and Pensacola Police Departments are white men, these agencies are not lacking in diversity.
MILTON — The Milton Police Department has 20 officers, including Police Chief Tony Tindell. He said 16 are patrol officers, two of whom are African American males and five are female, one of whom is a Pacific Islander. The rest are Caucasian males.
As for Gulf Breeze, the police department has 23 full- and part-time officers. Like Milton, the GBPD has mostly white males. However, the department has two female officers, both Caucasian, two African American male officers and one Asian American, according to Deputy Chief Sharon Armstrong.
Cindy West, who handles public relations for the Pensacola Police Department, said the department currently has 117 Caucasian sworn officers and 26 minority officers.
“We have one minority cadet and one Caucasian cadet that currently hold certification and are awaiting promotion,” West said in an email. “We have five minority cadets and five Caucasian cadets that are currently in the academy and will be eligible for promotion in the spring of 2017.”
West said the department has one minority cadet expecting to begin the academy next spring, leaving a total of 123 Caucasian and 32 minorities.
Milton City Manager Brian Watkins and Police Chief Tindell said the hiring process comes down to qualifications.
“Our goal is to hire the best police officers we can to protect and serve the citizens of the City of Milton,” Watkins said. “We are not looking at gender, ethnicity, religion, race, any of that. We are trying to hire the best person available.”
Tindell agreed, saying it is “based on their merit of qualifications.”
“(Applicants) got to at least pass the police academy and either have passed their state of Florida test or in the process of getting the test scheduled and that is just to interview,” he said.
“We are not going to hire until they passed or meet these qualifications,” Watkins said.
According to the city’s website, applications are continually accepted from individuals who “hold a valid law enforcement certificate in Florida or from officers who hold a valid certificate from another state and are eligible to obtain Florida standards within 12 months.
“Once a need is determined, a written examination is scheduled. Those who pass the written test then must successfully complete a physical agility test, background investigation, oral interview, polygraph or computerized voice stress analysis, psychological assessment, drug screen and medical examination.”
After hiring two officers this spring, Tindell said the department seeks to hire another.
“If people think all we do is hire white guys, at least three of the last five hires have been women…at two of which are not white,” Watkins said. “We just recently hired an African American (for police officer).”
In a demographic summary report provided by the city, Milton’s population is largely white. In 2010, a census found 82 percent of the city’s population is white; 10.8 percent is African American of 13,530 residents. However, projections show a slight change. In 2020, the white population may make up 78.9 percent of the population with the black population at 12.3 percent.
Watkins and Tindell said they encourage more minorities to apply.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: EXAMINING DIVERSITY