African Americans in Blue

Although seldom talked about, black police officers are a minority on the shore, no pun intended. While some departments only have a few black police officers, some have none at all. Anytime people of a different race or another minority such as a woman working with all men, are mixed into a profession in which, due to the area, is primarily white, how must they feel? Most cops say they are not bigoted or racist in anyway. But, it must feel difficult to work amongst people that are a majority of a different race. Each race of course has it's own customs or "mannerisms". Even though most police feel they are not racist or bigoted if we were working in job where the majority of our coworkers were of a different race, it might make us feel uneasy. It's a natural tendency for humans to group together along racial lines, as seen in jails. When in an unfamiliar or hostile environment people tend to group together along these lines.


The very FIRST African-American police detective in the United States was Paul Cephas Howell (pictured left, above), a black Mormon who moved from the South to Salt Lake City in 1886. Mormon Church President Wilford Woodruff arranged for his employment as a police officer with the Salt Lake City Police Department; a department overwhelmingly Mormon. Officer Howell became a Detective with that department; the first African-American police detective.


Besides black cops being an asset to their departments, they are public relations ambassadors. Realize the position they are in by patrolling a crime ridden community that citizens may feel they are a "traitors" to their race. However of course this could not be farther from the truth. Black police officers are an asset because they can approach a situation that a black suspect would ordinarily use race as a tactic to defer blame and because they operate in a professional manner many times better than police officers of other races. We applaud these officers for making a sacrifice of being in a challenging environment on the shore and still having the dedication to don the uniform every day.

Bottom line cops all bleed red as cops.