That is not just the departments responsibilty. They could sponsor a cadet program, but that is a liability up to the city to decide. Schools, families and city leaders need to encourage young people to learn about jobs in law enforcement. There several police agencies not just Ferguson to learn that. Getting kids to want jobs in law enforcement anywhere is the key to changing the numbers in Ferguson and surrounding areas. I do know police agencies have tried to get minorities to apply and they just don't get the applications. It is going to take the whole community to encourage that not just the departments. jmo This was a reply to Reedus and again I am doing something wrong with this new software and it doesn't respond to Reedus post.
Many thanks vjlaw. I don't disagree with everything you say. I don't doubt different approaches have been tried. I also don't doubt that they haven't met with great success. Really, I agree with everything you say.
I agree about the community needing to be involved. I'm not sure if you're from Ferguson or the surrounding area or out of the state of Missouri, but my take on it is that for so long there has been a strained relationship between law enforcement and the community that no one there wanted to be a cop. The cops were people to distrust and not emulate. That relationship between the department and the community has to be fixed first. Both have to get to know each other as human beings first and then as cops/citizens. I am convinced most people on both sides are good people and they may actually like each other. Once that relationship and trust is built, I think it becomes a little bit easier to say to kids, "Hey, we really WANT you to join us. You know us. We're good people. We are people that you want to emulate." That relationship has to be fixed first otherwise visiting that kid in his school is going to be just mindless chatter to the kid when he has a lifetime of distrust weighing on him as well.