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Source: (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) / Getty

In response to complaints that New York City’s police force fails to reflect the city’s multiculturalism, the department on Wednesday welcomed about 1,217 recruits to the ranks in one of “the most diverse” classes in recent history, according to The New York Daily News.

Of the recruits, 78 percent are men and 22 percent are women, New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton said. Of that number, 569 are White and 206 are Black, the report says.

The announcement is after the department came under heavy criticism last year when Eric Garner, a Black father of six from Staten Island, was killed after being placed in an illegal chokehold by a White police officer trying to subdue and arrest him for allegedly selling loose cigarettes.

Via The NY Daily News:

“This is the most extraordinary class that represents New York City,” Bratton said moments before swearing the new recruits in Queens College in Kew Gardens. “You are by far the most diverse classes to enter the academy.”…

An additional 313 are Hispanic and 132 are Asian, according to New York’s top cop. About 220 are foreign born, he noted.

Bratton said 650 more recruits will be sworn in this October to uphold Mayor [Bill] de Blasio’s promise to hire more cops.

A study conducted last year by The Associated Press shows that the NYPD’s racial makeup continues to grow closer to that of the city as a whole, reports The New York Post. Whites made up 33 percent of the population and 54 percent of the force; Blacks made up 23 percent of the population and 16 percent of the force; Hispanics made up 28 percent of the city’s population and 24 percent of the force; Asians made up 13 percent of the population and 4 percent of the force, the report says.

We applaud the NYPD for making an effort, and hope they provide all officers with diversity training to help ease tensions in communities of color.

SOURCE: New York Daily News, New York Post | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

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