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Public Safety Diversity Initiatives in Dayton, Ohio A long-standing issue facing local
MONICA JONES is assistant to the city manager, Dayton, Ohio (monica.jones@ daytonohio.gov).
governments across the country is diversity in public safety personnel. These organizations increasingly find themselves having to defend their cultural competency and moral responsibility for diversity, and the cities that fund these departments increasingly face costly discrimination lawsuits. The city of Dayton, Ohio, is no exception; with 52 percent of the population identifying as white, 43 percent identifying as black, and roughly five percent identifying as “other,” it is imperative that efforts be made to have a workforce that is representative of the community it serves. It can be argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has had a negligible effect on U.S. fire and police service department personnel. For example, more than 50 years since its passage, the current number of minorities in
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BY MONICA JONES
most fire departments across the country is reflective of an era that preceded the Civil Rights movement, as nearly 90 percent of career firefighters are white.1 Dayton’s Dedicated Commitment
Despite repeated attempts at diversification and ongoing, focused recruitment efforts, the current racial and ethnic demographics of the Dayton Fire Department and Dayton Police Department look nearly identical to those found in 1965. Ninety-three percent of firefighters and 91 percent of police officers are white. The collective actions taken by the city of Dayton over the last 50 years — including several voluntary affirmative action plans, a diversity plan, and consent decree with the Department of Justice — demonstrate Dayton’s commitment to creating a workforce that mirrors the community while simultaneously highlighting the difficulty in achieving that goal.