Asheville's police force is much whiter than community

ASHEVILLE – The city police department should better reflect the racial makeup of the community it serves, business owners and residents said.

They pointed to statistics showing 13 African-American officers made up just 10 percent of the force — while 20 percent of Asheville's population was black.

That was 1998.

Following years of city policies pushing minority hiring, the racial balance of Asheville's police force has changed, though it's not the change supporters of diversity would have hoped for: The department is whiter.

African-Americans now make up only 7 percent of the 212 sworn officers. The latest figures, provided by the city, come out as revelations of police racial bias are playing out on the national stage.

The decrease of African-American representation among Asheville police can be attributed to several things, according to officials involved in policing here and in other towns. There has been a drop in the overall percentage of black people in the city. And the department has trouble finding skilled minority recruits.

A member of City Council's public safety committee also pointed Tuesday to what he said was evidence of resistance from white police officers.

"In recent interviews, Asheville police department officers told a city contractor that their main complaints against former Chief William Anderson involved his hiring and promotion of non-white and non-male officers," Councilman Cecil Bothwell said.

Police diversity has garnered national attention. This week, a Justice Department investigation found sweeping patterns of racial bias among Ferguson, Missouri, police. That department was singled out after after one of its officers shot and killed an unarmed black man, 18-year-old Michael Brown, last summer.

That was followed by the high-profile death of an unarmed black man by New York City police and the subsequent killing of two officers in that department.

In Ferguson, African-Americans make up 67 percent of the population. At the time of the shooting, just three of 53 officers were black, though the mayor has said he's trying to create a more diverse police force.

While Asheville does not have Ferguson's stark difference between police and population, some African-American residents here say a more diverse police force would improve their lives.

"Then they wouldn't always think that everybody of this color is always doing something wrong," said Asheville resident Kenneth Burley, a business management student at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.

He recounted being searched this summer while waiting in a city park for his girlfriend.

Whiter

The fact that black officers represented roughly half the portion of blacks residents 17 years ago didn't much phase then-police chief Will Annarino.

Annarino said he would hire the best candidate regardless of race.

"We want minorities in this department, because we want a department that reflects our community," the former chief said. "But we are not going to lower our standards to get them."

The attitude among police officials changed as elected officials brought a strong emphasis on relations between law enforcement and African-American residents.

Terry Bellamy, Asheville's first black mayor, said in 2007 that efforts to improve relations had begun — "but they can always continue and be improved upon. There has to be continuous outreach."

Even with such efforts, the proportion of black officers continued to decline.

Throughout the late 1990s and 21st century, the percentage of African-American officers crept down from 10 percent to 9 percent then 7 percent.

A slight increase happened in 2014 during the tenure of Anderson, Asheville's first African-American police chief. That year the portion of black officers climbed to 8 percent, then fell this year.

Black population squeeze; few minority recruits

Some of the decline could be explained by the shrinking of African-Americans as a percentage of city population.

While the number of city residents has expanded from 68,000 in 1998 to more than 87,000 today, the proportion of black residents declined from 20 percent to 13 percent.

Councilman Jan Davis, the public safety committee chairman, pointed to the overall demographic problem.

"Asheville has a fairly small African-American population, which makes it even harder to recruit and maintain a proportionately diverse workforce," Davis said.

He agreed with the goal of diversity, saying more black officers in the force and at higher ranks could serve as role models for minority youth.

Top officers have given similar explanations.

Deputy Chief Wade Wood, speaking at a Feb. 13 policing and minority communities forum, said the department is working to increase minority recruiting. But he and Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan, who was speaking at the same forum, said it's a challenge to find skilled workers. Both said recruitment strategies could be improved.

Asked about officer diversity, interim Chief Steve Belcher said "being representative of the community we serve is important for a number of different reasons."

Belcher declined to answer other questions and said he would have someone contact the Citizen-Times. City spokeswoman Dawa Hitch pointed to a municipal website that is tracking work by consultants on a police department strategic plan and on hiring a new chief.

No one from the city responded to a request to interview an African-American officer.

Police Captain Tracey Gove, of West Hartford, Connecticut, said residents have high standards for police and because of that many applicants are eliminated.

As a captain in 2011, Gove wrote the article "Implicit Bias and Law Enforcement" for the professional publication "The Police Chief."

In that article Gove said "ideally, the composition of (police) personnel should reflect the diversity of the community that is served."

Officers exposed to different types of coworkers come to better understand different racial and cultural perspectives, he said.

Now as a chief, Gove said he still believes such diversity helps build community trust and support. But he, too, has had trouble meeting the ideal. Gove said many applicants do well in interviews, written and physical tests. But past problems often eliminate them.

"In my agency, I have some older statistics that show only 5-10 percent of (all) applicants pass the background investigation process," he said.

Compounding the issue is lack of minorities seeking out police work in the first place, he said.

Police pushback?

In Asheville, Bothwell said resistance from minority hiring came from within.

The councilman and public safety committee member was a defender of Anderson, who retired Dec. 31 amid problems with morale and investigations into administrative errors.

Bothwell said he may have "exceeded his clearance" in talking about the interviews by a contractor employed to help evaluate the department. But he said he was frustrated information on white officers pushing back against minority hiring hadn't been made public.

"As I understand it the interviews took place at a meeting of either the Police Benevolent Association or the Fraternal Order of Police," two police advocacy groups, he said.

He declined to say where he got the information about the interviews.

"As I've told the press and the public for months: Stay tuned. The story hasn't been fully told yet," he said.

Matrix Consulting is being paid $47,500 for its work helping to make improvements at the police department.

The company's contract blocks employees from speaking publicly about its work without city permission. A Matrix survey in January suggested widespread discontent in the department. The version of the survey obtained by the Citizen-Times through a public records request did not include officers' written answers to broader questions.

The Citizen-Times requested those answers this week but had not received them by Thursday.

John Midgett, director of the North Carolina Police Benevolent Association, cast doubt on Bothwell's account. He and the councilman have clashed over who was to blame for department problems with Midgett saying Bothwell was wrong in asserting the origin was a few problem officers.

"Unfortunately, we have become quite accustomed to Mr. Bothwell's embellishments when it comes to addressing very serious matters concerning the police department," he said.

When it comes to those most affected by police policies, top law enforcement officials, including FBI Director James Comey, say black men typically face the most bias.

Burley, the Asheville resident who said he feels police singled him out in part because of race, asserts more black officers would help.

It was in the summer when he was in Aston Park, he said, standing not far from a group of men, some of whom were drinking alcohol, a violation of city park rules.

Despite not having alcohol himself, Burley, 42, said the all-white group of police subjected everyone nearby to a search.

"I have nothing to do with what someone else does. I can't control what that man does. Just because I'm standing here you're going to run up and throw me against the wall?"

The Associated Press and reporter Beth Walton contributed to this report.