The Boston Police Department’s heavily white class of new recruits is raising alarm among advocates and watchdogs who say it runs counter to the Walsh administration’s stated goal of creating a more diverse force of patrol officers in a majority-minority city.

The Herald reported yesterday that 39 of 53 recruits due to graduate Wednesday are white men and women — 74 percent — according to Boston police figures. The recruits will hit the streets as patrol officers and are in a class that doesn’t include any Asians or Hispanic women.

The Herald has also reported that the state Civil Service Commission is probing why 300 of the highest-ranked candidates were bypassed for lower-performing recruits.

“When you see a class that is 74 percent white officers, and there is at least an articulated commitment of diversifying the police department on the part of the commissioner and the mayor — this certainly flies in the face of that,” said Tom Nolan, a retired Boston police lieutenant and professor ?of criminology at Merrimack ?College.

Said Rahsaan Hall, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts: “There is a certain value in having a police force that reflects the demographics of the city — we are very concerned. This has been a long-standing problem with the Boston Police Department. … The number of officers of color has consistently declined.”

The Civil Service panel is investigating why the class, which entered the police academy in December 2015, included 15 people who were tied for the lowest Civil Service ranking, with 300 people finishing above them. Civil Service Chairman Christopher C. Bowman did not return multiple requests for comment yesterday.

State. Rep. Russell Holmes of Mattapan called the Civil Service probe “necessary.”

“The class needs to be re-evaluated. The moment the results of the investigation come out, I will be one of the first to read it,” ?he said.

The BPD did not respond to an email requesting comment.

The new class of recruits is even less diverse than the patrol force they will join. In BPD’s current ranks, of 1,412 patrol officers, 63 percent are white, 24 percent are black, 10 percent are Hispanic and 2 1⁄2 percent are Asian. Census figures, meanwhile, show minorities now represent more than half the city’s population.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh vowed during the campaign to create a more diverse police force.

He and police Commissioner William B. Evans said this week they are committed to increasing the number of minority officers through community outreach, its cadet program and a soon-to-be hired BPD chief diversity officer.

Evans this week said the hiring process was above-board, and there was no “nepotism” or “favoritism.”