Does Increasing Ethnic Representativeness Reduce Police Misconduct?

• Author: Sounman Hong
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12629
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Date: 01 March 2017

Does Increasing Ethnic Representativeness Reduce Police Misconduct? 195

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 2, pp. 195–205. © 2016 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12629.

Sounman Hong is assistant professor

at Yonsei University in South Korea. His

research focuses on bureaucratic control,

innovation, and reform and how to

achieve a more efficient, responsive, and

accountable public administration. He

holds master of public policy and doctoral

degrees from Harvard University and a

bachelor ’ s degree from Yonsei University.

Before pursuing graduate study, he worked

for PricewaterhouseCoopers , McKinsey &

Company, and the Korean government.

E-mail: sounman_hong@yonsei.ac.kr

Abstract : This article examines whether representative bureaucracy improves organizational integrity using evidence

from English and Welsh police forces that implemented ambitious targets to increase the share of ethnic minority

officers during 2000–2010. The evidence shows an association between an increase in police force ethnic minority

representation and a subsequent reduction in police misconduct. An increase in representativeness is also shown to be

associated with a decrease in the share of black complainants but not with a change in the ethnicity of those subject

to complaints. This evidence suggests that diversifying a bureaucratic workforce to reflect the community it serves may

effectively catalyze bureaucratic integrity. In turn, improved organizational integrity influences bureaucrats’ attitudes

and behaviors toward minority citizens, resulting in greater satisfaction among minority constituents. Representative

bureaucracy may be an effective internal means of controlling administrative power for the good of the citizenry.

Practitioner Points

• An increase in the proportion of ethnic minority police officers is significantly associated with a decrease in

police misconduct as measured by substantiated complaints per officer.

• Black citizens make fewer complaints against an ethnically representative police force.

• With increasing ethnic representativeness, local citizens tend to be less rather than more satisfied with the

services that minority officers provide.

• Benefits associated with bureaucratic representativeness derive from wide-scale, substantive organizational

changes that improve attitudes and behaviors toward minorities rather than the mere increase in minority

officers.

Sounman Hong

Yonsei University, South Korea

Does Increasing Ethnic

Representativeness Reduce Police Misconduct?

O n August 4, 2011, police shot and killed a

29-year-old black man, Mark Duggan, in

North London. This resulted in tension

between police forces and black communities, which

led to large public protests. These protests soon

transformed into one of England ’ s largest riots in

modern history. Three years later, a similar event

occurred in the United States when an unarmed

black teenager named Michael Brown was shot

and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson,

Missouri, on August 9, 2014. The decision not to

charge the police officer over the death of the black

teenager sparked a number of national protests and

fed an ongoing discussion about race relations and

police reforms. In February 2016, the U.S. Justice

Department sued Ferguson to force the city to

adopt a set of reforms negotiated with the federal

government.

These events illustrate the racial tensions that exist

even in the most advanced democracies. A 2014

poll conducted by USA Today and the Pew Research

Center reported that a majority of Americans believe

that “police departments nationwide don ’ t do a good

job in holding officers accountable for misconduct,

treating racial groups equally and using the right

amount of force” (Pew Research Center 2014 ).

Unsurprisingly, the responses of African Americans

were overwhelmingly more negative than those of

their white counterparts. Similarly, the Crime Survey

for England and Wales showed that white respondents

had greater confidence in the police than ethnic

minority respondents.

Tensions between police and minority groups may

be grounded in differences in the racial makeup of

the police forces and the communities they serve.

In the aftermath of the Ferguson shooting, the news

media highlighted the fact that the Ferguson Police

Department was composed of nearly 95 percent

white officers in a community where blacks were the

majority. In response to community demands for

greater police representativeness and diversity and to

calm racial tensions in the city, the mayor of Ferguson

announced that he would recruit more minorities

to serve on the city ’ s police force. In May 2016, the