Affirmative Action and Productivity in Law Enforcement Agencies

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Abstract
The results of a survey of 254 police departments in the United States appear compelling. Whether the criterion be crime containment, successful arrest of wrong-doers, or effective use of public monies, the findings are uniform — to wit, no substantive difference exists in the level of productivity of police departments categorized as to their rate of progress in minority utilization. For all of the plausibility associated with the argument that special procedures for minority recruitment and reten tion will necessarily increase the costs of operation of public agencies, or the belief that any modifica tion of a fully color-blind selection system will compromise the ability of employees to perform their duties, there is virtually no evidence in the data reported here to support these expectations.