4.5 Police Diversity and Recruitment
Franklyn Scott
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, and gender. In so doing, it opened a pathway into law enforcement professions for groups who had been largely excluded, namely women and people of color. While Title VII lawsuits have successfully struck down hiring requirements that were implicitly discriminatory (such as height or fitness requirements), the Civil Rights Act has also been used to reprimand and force changes at police agencies that did not extend equal opportunities for promotion to all employees or that created work environments that were hostile to those other than white men. Title VII has also led to the court-ordered adoption of affirmative action policies in hiring.