NYPD in efforts to hire black, Muslim officers

NEW YORK: 

With minorities nearly outnumbering whites among New York city police officers, the department struggles to hire more blacks and Muslims to change its city demographics, PC Bill Bratton said in an interview on Monday.

Bratton, whose own department came under criticism after Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, died last year when an arresting officer held him in a chokehold, said hiring practices were being overhauled to help recruit more African-American candidates.

For instance, it can take as many as four years between the time an applicant takes the police entrance exam and actually gets a job offer – with half of applicants dropping out and black applicants disproportionately affected. That process, he said, would be cut to a single year.