Racial Gaps Not Unusual In Police Departments

The population in Ferguson, a city of about 20,000 people north of St. Louis, is about two-thirds African-American. The city’s police force has 53 officers, four of whom are black.

But Ferguson is not alone when it comes to a race gap in police departments. Hundreds across the country have forces with a white percentage that is more than 30 percentage points higher than the communities they serve.

Nick Castele from Here & Now contributing station WCPN took a survey of departments in northern Ohio.