NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 08: New New York City police officers are sworn-in at a ceremony at the Police Academy on October 8, 2015 in New York City. A total of seven hundred and fifty officers were sworn-in at the event and will take to the city streets following months more of training. Following concerns about excessive force, the New York Police Department recently launched a new program that will force all officers to document and review every physical encounter with the public. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (2015 Getty Images)
The new class of officers for the New York Police Department is nearly one-third Hispanic – 32 percent, the highest proportion of Latino officers in a single class in city history.
The NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton swore in 678 new recruits on Thursday at the department’s new state-of-the-art academy in College Point, Queens, the New York Daily News reported.
Of the new class only 12.6 percent are African-American, falling short of Bratton’s promise to hire more into the department. The 1,200 recruits who entered the academy in July and are expected to graduate in December are 17 percent black.
Officials said that the 678 sworn in Thursday are 80 percent male, and include 151 immigrants, 252 people with bachelor’s degrees and 14 with master’s degrees. At least 36 countries are represented and 22 languages spoken among the new officers.
Additionally, just over half are city residents and about 60 have military experience. One recruit is also a lawyer, the Daily News reported.
Bratton told Newsday on Monday that there is a backlog of about 50,000 applicants for the department.
The next swearing-in of new officers is scheduled for January.
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