United States Attorney Nancy Stallard Harr

Eastern District of Tennessee

______________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: SHARRY DEDMAN-BEARD
Wednesday, October 7, 2016
Public Information Officer
www.usdoj.gov/usao/tne
(865) 545-4167
CHATTANOOGA POLICE DEPARTMENT RECOGNIZED IN NEWLY RELEASED
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION
ADVANCING DIVERSITY IN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORT

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. The Justice Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) released a comprehensive report today that examines barriers and promising
practices in recruitment, hiring and retention for advancing diversity in law enforcement. The
report, developed with support from the Center for Policing Equity, aims to provide law enforcement
agencies, especially small and mid-size agencies, with a resource to enhance the diversity of their
workforce by highlighting specific strategies and efforts in place in police departments around the
country.
The Chattanooga Police Department was recognized for its retention efforts, using community
partnerships and stakeholder engagement to help retain officers of color and women by better
understanding the unique challenges they face in the profession. By partnering with stakeholders
outside of the agency just as they do in recruitment, law enforcement agencies can diagnose the
barriers in their practices, policies, or systems that too often prevent or discourage officers from
staying on the job. Such partnerships allow the agency to take a holistic and comprehensive approach
to diversity, often drawing connections and replicating outreach efforts in retention that they use in
recruitment. By demonstrating that the law enforcement agency is invested in, and connected with the
community, it can help improve public trust and allow officers to view their jobs as a meaningful and
honorable long-term career.
The Chattanooga Police Department uses its Recruiting, Engagement, Selection, Transfer,
Assignment, and Retention Team (RESTART) to bring together community members, academics,
officers, command staff, union officials, and human resource professionals to ensure equity and
aggressively support diversity in a range of practices, including those related to retention,
assignment, and transfer practices. Through this effort, the department is currently in the process of
reforming its promotion standards.
The department and EEOC engaged with dozens of law enforcement leaders, officials and
officers; researchers; civil rights advocates and other experts to produce the report. The report, which
builds on the recommendations of the Presidents Task Force on 21st Century Policing, notes that
while greater workforce diversity alone cannot ensure fair and effective policing, a significant and
growing body of evidence suggests that diversity can make policing more effective, more safe and
more just. For example, among other benefits, increasing diversity can improve relations with the
communities the agencies serve, address language barriers to serve all residents, make agencies more
open to reform and potentially reduce racial bias.

The promising practices highlighted in this report vary considerably. The report
demonstrates, however, that successful diversity-building efforts by law enforcement agencies share
several common themes, including:

ensuring that the agencys organizational culture is guided by community policing,

procedural justice and cultural inclusivity;
engaging stakeholders both from within and outside the law enforcement agency to
help create a workforce that reflects the diversity of the community; and
being willing to re-evaluate employment criteria, standards and benchmarks to ensure that
they are tailored to the skills needed to perform job functions and consequently attract,
select and retain the most qualified and desirable sworn officers.

The entire report is available through the following link: www.justice.gov/crt/casedocument/file/900761/download.

From October to December, the department and the EEOC will continue engaging with law
enforcement by partnering with U.S. Attorneys around the country to host Diversity Dialogues in
Madison, Wisconsin; Savannah, Georgia; and San Francisco. These sessions will facilitate workinggroup discussions with local law enforcement agencies about how to address the barriers and
implement the promising practices outlined in the report. Members of law enforcement who would
like to learn more about the Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement initiative or the Diversity
Dialogues, should email police.diversity@usdoj.gov.
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