The New York Times cites data and analysis from Social Explorer's Andrew Beveridge in its examination of the lack of diversity in police precincts.  In the article "Mostly White Forces in Mostly Black Towns: Police Struggle for Racial Diversity," reporter Shaila Dewan explores the demographics and challenges of police precincts in Ferguson, MO, Maple Heights, OH, and beyond.  The data show that while the cities are diverse or majority African American, police forces remain predominetely white.

Across the country, police departments still struggle to hire and retain minority candidates — in some cases despite great efforts, in others because of a lack of initiative. But now, the problem has taken on new relevance since the fatal shooting of a young black man last month in Ferguson, Mo., where just four of the 53 police officers are black, according to the police chief…

Data from a federal survey of police departments in 2007, analyzed for The New York Times by Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College, found that nearly 400 departments, most with fewer than a hundred officers, were substantially whiter than the populations they served. In these departments, the share of white officers was greater than the share of white residents by more than 50 percentage points.

Jeremy Askenas and Haeyoun Park developed graphics from Social Explorer's data analysis.  Click around the city maps and charts to learn more about how the different precincts compare.

Read the full article here.