More minorities will be taking the April 2017 hiring exam for the Chicago Police Department as the result of a city initiative, according an announcement Mayor Rahm Emanuel made on Nov. 18.

The initiative, called Be The Change, is intended to increase the department’s diversity—currently 24.7 percent black, 18.8 percent Hispanic and 0.3 percent Asian, according to a September 2015 Governing Magazine article.  The initiative encourages minority individuals to take the hiring exam and eventually become police officers.

Brown Farmer Media Group, a business operated by women and minorities, is leading the initiative in collaboration with CPD and will have local businesses, colleges, universities, police associations and faith organizations host recruitment events. To encourage everyone interested to apply, the $30 test fee has been waived, and options for taking the physical fitness test were expanded, according to a Nov. 23 article from ChicagoDefender.com. 

The majority of local law enforcement positions have historically been held by white men who in turn encourage their children to become police officers, while minority adults and children view law enforcement as oppressive and someplace they do not belong, according to an Aug. 28, 2015, Governing Magazine article.

It is important to encourage groups that have been denied access to certain jobs and industries to seek and gain that access. Offering perspectives that were previously silenced, minority individuals deserve to enter any field they are interested in, including law enforcement, and Chicagoans have a right to expect their government to remove institutional barriers.

However, the initiative comes at a time when the CPD is currently under investigation for violations of civil rights, a result of the brutal death of Laquan McDonald by a CPD officer and a legacy of racial profiling and police brutality. Emanuel appears to be characterizing  the city’s  efforts as a remedy to this problem and an effort to establish trust between the city and minorities. 

Minority individuals who are recruited through Be The Change should not be seen as the perfect solution to CPD’s problems. This places expectations on these employees that their white counterparts do not have. While the initiative is the right thing to do, it does not replace the need for reforms in training and reporting systems that must occur for the department to change.

Research on the effects of increasing diversity in a police department is not conclusive, and racial bias in policing come less from someone’s personal background and more from the environment in which they are trained and the tactics they learn, according to an Aug. 22 PBS News article.

If CPD is trying to establish a relationship between the community and officers and beginning to rebuild a reputation tarnished because of racism and violence, hiring a diverse group of officers is not the solution to all those issues. The individuals being hired throughout the next two years should not feel responsible for fixing a broken system.