Mayor Domenic Sarno told a national news outlet that he feels Springfield, MA’s police department “accurately” reflects the diversity of his city. But the department’s own numbers — from August of 2014 — tell a different story.
The survey, conducted by Politico, was filled out by 71 mayors across the U.S. Only a third of them said they felt their police departments’ racial makeup “accurately” or “very accurately” reflects the diversity of their cities.
While Springfield is more than 40 percent Hispanic, just 26 percent of the department’s sworn officers are Hispanic.
Black residents make up about 20 percent of the city’s population, but only 13 percent of police officers.
The police department has not yet answered a request for more recent numbers.
Asked for comment on the divide between the mayor’s response to the survey, and the department’s actual diversity, a Sarno spokesperson said the mayor “has no further comment.”
Politico told mayors responding to the survey that their answers to most questions would be anonymous, but NEPR requested a copy of Sarno’s answers from the city. The city’s top lawyer obliged, noting the mayor “indicated that the document does not contain any opinions that he has not already disclosed.”
In his answers to multiple choice questions, Sarno said he is “concerned” about race and police relations in his city, while rating the police department’s relationship with Springfield’s minority communities as “good.”
On another question, he replied he is worried for the safety of police, but “neither worried nor unworried” about the safety of people of color when they encounter police.
Mayor Sarno's Responses To Politico Survey by New England Public Radio on Scribd
