DENVER (KDVR) — While Denver’s pool of police applicants is not representative of women, it is for race and ethnicity.
In the past five years, the Denver Police Department’s applications look mostly similar to the city’s demographics. In some cases, certain racial groups are overrepresented. Some racial groups underapply relative to their share of the city’s population, but by small margins.
The department’s applications were 48.6% white, while Denver is 54.2% white according to the U.S. Census. Hispanic or Latino applicants are the second-largest applicant group. They were 27.7% of applicants while making up 29.5% of the city.
Other groups apply in larger numbers. Black or African-American applicants represented 11.62% of the applications between 2018 and 2022, while only 9.2% of the city’s population.
The pool of applications has gotten less white over time. In 2018, 53% of the applicants identified as white alone. In 2022, 43% were white alone. The share of Black and Hispanic applications rose at the same time.