Racial Attitudes of Police Recruits in the United States Midwest Police Academy: A Quantitative Examination

Abstract

This study provides insight into the racial attitudes of police recruits when entering the Midwest Police Academy (a pseudonym) in the United States and after completion of academy training. It draws upon data collected from N=33 recruits, enrolled in the Midwest Police Academy, through administering the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) (Neville, Lilly, Duran, Lee, & Brown, 2000) to measure racial attitudes and survey questions in the first and last week of training. Results indicated that recruits enter the academy with a high level of color-blind racial ideology and there was no significant change in racial attitudes after completing the academy training. This study suggests that the current diversity training offered in the academy is not making a positive impact on racial attitudes of recruits. The results of this study indicate a need for changes in the current diversity training curriculum.