FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) – Racial tensions have run high for decades in this former railroad town that was once a mostly white St. Louis suburb until demographic changes sent many families packing for more distant communities.
Today, Ferguson is predominantly black, but the law here is still enforced by an overwhelmingly white police force, a fact that helps engender widespread distrust of officers – never more so than last weekend, when a white officer shot and killed an unarmed young black man who was about to start college.
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said 50 of the city’s 53 police officers are white. He said he made recruiting and promoting black officers a priority when he took over four years ago after a three-decade police career in St. Louis and St. Louis County.
Jackson said he promoted two black officers to sergeant in his first year in Ferguson, though one of those officers has since left for a better-paying job.
“I’m constantly trying to recruit African-Americans and other minorities,” he said. “But it’s an uphill battle. The minority makeup of this police department is not where I want it to be.”