CHICAGO — As Chicago enters its last week for recruiting new police officers, most of those applying are minorities, even as the department's relationship with people of color has eroded in recent months.
Some 7,500 people have applied and paid to take the police entrance exam, and 70 percent of the applicants have been minorities.
About 75 percent of people who take the exam pass it, Soo Choi, Chicago's human resources commissioner, told Reuters.
It's the first time the city has offered the test since 2013.
Applications are due by Sunday. The exam, which carries a fee of $30, will be given April 16 and April 17. Police applications can be found here.
To help reach minority candidates, police officials held community meetings at churches, schools and other neighborhood forums. In November, the city announced the resumption of testing, with then-Supt. Garry McCarthy saying, "Some may say now is not the time to become a police officer. I say the exact opposite. There's probably never been a more important time in policing."
"We want all parts of the city represented in the Police Department," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at the time.
The city has suffered from widely publicized incidents of officers shooting citizens, which have resulted in protests, the forced resignation of McCarthy and calls for Emanuel to resign.
Interim Police Supt. John Escalante told Reuters this week: "I hope people would look at the job as a challenge, not just to help improve things in the city and neighborhoods where they grew up, but to help us internally ... to build some trust and credibility in communities where we're struggling right now," he said.
Currently, the Chicago Police Department's racial makeup is 49 percent white, 27 percent black, 21 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian, according to documents presented to the City Council last October.
Starting pay is $47,604 and increases to $72,500 after 18 months.
Applicants must be 18 by Feb. 29, 2016, and be 21 at the time they are hired. Applicants must have 60 semester hours of college work, though active military duty changes the education requirement. Applicants do not have to be city residents but will be required to live in Chicago if hired.
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