(25 News)–Peoria Police and Fire Departments addressed the City Council on Tuesday night about diversity in their departments.
The tone from both Assistant Fire Chief Tony Ardis and Police Chief Loren Marion was that they are not meeting their set goals when it comes to diversity, but not for a lack of trying, combined with a drop in total applicants.
They addressed the council per request of a committee established in 2015 to track the rate of diversity hires for police and fire.
As the numbers stand right now:
In the Fire Department of 192 employees, 16-perecent fall under protected class which includes women and minorities.
In the police department of the 208 employees, 26-percent fall under the protected class.
Assistant Fire Chief Tony Ardis said for their department it is hard in increase their number of minorities and women because budget cuts have meant no hires in 2019.
“We just don’t hire that often so it’s very difficult to make any huge strides in terms of changing the percentages in any of those areas just because We don’t hire that often.” said Ardis
The police department has seen an increase in minority applications fro both men and women.
Both departments along with the city’s Diversity and Inclusion Officer said that they have made multiple efforts to recruit new applicants including social media campaigns and going to local schools.
The main concern brought up by members of the council is a desire for the departments to recruit where those groups of individuals would be.
For a full look at the findings you can find them on the city website under presentations of July 23rd meeting.
