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The path to winning appointment to Long Island’s highly paid police forces has been more than three times tougher for Black would-be officers than for white applicants and twice as tough for Hispanic job seekers in recruitment by the Nassau and Suffolk County departments, a Newsday investigation has found.
With thousands more people seeking jobs than the number needed by the two forces, the investigation revealed that since 2012, each county’s hiring process rejected minorities at rates that exceeded a federally established benchmark used to detect evidence of unlawful discrimination.
Candidates for positions on the 2,400-member Nassau County Police Department and the 2,400-member Suffolk County Police Department compete on written exams and then undergo physical fitness tests, psychological screening, medical evaluations and background reviews.