The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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If someone does something wrong and this particular police officer wants
to go through doing the paperwork, then something’s going to get done
about it. But if something goes on, and the police officer doesn’t feel like
doing the paperwork or bothering with it, just nothing happens, it’s over
with. So, when you call the cops, you have to hope you get one that will
do something about it.
Desire to be a Police Officer
Most of these youth do not have a desire to be police officers (65 percent of the
whites and 72 percent of the blacks responded “absolutely not”). Of the 101 total youth in
the survey, only 10 showed strong inclinations toward entering the police force (Tables 3,
4).
Most of those who did want to be police officers chose not to comment on why
they felt this way. Some would not consider it out of their basic mistrust of the police. A
black youth said, “If I thought I’d be a police officer, they’d start telling me things and
try to turn me into one of them.” A white youth said he didn’t want to be a police officer
“because everybody thinks they are really bad.”
Those who did want to be police officers generally felt that they could be a
positive influence on a bad organization. They wanted to make sure there was at least one
good cop out there.
As a young black male said, I might be able to change some things. I would treat
everyone alike and make other police treat people better.”