Last month, Lincoln University of Missouri’s interim president Dr. John Moseley, stood on stage in front of the nine members of the first graduating class of Lincoln’s law enforcement training academy—the first police academy to exist on the grounds of an historically Black college or university (HCBU).
Mosley touched on the importance of the occasion.
“The diversity of this class is greater than what you will find in most police departments,” he said. “Approximately 67% of the nation’s officers are white, while 12% are Black. Women make up about 15% of police forces nationwide.”
These first nine were a diverse class —seven Black and two white.
Typically, when students matriculate into a police academy, they do so by signing a contract to serve within one specific department. But these students are free agents and can go and join a department anywhere in America. Some also graduated with their bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice from Lincoln. It’s exactly what Chief Gary Hill wanted when he decided to open the academy at Lincoln in January of this year.
“I just really wanted to increase minorities in law enforcement,” he said.
A merger of these two seemingly disparate institutions— policing and HBCUs— has raised the ire of some Black activists and academics, particularly in the wake of the string of killings of unarmed Black men and women and calls to defund the police.
