The Hartford Police Department welcomed its most diverse class of new recruits ever on Friday evening.
Of the 18 new men and women to graduate from the police academy this year, 14 are African American or Hispanic and half are women, making them the most representative class to ever complete the Hartford Police Academy, officials said.
Such a diverse class “is unheard of in law enforcement and a testament to our recruitment team, incidentally led by a Latino female lieutenant who has done an outstanding job,” Interim Police Chief Jason Thody said at the graduation ceremony in a packed Aetna Auditorium.
Hartford police launched a new recruitment effort in May 2018 and have focused intently on boosting the number of female and racially diverse cadets to enter the academy while growing its force to pre-recession levels.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin has made expanding the force a priority of his tenure as mayor and the city has said the department has added 122 officers since he took office in January 2016. A majority of those hires have been African American, Hispanic or Asian and a quarter have been women, according to the city.
Those increases have helped move the department closer to representing the extremely diverse community at large, which in turns makes it a more effective policing agency, Thody and Bronin said.
“So why is diversity important? Because everything turns out better when people are more comfortable and common ground creates more comfort,” Thody told the new officers Friday night. “Diversity of all types makes the department better equipped to serve our community in the most effective way possible and this class represents our continued efforts to make that goal a reality.”
The graduating class Friday night also included four new New Britain officers, three new West Hartford officers, two new Enfield officers and one new Bristol officer.
Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com.