California police forces are becoming more Latino

San Francisco Police Department headquarters in San Francisco on April 18, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

Police forces across California are seeing a rise in Latino officers in the last two decades.

A recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that the number of Latino officers has almost doubled from 2005 to 2024, making up roughly 40% of all officers statewide.

The report also shows that in that same timespan, the share of female officers in the state has risen from about 13% to over 15%.

Evan Sernoffsky is with the San Francisco Police Department. He said the trends reflect their outreach efforts.

“Part of our recruiting strategy has been to cast as wide of net as possible," Sernoffsky said. "That means outreach at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, seeking bilingual officers who speak Spanish, Cantonese. We’ve done a ton of outreach to get more women.”

The number of white and Black officers have been declining in the past 20 years while the number of Asian officers remain low.

Listen to the story at KQED: https://omny.fm/shows/kqed-segmented-audio/kqed-newscast-d8e9e82c-629e-4b88-b58a-d812258b83d5