Jim Mustian and Camille Fassett report in the Daily Freeman that just four percent of New York State Police are Black and only six percent are Hispanic. The state's population is 16 percent Black and 19 percent Hispanic. In 1977 the U.S. Justice Department sued New York for discriminating against minorities in promoting and hiring troopers when just 13 of the agency’s 2,712 troopers were Black. The Justice Department won, and a federal judge mandated that 40 percent of recruits entering the state police training academy be Black or Hispanic. In 1989 the same judge ended the remedial hiring goals after state police reached nine percent Black officers, and six percent Hispanic. Over 30 years later, the Black percentage is lower, and the Hispanic number is the same. Now the police acknowledge they need to do better. “You can’t just keep doing the same thing and expect different results,” acting Superintendent Kevin Bruen said. “We patrol the state, so our ethnic breakdown should roughly mirror that. To say it’s a priority for me would be an understatement.” Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.