Diversity is particularly important in the law enforcement context because policing is most successful when it has the support of the community it serves. A lack of diversity does not mean that individual officers or even the department itself has racist undertones. However, a lack of diversity leads to a deficit of institutional knowledge of certain aspects of the community. Minorities tend to view police less favorably when officers do not represent the diversity of their communities. This creates tension between police departments and communities, which makes the job of policing that much harder and ultimately less effective.
