The NYPD has just hired its largest, most diverse class of cadets ever — a group of newbies who are 80 percent minority.
Funding from the City Council was crucial to recruiting the 637 cadets, who will be handling administrative duties while working toward a spot at the Police Academy, officials said. The number is nearly five times that of 2014, said First Deputy Police Commissioner Benjamin Tucker.
“We recognize the importance of having this pipeline for young people to encourage them to come into the program and then become police officers,” Tucker said.
Hispanics make up 39 percent of the new cadet class, in a department that is 27 percent Hispanic, while Asian and Pacific Islanders make up 21.9 percent of the new cadets, or triple the percentage of current officers of that ethnicity.
The percentage of black cadets is 16.4 percent, slightly above department demographics, despite efforts by Mayor Bill de Blasio to increase the force’s African-American makeup to 23 percent from the current level of 15 percent.
The percentage of whites is 19.8 percent, with the force at 50 percent.
The cadets earn college credits needed to advance into the Police Academy and could make $64,000 in stipends over the next four years.
The borough that produced the largest number of cadets, 123, was Queens, while Manhattan produced the least, 17.