Black police recruit hopes to shatter perceptions

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Renata Phillip was 11 years into a satisfying teaching career when she shocked her friends and family last August by deciding to make a drastic career change: become a police officer.

Most recently, the fatal police shooting of a black man who had a gun in his hand police sparked violent unrest in Milwaukee.

The 26-year-old, who grew up in an idyllic, close-knit neighborhood in Pasadena, has been a probationary officer for just over a year, working the beat she requested in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

Departments have long struggled to recruit black candidates, said Nelson Lim, a researcher at the Rand Corp. who helps organizations diversify.

In the days after a sniper attack killed five of his officers last month, Dallas Police Chief David Brown urged black people to leave protests and join the department to work for change from within.

Phillip, the Los Angeles sheriff's recruit, was settled into her teaching career at Ganesha High School in Pomona, a middle-class city near her hometown of Diamond Bar but far from it in terms of gangs and violent crime.

[...] she decided to become an officer after realizing she was spending more and more time helping her students with problems outside the classroom, and that she was enjoying it.

Phillip said she worked to gain his trust and build rapport, which eventually allowed her to find out what was bothering him and help him transfer to another school.

Only three recruits out of every 100 will make it to graduation, said Capt. Scott Gage, who's in charge of training at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Solomon said she was concerned not because of racial tensions in the U.S., but simply because policing is a dangerous job.