{"id":162760,"date":"2025-08-21T03:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T03:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/162760\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T03:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T03:20:15","slug":"large-officer-class-brings-more-diversity-to-nypd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/162760\/","title":{"rendered":"Large officer class brings more diversity to NYPD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Waves of retirements in the NYPD have opened the door for the next generation of officers, which includes an increase in immigrant officers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis country is the land of opportunity,\u201d Captain Akim Alam said.<\/p>\n<p>For Alam, that belief brought him to the city from Bangladesh in 2000. Six years later, he started wearing an NYPD uniform.<\/p>\n<p><b>What You Need To Know<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Retirements in the NYPD have opened the door for the next generation of officers, which include an increase in immigrant officers<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>August\u2019s graduating class is the largest since 2016<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Nearly a quarter of the recruits were born outside the U.S., including 44 from Bangladesh<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Fritz Umbach, an NYPD historian, says waves of immigrants have defined the department for more than a century, from Irish and Italian officers in the 1800s to Puerto Rican and Black officers in the mid-20th century<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cAt that time, not so many Bangladeshi Americans joined in law enforcement,\u201d Alam said.<\/p>\n<p>Alam wanted to change that. He co-founded the Bangladeshi American Police Association, a group that began with small gatherings.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s since grown to more than 1200 members. That network has been key for newcomers like Officer Ishmam Chowdhury.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe always believed that anything is possible when someone really tries in the United States,\u201d Chowdhury said.<\/p>\n<p>Chowdhury immigrated to the U.S. in 2019, starting out as a 911 operator, before graduating the police academy and becoming an officer in May.<\/p>\n<p>He says mentorship helped him adjust to the job and the weight of what it represents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t only bring diversity to the department. We bring dedication and a hunger for success that comes from starting over in a new country,\u201d Chowdhury said.<\/p>\n<p>August\u2019s graduating class is the largest since 2016. Nearly a quarter of the recruits were born outside the U.S., including 44 from Bangladesh.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, retirements exceed new hires at the NYPD, and I expect we\u2019ll see an even greater diversification of the force in the next 10 years,\u201d Fritz Umbach, assistant professor of history at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said.<\/p>\n<p>Umbach says, for immigrants joining the NYPD, it\u2019s a shot at the middle class.<\/p>\n<p>He says waves of immigrants have defined the department for more than a century, from Irish and Italian officers in the 1800s to Puerto Rican and Black officers in the mid-20th century.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you get stopped on the streets of New York City today, there\u2019s about a two in three chance that the person who stops you is a person of color,\u201d Umbach said.<\/p>\n<p>The Bangladeshi community\u2019s contribution is also a reminder of sacrifice.<\/p>\n<p>Fallen Detective Didarul Islam, killed in the Midtown mass shooting last month, was part of that community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like it\u2019s up to us to carry the torch of the Bangladeshi pride not only for the NYPD, but America,\u201d Chowdhury said.<\/p>\n<p>With retirements exceeding new hires, the land of opportunity now opens to a new generation of immigrant officers.<\/p>\n<p>Umbach says the next 10 years could bring the most diverse NYPD the city\u2019s ever seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waves of retirements in the NYPD have opened the door for the next generation of officers, which includes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":162761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,12170,7448,21400,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,5292,52,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":{"0":"post-162760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-app-public-safety","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-louis-finley","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-public-safety","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-vod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115064604198342983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}