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WASHINGTON (AP) — The killing of an unarmed black 18-year-old by an officer in a nearly all-white police department in suburban St. Louis has refocused the country on the racial balance between police forces and the communities they protect.
But an analysis by The Associated Press has found that the racial gap between black police officers and the communities where they work has narrowed over the last generation, especially in departments that once were the least diverse.
And a much larger disparity is now seen in the low number of Hispanic officers in police departments.
In Waco, Texas, the community is more than 30 percent Hispanic, but fewer than 12 percent of the police officers on the local force are Hispanic.
In Anaheim, California, while more than half the community is Hispanic, only 23 percent of the sworn police officers are. Anaheim is where the police killings of two Latino men in 2012 set off weeks of angry protests.
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