Overrepresentation of whites in police departments is getting worse, not better

Economist Jed Kolko pulled some demographic data Thursday morning that sheds some light on race and policing in the United States.

First, the shrinking and then growing-again gap between black and white representations on police forces:

Second, the way this intersects with the fact that younger cohorts are less white than older ones:

From the viewpoint of younger African-Americans, in other words, police departments massively underrepresent people like them. And contrary to feel-good stories about race in America, there’s no progress being made. There was a lot of progress between 1950 and 1990, but 1990 was 25 years ago. Over the past generation or so, things have gotten worse.