Ugh, this is a bitch of a topic. Wish I had a dollar for every paper I wrote on it in the past. Sadly far to often municipalities hire applicants purely on ethnicity. The tops of the food chain would rather just hire minorities vs. having a pissing contest with equal rights groups. This way of running the mill again sadly puts less qualified canidates into positions they don't deserve. Reverse discrimination sucks, but if our leaders keep letting the public throw down the race card for bullshit reasons then things are only going to get worse. We have far to many weak backbones in to far many leadership roles. I am not one for letting oppurtunity slip by, so if I was a minority applying for a law enforcement job, hell I would be all over it.
On the opposite side of the coin there are a lot of minorities that possess communication skills that surpass any degree of experience. A bilingual minority in just about any case is going to get the job over the average seasoned joe. That in my mind is totally legit. That just increases your ability to serve the public better. I have befriended and still stay in touch with some folks that are pretty damn hi up in the food chain on the criminal justice ladder and this is a topic that will turn pretty much all of their faces sour. I work in the criminal justice system myself, but on the federal level. It didn't take me long to decide against being a street cop for multiple reasons and this being one of them. Well anyone interested in working for the "man" is free to msg me and I may be able to help and give my .02 on issues like this. I know or have known people who work in the most of the agencies out there. I am also talking U.S. agencies, so sorry not much help on the other countries.