Los Angeles Daily News, CA
March 24 2007
Culture plays role in police diversity
Armenian community more receptive to law enforcement jobs
BY EUGENE TONG, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 03/23/2007 09:51:26 PM PDT
GLENDALE – Tigran Topadzhikyan was born in Soviet-era Armenia, a
repressive place where police officers didn’t have the best public
image.
So it wasn’t entirely a surprise that his mother would frown on his
decision to pursue a law enforcement career.
"My mom was a little apprehensive," said Topadzhikyan, 31, who has
served as a Glendale police officer for more than a decade. "She
thinks it was dangerous even when I was an (police) Explorer. I was
the first one in my family doing something like that. She supports me
throughout now."
Topadzhikyan and Lola Abrahamian, also of Armenian descent, were
among four officers recently promoted to sergeant – a boon to a
department that has been trying to diversify its force to police an
increasingly diverse city of 207,000.
According to city and census estimates, at least 30 percent of its
residents are Armenian-American, 20 percent are Latino and 17 percent
Asian-American.
But the current force of 253 officers – 6 percent are of Armenian
descent, 23 percent Latino, 6 percent Asian-American and 60 percent
white – still needs to catch up.
"Ideally, you want your police force to match the demographics of the
city," Glendale Police Chief Randy
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Adams said in a recent interview. "The reality is, that does not
happen overnight."
The department has made progress – a decade ago, only three officers
out of a force of 195 were Armenian-American, compared with seven in
2002 and 14 today.
The difficulty lies in finding enough recruits who meet department
standards – and a cultural bias of some Armenian families who view
law enforcement as a blue-collar profession to be avoided, Adams
said.
"In order to match the demographics of the city, you certainly
shouldn’t compromise your standards," he said.
However, critics say change isn’t happening fast enough. Zanku
Armenian of the Armenian National Committee said the department needs
to step up recruitment while training current officers to better
navigate the community.
"Just like you would have diversity training in a major corporation,
there needs to be that kind of fundamental training in the department
in order to evolve the culture," said Armenian, a board member of the
group’s western region chapter. "It takes a long time and very
thoughtful effort."
Past friction between the department and some Armenians has fostered
a measure of distrust. Stephan Partamian, an Armenian community
activist, said police made it a point to pull over people of color in
the 1980s, a time before the city’s demographics shifted.
"I think right now, it’s the best as ever," said Partamian, who hosts
a call-in television show. "Glendale police have done very well in
adapting to the multicultural face of Glendale. … But every week,
people call me to complain."
A lot of the calls are rooted in cultural misunderstanding, Partamian
said. He recalls a run-in he had last year with an officer during a
traffic stop:
"He came to the window. … In a very bad manner, he asked me
something – then he spit on the floor, like something I had seen in a
Western movie.
"I gave him my driver’s license, and he asked me how many times had I
been arrested," Partamian said. "I think it’s impolite."
Partamian said he took the issue to the City Council – three of the
five councilmen are of Armenian descent – and met with Adams, who
listened to his concerns.
"It turned out he was a rookie officer and had a habit of chewing
tobacco."
That’s not to say would-be Armenian-American criminals won’t try to
take advantage of a common ethnicity.
"Obviously, that’s happened," said Abrahamian, a 10-year Glendale
police veteran who was born in Iran and grew up in Los Angeles. "I’ve
arrested somebody and they would say, `How is it? Can you let me go?’
"The answer is, no."