A man holds up a sign during a protest, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, in Cleveland. Racism trips up Black police candidates at the very beginning of the application process and as they seek later promotion, complicating efforts to make law enforcement agencies more diverse, say numerous experts and Black police associations and officers. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Black applicants to law enforcement agencies are often filtered out early through racially biased civil service exams, accusations spelled out in multiple lawsuits over the years. In Pittsburgh, a 2012 federal lawsuit alleged the city police department systematically rejected Black applicants at the outset of the process after background checks turned up traffic tickets or drug offenses. The recruitment issue isn’t one solely faced by police department applicants. “I have seen far too many good black candidates disqualified for mistakes that they made when they were 18," Navarre told Republican Ohio Gov. Without addressing the modern-day militarization of law enforcement and establishing better community relations, little will change, said Rodney Coates, a Miami University sociology professor.