Bangladeshis in the New York police force

 Hasanur Rahman Hasan  :    PoliceThere are at least a thousand Bangladeshis currently serving in the New York Police Department (NYPD). Most of them serve as traffic enforcement agents. Among the 2,600 members of the traffic enforcement division, more than one-third are of Bangladeshi origin. Some Bangladeshis have also been promoted to supervisors and detectives.

A report appearing in the New York Times three years ago said that although Bangladeshis comprise of about 1 percent of the population in the city, they make up 10-15 percent of all the traffic police deployed in New York.

NYPD traffic supervisor Khan Shawkat says that the reason so many Bangladeshis are in this profession is because it is the only government job where American citizenship is not required to apply. The only things needed are a green card and a high school certificate.

A lot of Bangladeshis learn about this employment opportunity by word of mouth, much of it from Mr. Khan, whose informal advice and encouragement to Bangladeshi immigrants turned into sit-down seminars, in which he helps applicants prepare for the Civil Service exam. He has done 83 seminars so far.

Traffic cop Ashrafuzzaman says that he immigrated from Dhaka through the diversity visa. Mr. Khan’s seminar helped him get the job when he first came to New York. The entrance exam is not too hard, and the pay is decent, starting from around 35,000 dollars per year.

Traffic enforcement agent Sirajul Islam, who comes from Mirpur, Dhaka, says that it is their job to make sure vehicles are abiding the speed limit and not breaking any rules. It’s hard to get legal parking in the city, he says. Whenever cars are parked illegally, or beyond the time of the parking meter, tickets will be issued by the agents and put on the vehicle’s windshield.

According to the traffic enforcement agents, many people try to convince them to not give the tickets. Some beg, some try to bribe, but once a ticket has been written, it cannot be rescinded. Tickets are issued digitally, so there is almost no chance for bribery in this matter. The NYPD has a policy of ‘zero-tolerance’ in this matter. Whoever breaks the law has to pay the fine.