Baltimore County Police promotes its first Latino major; advocates say too few Black officers in leadership

Growing up in a Puerto Rican law enforcement family in New York City, Michael A. Cortes III always knew he wanted to be a police officer. He said his late father, a retired New York Police Department Highway Patrolman, was a “huge influence” on him, and he was raised among a tight-knit community of police families. “Seeing him on the motorcycle, seeing him in his patrol car, going to the Highway Patrol Unit for Christmas and seeing Santa come down in a police helicopter was the coolest thing,” Cortes said in an interview this week.