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Report: some cities and towns have not met hiring obligations
The Associated Press
BOSTON- Most Massachusetts cities and towns ordered to diversify their police and fire departments in the 1970s have met their racial hiring goals, but 17 police and fire departments in 12 cities and towns have not.
Chelsea, Lawrence and Holyoke, with black and Hispanic populations ranging from 45 percent to 65 percent, have police and fire departments that are only about 20 percent minority, making them the furthest from reaching their goals of "parity" with their cities' minority populations, according to a Boston Sunday Globe analysis.
Fire departments in Cambridge and Newton, and police departments in New Bedford and Winthrop, have reached racial parity, but are still abiding by the consent decrees and hiring based on race. Six white firefighters sued Newton in federal court last month, alleging that Newton's policy is unconstitutional because the city has reach parity.
Similar lawsuits against Boston led to federal court judges throwing out the city's hiring policy for police in November, and the fire department hiring policy in 2003.
Many departments under the statewide consent decree are struggling to keep up with the minority populations they serve, which have grown quickly since the two consent decrees that originally covered 151 cities and towns statewide.
Between 1980 and 2000, the percentage of blacks and Hispanics in Massachusetts has doubled, with much of the increase in urban areas like Springfield, Boston, and Lawrence. Moreover, the court orders focused only on blacks and Hispanics, and did not consider Asians, whose population has risen more than fourfold in that period.
In Lawrence, 18 percent of the city's population was black and Hispanic in 1980. Now, it's 65 percent, while the city's police and fire departments remain only about 20 percent minority.
Police Chief John J. Romero, the city's first Hispanic police chief, wants to eliminate that gap.
"The police department should reflect the community it serves," he said. "Not that a white officer wouldn't do a good job - that's not it at all. But a lot of people in Lawrence don't know English, and the more Hispanics you bring on the job, the better. They know the language, they know the culture."
The consent decrees were the result of lawsuits against police departments by minorities claiming hiring discrimination. The two federal consent decrees were applied to any cities and towns that belonged to the state's Civil Service system, requiring them to take steps to achieve racial diversity.
The consent decrees applied to any city or town with a minority population of at least 1 percent. That applied to 57 fire departments, and 95 police departments.
Since the two decrees, 130 police and fire departments have hired enough minorities and requested that the state Human Resource Department remove their names from the list. The Cambridge Police Department, and the Attleboro Police and Fire Departments were the most recent to be stricken from the list.
After police and fire departments are deemed to have achieved parity and are taken off the list, there's no oversight over the racial balance in the departments.
Supporters of the consent decrees worry that as departments are released, minority hiring will stop being a priority.
"It's an ongoing obligation to keep a diverse police and fire department," said Nadine Cohen, an attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which has closely monitored the Boston cases. "If you're not vigilant about it... the 30 or so years progress we've made can all be done away with rather quickly."
Critics say the decrees are a product of the 70s, and should be updated or scrapped.
"The whole idea of having a quota system for hiring is pretty foreign," said Harold L. Lichten, the attorney who won the recent lawsuits against Boston. "I could imagine a system by which additional consideration were given to minorities, because diversity is a good thing to have in a department. But right now that's one of the only considerations."
The Associated Press
BOSTON- Most Massachusetts cities and towns ordered to diversify their police and fire departments in the 1970s have met their racial hiring goals, but 17 police and fire departments in 12 cities and towns have not.
Chelsea, Lawrence and Holyoke, with black and Hispanic populations ranging from 45 percent to 65 percent, have police and fire departments that are only about 20 percent minority, making them the furthest from reaching their goals of "parity" with their cities' minority populations, according to a Boston Sunday Globe analysis.
Fire departments in Cambridge and Newton, and police departments in New Bedford and Winthrop, have reached racial parity, but are still abiding by the consent decrees and hiring based on race. Six white firefighters sued Newton in federal court last month, alleging that Newton's policy is unconstitutional because the city has reach parity.
Similar lawsuits against Boston led to federal court judges throwing out the city's hiring policy for police in November, and the fire department hiring policy in 2003.
Many departments under the statewide consent decree are struggling to keep up with the minority populations they serve, which have grown quickly since the two consent decrees that originally covered 151 cities and towns statewide.
Between 1980 and 2000, the percentage of blacks and Hispanics in Massachusetts has doubled, with much of the increase in urban areas like Springfield, Boston, and Lawrence. Moreover, the court orders focused only on blacks and Hispanics, and did not consider Asians, whose population has risen more than fourfold in that period.
In Lawrence, 18 percent of the city's population was black and Hispanic in 1980. Now, it's 65 percent, while the city's police and fire departments remain only about 20 percent minority.
Police Chief John J. Romero, the city's first Hispanic police chief, wants to eliminate that gap.
"The police department should reflect the community it serves," he said. "Not that a white officer wouldn't do a good job - that's not it at all. But a lot of people in Lawrence don't know English, and the more Hispanics you bring on the job, the better. They know the language, they know the culture."
The consent decrees were the result of lawsuits against police departments by minorities claiming hiring discrimination. The two federal consent decrees were applied to any cities and towns that belonged to the state's Civil Service system, requiring them to take steps to achieve racial diversity.
The consent decrees applied to any city or town with a minority population of at least 1 percent. That applied to 57 fire departments, and 95 police departments.
Since the two decrees, 130 police and fire departments have hired enough minorities and requested that the state Human Resource Department remove their names from the list. The Cambridge Police Department, and the Attleboro Police and Fire Departments were the most recent to be stricken from the list.
After police and fire departments are deemed to have achieved parity and are taken off the list, there's no oversight over the racial balance in the departments.
Supporters of the consent decrees worry that as departments are released, minority hiring will stop being a priority.
"It's an ongoing obligation to keep a diverse police and fire department," said Nadine Cohen, an attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which has closely monitored the Boston cases. "If you're not vigilant about it... the 30 or so years progress we've made can all be done away with rather quickly."
Critics say the decrees are a product of the 70s, and should be updated or scrapped.
"The whole idea of having a quota system for hiring is pretty foreign," said Harold L. Lichten, the attorney who won the recent lawsuits against Boston. "I could imagine a system by which additional consideration were given to minorities, because diversity is a good thing to have in a department. But right now that's one of the only considerations."