Suit to target city police race policies
Says hiring quotas violate Constitution
By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff, 12/17/2003
The lawyer who successfully challenged the Boston Fire Department's 29-year-old affirmative action plan will file suit today against the Boston police, arguing that the department has achieved racial balance and should no longer use hiring quotas.
If successful, the suit would end hiring policies put in place in Boston after two 1974 federal consent decrees ordered the city's police and fire departments to correct gross imbalances in the racial composition of their forces. Nine months ago, a federal appeals court ruled that the Fire Department could no longer follow its policy of hiring one black or Hispanic firefighter for every white firefighter, because it had achieved racial parity at the entry level.
Pointing out that blacks and Hispanics make up 38.8 percent of new officers in the Police Department, mirroring the racial mix of the city, the suit similarly argues that police hiring policy violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection.
"The defendants continue to maintain or permit a quota-based system based on race to determine entry-level hiring when such system is no longer constitutionally permissible," says the suit, which will be filed today in US District Court in Boston.
The suit, filed by Harold Lichten, is sure to once again touch a nerve in a city where racial divisions and acute injustices of the past have not been forgotten.
Many politicians and policy makers, though agreeing that racial parity has largely been achieved in entry-level police positions, have been loath to propose changing hiring practices, preferring to rely on the courts.
"It's been such a divisive issue in Boston," said Councilor at Large Maura Hennigan. "We've had such a long history of stereotypes dealing with racial issues that people are very sensitive when they try to address it from a fairness perspective. . . .
"Where you were as the racial issues unfolded in the city's history determines your perspective," she said. "If you were personally involved, it's a memory etched into being who you are. That's what is so difficult. Whichever side of the issue you're on -- if you experienced it, it's hard to objectively deal with it." Today's filing is not the first time that Police Department hiring quotas have been challenged in court. Bradley Donahue, a white applicant, sued in 2000, but his case was thrown out after the court found he did not score high enough on the state civil service test to have been hired even if the affirmative-action plan had not been in place. He is appealing.
The latest lawsuit is being brought on behalf of Paul DeLeo Jr., a municipal police officer from East Boston who got a perfect score on the 2001 civil service test and was awarded an extra point for being a police officer.
"When I got my grade, I thought I was in the door," DeLeo said. "I knew I couldn't possibly do any better. I waited and waited and didn't get hired. If you can't get hired with 100, why have a test?"
This year, 50 white applicants with scores of 100 or better were not hired, according to data provided by the state Human Resources Division.
"I don't understand why the city is continuing to maintain this system, which it clearly knows will be declared unlawful by the federal court," said Lichten, who successfully sued the Fire Department on behalf of five white candidates who had been denied jobs.
Police officials declined comment on the latest suit, which they said they have not seen. But legal adviser Mary Jo Harris said the department has not yet decided how to choose future classes of police recruits, whether to apply or abandon racial quotas.
"We're going to evaluate when and if we have a new [recruit] class on the horizon," she said.
As the lawsuit was prepared for filing yesterday, there was strong response from those on both sides of the issue.
"The policy of the past 30 years has got to change," said Councilor James M. Kelly, who opposes affirmative action.
But minority police officers and the NAACP, which will oppose the suit, say the court order should not be abandoned.
"The Police Department has come a long way, but there is still a lot more work that needs to be done," said Leonard Alkins, president of the NAACP's Boston branch. "When the city feels it has reached its goal, they will move to ask the courts to be relieved of the consent decree. The city has not chosen to do so. Obviously, it feels they haven't reached it yet. It's very disingenuous for people to try to play the race card unnecessarily."
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
Says hiring quotas violate Constitution
By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff, 12/17/2003
The lawyer who successfully challenged the Boston Fire Department's 29-year-old affirmative action plan will file suit today against the Boston police, arguing that the department has achieved racial balance and should no longer use hiring quotas.
If successful, the suit would end hiring policies put in place in Boston after two 1974 federal consent decrees ordered the city's police and fire departments to correct gross imbalances in the racial composition of their forces. Nine months ago, a federal appeals court ruled that the Fire Department could no longer follow its policy of hiring one black or Hispanic firefighter for every white firefighter, because it had achieved racial parity at the entry level.
Pointing out that blacks and Hispanics make up 38.8 percent of new officers in the Police Department, mirroring the racial mix of the city, the suit similarly argues that police hiring policy violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection.
"The defendants continue to maintain or permit a quota-based system based on race to determine entry-level hiring when such system is no longer constitutionally permissible," says the suit, which will be filed today in US District Court in Boston.
The suit, filed by Harold Lichten, is sure to once again touch a nerve in a city where racial divisions and acute injustices of the past have not been forgotten.
Many politicians and policy makers, though agreeing that racial parity has largely been achieved in entry-level police positions, have been loath to propose changing hiring practices, preferring to rely on the courts.
"It's been such a divisive issue in Boston," said Councilor at Large Maura Hennigan. "We've had such a long history of stereotypes dealing with racial issues that people are very sensitive when they try to address it from a fairness perspective. . . .
"Where you were as the racial issues unfolded in the city's history determines your perspective," she said. "If you were personally involved, it's a memory etched into being who you are. That's what is so difficult. Whichever side of the issue you're on -- if you experienced it, it's hard to objectively deal with it." Today's filing is not the first time that Police Department hiring quotas have been challenged in court. Bradley Donahue, a white applicant, sued in 2000, but his case was thrown out after the court found he did not score high enough on the state civil service test to have been hired even if the affirmative-action plan had not been in place. He is appealing.
The latest lawsuit is being brought on behalf of Paul DeLeo Jr., a municipal police officer from East Boston who got a perfect score on the 2001 civil service test and was awarded an extra point for being a police officer.
"When I got my grade, I thought I was in the door," DeLeo said. "I knew I couldn't possibly do any better. I waited and waited and didn't get hired. If you can't get hired with 100, why have a test?"
This year, 50 white applicants with scores of 100 or better were not hired, according to data provided by the state Human Resources Division.
"I don't understand why the city is continuing to maintain this system, which it clearly knows will be declared unlawful by the federal court," said Lichten, who successfully sued the Fire Department on behalf of five white candidates who had been denied jobs.
Police officials declined comment on the latest suit, which they said they have not seen. But legal adviser Mary Jo Harris said the department has not yet decided how to choose future classes of police recruits, whether to apply or abandon racial quotas.
"We're going to evaluate when and if we have a new [recruit] class on the horizon," she said.
As the lawsuit was prepared for filing yesterday, there was strong response from those on both sides of the issue.
"The policy of the past 30 years has got to change," said Councilor James M. Kelly, who opposes affirmative action.
But minority police officers and the NAACP, which will oppose the suit, say the court order should not be abandoned.
"The Police Department has come a long way, but there is still a lot more work that needs to be done," said Leonard Alkins, president of the NAACP's Boston branch. "When the city feels it has reached its goal, they will move to ask the courts to be relieved of the consent decree. The city has not chosen to do so. Obviously, it feels they haven't reached it yet. It's very disingenuous for people to try to play the race card unnecessarily."
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
