U.S. Request to End Quotas in Police, Fire Hiring Won’t Affect L.A., Officials Say

A U.S. Justice Department recommendation that Los Angeles end the use of racial employment quotas in its police and fire departments will have no effect on hiring policies, city officials said Wednesday.

In a letter sent to the city in January and released by the Justice Department Tuesday, department officials cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last June. The department said the ruling prohibits using hiring quotas or other forms of preferential treatment to benefit those who cannot prove that they have been actual victims of discrimination.

However, city officials said Wednesday that the department’s reading of the Supreme Court ruling is too broad, and that they oppose any changes in current city hiring policies.

‘Simply Dead Wrong’

“The Justice Department is simply dead wrong in its interpretation,” Mayor Tom Bradley said. “The system we have now was worked out with the Justice Department several years ago and it is working.”

At issue are three consent decrees worked out between the deparment, the city attorney, the City Council and the police and fire departments. In the mid- to-late 1970s, the city was under pressure from the Justice Department to bring more women and minorities into the police and fire departments.

As a result, since 1974, the Fire Department has operated under an agreement between the city and the Justice Department, which was approved by a federal court. The agreement requires that 50% of the department’s new recruits be black, Latino and Asian each year until the percentages of those minorities in the department parallel related proportions in the city’s population.

The Police Department, under a consent decree approved in 1980 by the federal court, is required to make 25% of its new recruits women until females account for 25% of the sworn force. Another consent decree also approved that year requires that 22.5% of the Police Department’s new recruits be black and 22.5% Latino until those groups account for the same proportions of the department as they do in the city population.

Legally Binding

Those decrees are legally binding unless the Justice Department or the Los Angeles City Council chooses to challenge them, acting City Atty. Gary Netzer said.

“The Justice Department now wants us to undo the consent decrees they forced us into years ago,” Netzer said. “I doubt if you’ll find any sympathy with our City Council to change anything, especially since it’s our advice that the Supreme Court ruling does not affect us.”

The Supreme Court ruling last June was based on a lawsuit filed by firefighters in Memphis. The court ruled that cities could not lay off more senior workers to save the jobs of minority employees with less seniority.

Netzer contended that the court did not address hiring programs such as the one in Los Angeles, which, he said, have nothing to do with seniority and have not used employee layoffs to further affirmative action goals.

Would Oppose Change

Both City Council President Pat Russell and Councilman Marvin Braude, chairman of the council’s Police, Fire and Public Safety Committee, said they will oppose any change in the current hiring system, which Braude called “both enlightened and fair.” “Everybody hired has been well trained and qualified,” he said. “They are not quotas.” The consent decrees have led to more aggressive recruiting for women and minorities, he added.

Reacting to the Justice Department directive, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said that any final decision on the use of quota systems for hiring should be left up to the City Council.