FBI Told to Redo System of Promotion : Judge Acts After Trial That Found Bias Against Latino Agents

A federal judge today ordered changes in the way the FBI promotes its minority agents, calling the promotional method now “unsystematic and excessively subjective.”

U.S. District Judge Lucius Bunton’s order abolished the ability of the bureau’s special agents in charge to arbitrarily determine who is promoted.

Bunton called the system under which the special agents can disregard the recommendation of a career review board an “anathema to nearly every reform advanced by the bureau” and ordered the agency “to improve the fairness and reviewability of an accessibly subjective promotional process.”

Major Embarrassment

After a two-week, non-jury trial last summer, Bunton found that the FBI had discriminated against Latino agents in promotions, discipline and assignments. It was a major embarrassment for the FBI, which investigates civil rights violations.

Latino agents had asked for back pay, but Bunton declined to order any monetary damages in announcing his ruling. However, he ordered the appointment of a three-member panel to examine on an individual basis the plaintiff agents’ request for promotions they claim they have been denied as a result of the discrimination.

Bunton ordered that original plaintiff Bernardo M. (Mat) Perez be promoted to the next job level in the bureau within 45 days and that the bureau must “make available to Perez responsibilities commensurate with his experience and training.”

Also, FBI Director Williams S. Sessions must report to the court every 90 days regarding promotional decisions about Perez until he becomes a special agent in charge or attains a similar position of responsibility.

Bunton praised the efforts made by the FBI since it was found guilty in September of discriminating against Latino agents.

“The bureau has taken significant steps since the date of the trial to correct the disparate conditions of employment,” Bunton said in the opinion. But he stressed that reforms made so far do not go far enough.

Officials have said Bunton’s decision could have a ripple effect on how other U.S. law enforcement agencies award promotions and hand out assignments. Latino agents of the U.S. Border Patrol and Customs Service have discussed filing suits similar to the FBI case.

310 Join Suit

The class-action suit was filed in January, 1987, by Perez, then the No. 2 man in El Paso and the FBI’s highest-ranking Latino agent. Eventually, 310 of the FBI’s approximately 400 Latino agents joined Perez in the suit. The FBI has about 9,000 agents.

Perez filed the suit after a demotion and a series of humiliating actions. He was agent in charge of the San Juan, Puerto Rico, office when he was demoted and sent to be assistant agent in charge in Los Angeles.