LAPD Holds Back Black Officers, State Says : Bias: Fair employment agency finds great disproportion between those who are qualified for raises and promotions and those who have received them.

Following a similar finding last month for Latino officers, California fair employment officials accused the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday of discriminating against black police officers in the way that they are promoted, granted raises and moved up to coveted job assignments.

The investigation by the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing found a “great disproportion” between the number of qualified black officers who have applied for promotions, raises and favorable job assignments and those who actually have seen their careers rise within the department.

The complaint also said the department utilizes “discriminatory selection examinations” that cancel out many qualified black candidates for job promotions.

Patrick Patterson, an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the accusations involving black officers, coming so closely after similar allegations in December involving Latino police promotions, show “the pervasive and blatant pattern of discrimination against minorities in the LAPD.”

“Minority police officers put their lives on the line on the streets of Los Angeles every day,” said Patterson, who as an attorney for the fund brought the allegations to the state agency on behalf of John W. Hunter, a black officer.

“They deserve fairness when it comes to job advancement and promotion,” he said. “If a police department is to represent fairness to the community, it must first be fair and unbiased to its officers.”

In the case involving Latino officers, the agency said Latino officers in the Los Angeles Police Department have been unfairly held back for a decade because of biased and unfair job promotion procedures. Now, the two separate complaints involving Latino and black officers await hearings before the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission.

The commission has the power to order the Police Department to change its procedures to ensure that blacks and Latinos receive equal treatment.

In the black officers’ case, the agency wants the Police Department to revise its system of testing officers for promotion and to follow affirmative action requirements in the way qualified candidates are selected for promotion.

The agency also is asking that the Police Department pay Hunter and other black officers back wages and job benefits that they would have received had they not been passed over for promotions.

Cmdr. William Booth, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, denied that black police officers are treated any differently than other police personnel.

“I really don’t believe anyone with any sincerity can claim that this department is discriminatory,” Booth said. “The promotional opportunities are the same for everyone, and I think the ultimate disposition in this case will be that our position will be upheld.”

Booth said the Police Department is working under a federal court consent decree which mandates that the 22% of the police force consist of black officers.

He also said the higher ranks within the department include black supervisors, including one assistant chief and one deputy chief.

The department has 8,400 sworn police officers, 13.8% of them black.

“Nobody’s being singled out,” he said. “Our public posture and our recruitment posters have said for some time that on the LAPD, all our officers come in blue (uniforms).

“And we’re not just posturing there,” he added. “. . . There is no discrimination.”

Officer Hunter said he joined the department in 1968, and that he made the rank of detective II in the narcotics division eight years later. But he told the Department of Fair Employment and Housing that since 1980, he was repeatedly passed over for a promotion to detective III.

He added that he was finally promoted to detective III recently, but only because he filed the complaint with the state agency.

“I was passed over time and again in favor of white officers, and finally got the position (of detective III) only a few months ago after I filed this complaint,” he said.

“I’ve proven my qualifications over 16 years as a narcotics detective. I’ve risked my life in this job. Then I discover that I can’t get ahead, just because I’m black.”

In describing examples of alleged discrimination against black officers, the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing charged that:

* Between 1986 and 1987, 26.9% of the white officers and only 11.8% of the black officers were promoted to the rank of detective.

* While 20.1% of the white officers who applied for sergeant were promoted to that rank, only 5.7% of the black officers made sergeant.

* A total of 23.5% of the white officers and only 4.2% of the black officers who applied were promoted to lieutenant.