Hire Them . . . Then Forget Them? : Settlement of job-bias complaints against LAPD shows obstacles to minorities and women

The Los Angeles Police Department has made progress in hiring African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and women since a 1981 consent decree required more minority officers. But despite the improvement, most minority and women officers have remained in entry-level positions while the department leadership has remained basically white and male.

To encourage equality in promotions to the supervisory and managerial ranks, the Los Angeles City Council has approved a broad and significant settlement of employee discrimination complaints against the LAPD. The agreement should change the face of police management by making it more reflective of the pool of officers eligible for promotion and the city’s population.

The settlement will set goals for the promotion of minority and women officers to sergeant and lieutenant--key supervisory ranks--and other prestigious positions that are steppingstones into upper management.

The deal requires the LAPD to meet with minority police associations for the next 12 to 15 years to review the progress. The agreement, which was negotiated by lawyers for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, private attorneys and city attorneys, also earmarks $1.5 million for training programs, tutorials and scholarships to aid advancement.

The settlement grew out of discrimination complaints filed by a black detective and a Latino officers group, but covers Asian and women officers as well.

The state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, in response to the complaints, found “a great disproportion” between the number of minorities who applied for promotions and those who were promoted. Similarly, the Christopher Commission, which investigated the LAPD in the aftermath of the police beating of Rodney King, documented a continued concentration of minority officers in the patrol ranks during the last decade despite an increase in the numbers of minority officers in the LAPD and of those who had enough tenure to apply for promotions. Women also were rarely found among detectives or in the supervisory and managerial ranks.

The commission recommended that minority and women officers “be given full and equal opportunity to assume leadership positions in the LAPD.” It will take that and more to make the LAPD fully responsive to Los Angeles.