City Accused of Treating Latino Cops Like `Grunts’

Hispanic officers complain they are the “grunts” of the Chicago Police Department, relegated to mundane tasks with few opportunities for advancement.

“Writing tickets and making reports” is the life of a typical Hispanic officer, said Art Parra, president of the Latin American Police Association.

“We have a lot of sharp (Hispanics) out there who are doing the job,” he said. “But their talent is being wasted. I believe we’re being punished.”

“Punished,” Parra said, for being bilingual. He said most Hispanics are assigned to patrol duties in Spanish-speaking communities, and few are chosen for special units, such as tactical, organized crime and narcotics, to learn investigative and other skills needed for advancement.

Parra, 37, a 14-year veteran of the force, has experienced it firsthand. He said he was passed over for special units as a patrol officer, and it took him 13 years to make sergeant.

Hispanics get a taste of undercover work if their language skills are needed in a gambling or narcotics operation, “but once the detail is over, we’re gone,” Parra said.

“I can understand their frustration,” said Police Supt. LeRoy Martin.

Martin said, however, that Hispanic officers are assigned to patrol for a purpose.

“When (citizens) only speak Spanish, they want me to respond with an officer who understands their problems.”

While Hispanics make up 20 percent of the city’s population, they represent about 7 percent of the force. And those officers are less visible in some positions above the rank of patrol officer.

Parra said Hispanic officers aren’t complaining about serving their communities, but they want opportunities for advancement. He noted that career enhancement positions – detective, gang specialist and youth officer – often are steppingstones to the rank of sergeant and above.

“We’re the grunts . . . and (Martin) wants to keep us there,” Parra said.

Parra’s organization, which numbers 300 members, isn’t the only one that wants to close the gaps. The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, along with Parra’s group, is expected to address the City Council about the matter this month.

Martin said he’s working to promote more minorities through merit and he wants all ranks to reflect the percentage of Hispanics on the force.

“Anyone who deserves a promotion will get it,” he said.

Martin noted that the department has pledged to double the number of merit promotions to career enhancement positions for minorities from 15 percent to 30 percent. For example, if 20 officers were promoted by merit, then 30 percent – six or seven officers – would be minorities.

Officers usually take an exam for the career enhancement positions, but can be promoted by merit even if they don’t take it, or score poorly. Martin said the promotions are based in part on performance, dependability and departmental awards.

Sandwiched between Martin and the Latin American Police Association is the Fraternal Order of Police. The union wants promotions based on test results and has challenged the department’s doubling of minority merit promotions. The matter is now in arbitration.

“The most qualified person should be promoted,” said union president John Dineen. Otherwise, he said, “what you’re doing is denying promotions to officers who qualified according to the test.”

Nonetheless, Martin said he’s using the increase in minority merit promotions in part to promote Hispanics, who total 841 officers in the department.

But Parra and officials from MALDEF, the national Hispanic civil rights group, say they haven’t seen the department’s pledge carried out.

“For the last two years, we’ve been dealing with this,” said Arturo Jaregui, a lawyer for the Chicago office of MALDEF.

Jaregui and Parra met with Martin earlier this year after other MALDEF lawyers had talked about the disparity issue with police administrators in 1990.

“I think the only way to get the city’s attention is to file litigation,” Jaregui said. “Otherwise, the problems of Hispanic officers will not be addressed.

“Sometimes speaking another language is a blessing and a curse,” he added. “In this case their opportunities are being minimized.”

David Rose, a Washington, D.C., lawyer, and former chief of the U.S. Justice Department’s employment litigation section, said discrimination in the hiring and promotion of Hispanics has plagued police departments in Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco.

Nationally, “white males tend to dominate police departments,” said Rose, who was in the Justice Department from 1969 to 1987. And minorities, “as outsiders, have trouble getting up in the ranks.”

“They are new in the systems, and others have a leg up and find it easier to get ahead,” Rose said.

Deputy Supt. Matt L. Rodriguez, the highest ranking Hispanic on the Chicago force, said that while patrol officers are needed to combat gangs, drugs and other violence, there’s also a shortage of officers, and promotions are infrequent because of budget restraints.

“That’s the complex part of it,” Rodriguez said. “This is a service job, and yet rightfully, we want to be rewarded for the effort. It’s something that has to be addressed.”

As for the future, the department says there are 87 detective vacancies and 30 openings for youth officers.

Rodriguez said, however, that promotions to those positions would further diminish the patrol ranks. He also said the total number of officers assigned to special units, such as narcotics and organized crime, are small and there is little turnover.

But Jaregui said: “Cities like Chicago have a responsibility to take note of the demographics. There is a history of discrimination in the police department against Hispanics.”

For example, in 1976, U.S. District Judge Prentice H. Marshall found that the city’s police department had discriminated on the basis of race, national origin and sex in hiring and promoting. The city agreed in 1988 to pay $9.3 million in back pay to 200 women and 500 Hispanic and black men who were victims of discrimination.

Even today, though, some argue that equity among officers in the police department remains a long way off.

“We’re not getting our proper share,” said patrol officer Tom Ramos, chairman of the Mexican-American Police Association. “There is a need to correct . . . that.”

Caption: Police officers Maria Salcedo and Frank Castro write parking tickets on their Southwest Side beat. Because many Hispanic police officers are bilingual, they are often assigned to patrol duties in Spanish-speaking communities, says Art Parra, president of the Latin American Police Association. CHARTS; See roll microfilm Credit: Jack Lenahan