Police Promotions Battle is Still Raging

The contentious and confused question of who should be promoted to the rank of sergeant within the Chicago Police Department is about to surface again in federal district court as a 15-year legal battle goes on among a variety of litigants who keep changing sides.

The department is short about 200 sergeants, though about 2,500 police officers scored a passing grade on the 1985 sergeant`s promotional exam.

The problem lies in deciding who to promote and on what basis.

The Fraternal Order of Police and an attorney representing a white female police officer want promotions based on merit and raw test results.

Hispanics and other women, however, demand an even higher share of the promotions than current quotas now provide.

And black males, who initally challenged the way the department hired and promoted candidates in a suit filed in the early 1970s, now are silent on the issue.

U.S. District Judge Prentice Marshall is to hold a hearing on a motion filed recently by the City of Chicago to modify the sergeant promotion quotas of minority police officers.

That hearing, which is likely to be held no later than September, and others to follow are certain to resurrect explosive feelings about past discrimination and who should pay the price.

In 1973, the U.S. Justice Department, one of the original plaintiffs along with the Afro-American Patrolmen`s League, charged in a suit filed against the city that discrimination existed in the nation`s second largest police force when it came to hiring and promoting minorities.

Three years later, Marshall ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered the department to promote black and Hispanic police officers at a 40 percent quota. That quota later was reduced to 25 percent.

The court also ordered the department to promote women police officers at a 5 percent ratio.

The ruling was far from the end of the battle, and sweeping changes in the political landscape brought sweeping changes among the parties involved in the suit.

At the federal level, Sam Skinner, the U.S. attorney in Chicago at the time, hailed Marshall`s decision as a “landmark ruling.” But for the last eight years, U.S. Assistant Atty. Gen. William Bradford Reynolds, head of the Justice Department`s civil-rights division under President Reagan, has fought affirmative-action quotas. Earlier this month, the department asked the court to reject the city`s motion to modify the quotas.

At the city level, Mayor Richard J. Daley once called the quota system “abhorrent to all Americans,“ and the corporation counsel fought Marshall`s order. Now, Judson Miner, appointed by the late Mayor Harold Washington, is asking for the new ratios and for permission to “standardize” the exam, to eliminate adverse impact on black, Hispanic or female candidates. The corporation counsel also wants to raise women`s 5 percent promotional quota to 20 percent and to implement a separate 10 percent quota for Hispanics.

And ironically, with the approval of Police Supt. LeRoy Martin, the city also has proposed to eliminate promotional quotas for blacks. Black police sergeants now nearly reflect the ratio of black officers, explained Bridget Arimond, a special deputy corporation counsel.

Under Marshall`s decree, the department`s goal should be to have a mix of sergeants reasonably representative of the patrol force, which in turn should reflect the city`s labor force.

For almost everyone concerned, the city`s proposed promotion ratios either don`t go far enough or they go too far.

The Fraternal Order of Police opposes quotas and wants the department to promote the most qualified officer according to their rank order on the raw results of the sergeant`s test, without regard to gender, ethnicity or race.

According to the city`s motion, 416 white officers would be promoted if the department used the raw results of the tests and didn`t impose quotas. Using quotas, and adjusting the test for race, 319 white officers would be promoted.

“What the city has done is, through some finagling of its own, produced a standardized list, giving different weights to different questions for different people,” said John Dineen, FOP president.

“I would have been made (sergeant), except they had all these quotas,” said Mike Stather, 46, a Belmont District patrol officer and a 23-year veteran of the force who has taken the sergeant`s exam three times.

“The morale factor is real bad. You`re trying to compete for something when you know up front you`re not going to get a fair shake.”

Women are represented in the case by the city`s request to raise the quotas for females and by three other disparate motions.

The corporation counsel wants to raise the current 5 percent female promotion ratio to 20 percent during the life of the 1988 promotional roster, or until 1991.

The city`s patrol force is currently 12.6 percent female. But women`s representation at the sergeant rank is only 2.3 percent, according to the city`s motion.

Entwined in the arguments over how many women police sergeants there should be are the three other motions..

One, filed by attorney Kimberly Sutherland on behalf of a white female officer, agrees with the FOP and wants women promoted straight from the raw results of the test, without “artificial boosts“ that come from racially adjusted test scores.

The examination results of white women are being illegally lowered in the process of standardizing for race, Sutherland said. “You can`t push down white women,” she said.

But attorney Kenneth Flaxman says the city`s proposed promotion ratios favor white women over black women.

Without the city`s proposed 20 percent quotas for women police officers, females will receive 78 of the 500 promotions. White females would receive 43; black females would receive 31. But under the city`s proposed 20 percent ratios, 100 women would be promoted to sergeant.

Flaxman said the majority of these 22 additional promotions would go to white police officers, while black women would get only a third of the added positions.

Attorney Richard Gutman filed another motion on behalf of Barbara McNamara and other women officers. He is seeking a female promotion ratio commensurate with the number of women police officers currently joining the department, or 33 percent, he said, considerably higher than the city`s proposed 20 percent ratio for women.

For Hispanics, the city wants to implement a new, separate 10 percent quota, eliminating the current 25 percent promotion ratio that lumps blacks and Latinos together.

“Blacks have come of age within the police department,” said Rubin Castillo, chief legal counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who has filed a motion to intervene on behalf of the Latin American Police Association. “They control the superintendent`s office and lots of lieutenants.”

The problem for Hispanics was the court-ordered joint promotion ratio that grouped them with blacks, Castillo said. “Unfortunately, Hispanic police officers went along with it.”

Under the joint 25 percent promotion ratio, Hispanics were promoted at a ratio of 4.9 percent between 1980 and 1987, when sergeant promotions were frozen.

“What`s fair, one-half of 25 percent? One-third of it?” Castillo asked. Now, Hispanic police officers want what they claim to be their fair share. They are asking the court to implement a 20 percent promotion ratio for Hispanics to remedy the effects of past discrimination and to achieve parity, he said.

Castillo said this promotion rate is reasonable because Department of Labor statistics estimate that Hispanics make up 18 percent of Chicago`s labor force. They are expected to comprise 20 percent by 1990.

By promoting Hispanics through a 20 percent quota, 100 Hispanics would become sergeants, he said. The lowest scores of these candidates on the standardized test would be 74.4, a passing score, eliminating any concerns over competence, he said.

Officer Alicia Ayala, 36, said she wants to become one of the first Hispanic female sergeants in a department that now has none. Ayala, assistant secretary of the Latin American Police Association and an 11 1/2-year veteran of the force, said she deserves to be promoted because she has supervising experience and is qualified. “If I haven`t earned what I`ve gotten, I don`t want it,” she said.