Black applicant protests lowering police entrance exam scores

Community leaders say Justice Department’s demand is ‘a slap in the face to black people.’

Zachary Williams is an EMT for the Franklin Twp. Fire Department. Williams is one of 225 black applicants who took Dayton's November police entrance exam. Contributed photo by E. L. Hubbard

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By Lucas Sullivan, Staff Writer Updated 3:14 AM Sunday, March 6, 2011

DAYTON — Zachary Williams is a 21-year-old black Wayne High School grad who wants nothing more than to be a Dayton police officer or firefighter.

He’s one of 225 black applicants who took the November police entrance exam now at the center of a dispute between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice.

His test results are pending the Justice Department’s demand that the city lower its passing score for a police exam to allow for a larger pool of black applicants, while the city argues it is trying to ensure it hires the most qualified candidates.

Dayton is in desperate need of black applicants like Williams.

There are roughly 650 Dayton police and firefighters and less than 40 are black in a city with 62,000 black residents. The fact a smaller percentage of blacks passed the police exam in November doesn’t help Dayton’s chances of improving those numbers.

“It doesn’t surprise me the test results aren’t different and it shouldn’t surprise anyone,” said Randy Beane, police union president. “Not enough African-Americans are taking the exam and we need to get in the schools and talk to kids about being in law enforcement. What we are doing here is the definition of insanity.”

Williams said he understands what the Justice Department is trying to accomplish, but he thinks it’s the wrong method and it’s keeping him from achieving his dream.

“You can’t blame the city for the lack of diversity,” Williams said. “This isn’t your normal 9 to 5 job and you have to want it. I don’t want to be in a department where I was hired because of my skin color. I want it because I earned it.”

Community leaders agree with Williams and said the Justice Department’s method stigmatizes blacks.

“I cannot make a legal judgment on the Justice Department’s method, but there are lots of instances where competent people test poorly,” said U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice. “What can happen in these cases, minorities are incorrectly branded as less qualified when they are infinitely qualified.”

Keith Lander, chairman of the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said the lowering of the test score “is a slap in the face to black people.

“Black people are not dumb,” he said.

DOJ’s results lukewarm

The Justice Department’s method of forcing cities to diversify through litigation began in 1971 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled disparate racial impact violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The ruling stated if an entity could not provide a lawful reason why its hiring practices had a contrasting impact on races, it was in violation of federal law.

Justice Department officials have said almost all litigation related to racial disparities is triggered by an outside complaint.

They have refused to release the complainant’s name in Dayton’s case.

Since 1990 the Justice Department has filed 24 hiring discrimination lawsuits against cities and states from New Jersey to Los Angeles. In almost every case, cities or states settle with a consent decree — a binding agreement to change questionable practices.

Justice Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in an e-mail Friday the goal of the lawsuits is to uphold the Civil Rights Act by removing “unnecessary barriers” in hiring practices. She added the Justice Department does not file lawsuits “based solely on the (diversity) numbers.”

“We only challenge examinations when we determine that the employer has failed to demonstrate the exam will do a good job of selecting qualified candidates,” she said.

The process has produced lukewarm results as many metropolitan law enforcement agencies in the country continue to struggle with diversity.

Chesapeake, Va., for example, agreed to settle its lawsuit in 2007 that claimed the math portion of its police entrance exam had a disparate impact on blacks and Hispanics because more failed than whites.

Chesapeake agreed to lower its cumulative passing score to 66 percent, below the widely accepted passing mark of 70 percent, and eliminated a cutoff score for the math section.

Since settling the lawsuit, Chesapeake has 46 black and 17 Hispanic officers in a force of 373. Of Chesapeake’s estimated 220,000 residents, 66,000 are black and less than 7,000 are Hispanic.

Stanard & Associates Inc., which produced Chesapeake’s test and others for cities around the country, defended its test in a letter to its customers in August.

“Despite the vast amount of research S&A has accumulated, documenting the relationship between (the test’s) content and the job of law enforcement officer ... the DOJ appears ready to combat usage of any selection instrument resulting in any amount of adverse impact against protected groups, even if the job-relatedness and validity of the (tests) have been established.”

Officials from Stanard & Associates did not return calls seeking comment.

Dayton, like Chesapeake, slightly lowered its passing marks and graded the roughly 1,100 police exams taken in November on a curve. Dayton proposed participants had to answer 57 of 86 (66 percent) questions correctly on one portion and 73 of 102 (72 percent) on the other.

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