Police Minimum Scores Lowered So More African Americans Can Be Hired

[retdetsgt]

So, are the FEDS gonna have to pay for the lawsuits when
the "barely qualified" future cops make major goofs?

You'd think they'd learn a lesson from Miami-Dade back in the 80's. They lowered standards to get more Hispanics and ended up with a bunch of thugs. It always ends badly.

[1depd]

About 15 years ago I tested for a state police agency. I scored well making a 98. I was told by the recruiter the cut off was 95 and I had passed the test by a good margin. When I went to an orientation program at the state capital I was talking with a woman I knew in passing (she was the in-laws' neighbor). Of course the topic of the cut off came up. She said she was glad she had passed since the cut off was so high. She scored in the low-mid 80's. I didn't have the heart to tell her what the recruiter had told me or what my score was.

[retdetsgt]

When I first started, there were very few minorities and no women on the department. We did have what was called the Women's Protective Division that had sworn women officers, but they were limited to working there only. Their job was to deal with runaway juvenile girls. The discrimination there was that they had to have college degrees to get hired and men didn't. They had their own Sgts and captain and couldn't transfer out.

The few black guys that were there had it rough. I had one guy as a partner for about a year and although he didn't complain, I knew he had a thick skin.

When we first started hiring women as regular police officers, it was nasty. They either got harassed, minimized or treated as pets or something. The first several never really learned how to do the job because their FTO's either treated them as ride alongs or protected them like little sisters. When they were put out on their own, they were worthless. Most quit or transferred to desk jobs somewhere ASAP. Also, we didn't have all the gadgets on our belts police have today either. A physical confrontation was just that, physical and some bad guys didn't have a lot chivalry.

Fortunately, times changed. Women are now respected as equals in every way by the rank and file of men. Our problem with hiring black people is mostly a recruiting and sociological problem in this area, but the harassment and other juvenile BS is gone and has been for a long time.

However, that's not the way management and the politicians see it. The chief can select anyone off of the top five of any promotional list. If there is a woman or minority in the top five, 99 times out of a 100, they will be selected even if they are 4th or 5th. If it's all white males in the top five, they will always take number 1. On one Lt's test, they only had an 8 hour window to sign up for it and they only sent out notices of the sign up to woman and minority Sgts. The only white guys that knew about the test were ones who had been told by a woman or minority.

As I've also mentioned before, as a supervisor I could easily deal with an errant white male working for me. If it was a woman or minority who committed the same act, it was always kissed off by the command and I'm not exaggerating in the least. We had a black female captain pull stunts on and off duty (including breaking all the windows out of her ex husband's car) and was never called to task for any of it. She was caught lying in an IA investigation and nothing happened although that routinely results in dismissal. The reverse discrimination is blatant as hell and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

When you apply for my department and you are a woman or minority, the staff in personnel will inform you of preparatory classes we give for the written test to help you score higher. If you are a white male, it's not mentioned. IF you know about it and ask, they will reluctantly allow you to attend.

I'm a fanatic about everyone getting an equal opportunity, I despise discrimination of anyone based solely on who they are and affirmative action was perhaps needed for a while to play catchup, but it's time as passed. Everyone should be on equal footing.