Meeting Court Quotas

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During the late 70's, the LAPD lost several court battles related to the hiring of police officers. Back then there was only the Equal Employment Opportunity law, which was very vague. I'm not certain, but I believe Affirmative Action (AA) came as a result of the LAPD lawsuits.

In essense, the court created AA and stated that when ever two "equally" qualified canditates applied for a single position, weight would be given to the minority candidate. AA applied to gender and minority races, and most everyone supported the logic of AA, including myself.

As the years passed (now over 20), new cases were brought before the court claiming that the LAPD was still not hiring minorities in sufficient numbers. The LAPD argued that there were not enough minorities even applying for a position, and not enough of those that did, could meet backgound, education, and experience requirements; therefore, the LAPD could not comply.

The court responded by further defining and expanding the "protected classes" to include, sexual preference, religion, national origion, and almost anything else. Left out was the White Male class. The court also ordered that the ultimate goal of AA was to bring the LAPD into parity with the people it served, no matter what. That meant within the timeline set by the court, LAPD would have to be comprised of 44% women, 18% Black, 27% Hispanic, and the rest divided among gays, immigrants, and White males. The court put on record that there would be no acceptable reasons for the LAPD not to reach the goals within the timeline.

In order to comply, the LAPD realized that they would have to level the playing field to ensure that almost anyone qualified for employment. Since short and unfit people could not climb a wall, or carry a weight, most physical requirements were removed. Since a large portion of LA residents were criminals and gang members, the LAPD reduced it's background requirents. Since most women applicants seldom had any work experience related to police work, work experience was elliminated. And immigrants speaking a foreigh language were bonus applicants, even though they could barely speak English.

So how has Affirmative Action affected the LAPD? In the following posts during the week, I'll give you only first hand experiences in the matter. Please comment with your thoughts. I have placed a Poll near the top of this page, but ask you not to cast your vote until after reading the final post and comments on the subject which will conclude this Friday. The poll is anonymous, but you can vote only once. I don't care about the results, but I thought it would be fun and inlightening. I only want to promote a Thought for the Dock.
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