Justice Department forces local police departments to lower test standards

The Dayton Police Department has been forced by the U.S. Justice Department to lower their written testing standards because they say that too few African-Americans passed the exam.    

Under previous requirements, candidates had to score 66 percent on one half of the test and 72 percent on the other half.

The new standards only require police candidates to achieve scores of 58 and a 63 respectively…Basically, an ‘F’ and a ‘D’ in any U.S. public school.

The lowered standards meant that 258 people who failed the test, have now passed. Dayton officials have refused to comment on how many of those candidates were actually minorities.

 Dayton Fraternal Order of Police President, Randy Beane told ABC 22:  “It becomes a safety issue for the people of our community. It becomes a safety issue to have an incompetent officer next to you in a life and death situation."

Beane does not disagree that Dayton needs more black officers, but he says there are better ways to achieving that goal.

Beanne said: “We need to work with the youth and make them interested in becoming law enforcement officers and firefighters. Break down the barriers whether they are real or perceived, so we can move forward in this community.”

The FOP president has who some might see as an unlikely ally on this issue as well.

Dayton NAACP President Derrick Forward said: “The NAACP does not support individuals failing a test and then having the opportunity to be gainfully employed. If you lower the score for any group of people, you're not getting the best qualified people for the job.”

Of course, the DOJ has been imposing this policy on departments throughout the nation for the last few years.

In February 2006, the Justice Department warned that the math portion of the exam given to Virginia Beach, Va. police applicants discriminated against minorities. They arrived at this conclusion because black and Latino candidates were reportedly failing the math portion of the test at a much higher rate than their white counterparts.

In 2004, the DOJ opened an investigation into the hiring practices of the Virginia Beach Police Department because while blacks accounted for about 20 percent of the city's population, they only made up 10 percent of the city's police force.

From 2002-2005, 59 percent of black police applicants and 66 percent of Latino applicants passed the math portion of the test, while during that same period 85 percent of white applicants passed the math test. In light of these results, the Justice Department alleged discrimination.

However, the math test was hardly sophisticated or complicated by reasonable standards. These exams only test for very basic math skills.

A sample math question on the Virginia Beach Police exam, printed in the Virginian-Pilot, read: “On Tuesday, Officer Jones worked the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift. At 10:55 p.m. he was called to the scene of an accident where he remained until 1:30 a.m. How long past his regular shift did Officer Jones work?"

Amid the allegations of discrimination, the now-retired VB Police Chief A.M. Jacocks Jr. said: "We are not looking for rocket scientists. This is a basic math aptitude test."

Eventually, the city of Virginia Beach gave into pressure from the Justice Department and dropped their mandatory minimum score on the math portion of the exam.

While successful applicants were still required to score at least 70 percent on the reading and grammar portions of the test, they were no longer required to score a 70 on the math portion. In the past, an   overall score of at least 70 percent was required to pass, it was then lowered to an overall score of 60 percent.

The agreement with the Justice Department also allowed 124 minority applicants to re-enter the hiring process. The city then paid $1,300 to each of the black and Latino applicants who failed the test between 2002 to2005.

One lone member of the Virginia Beach city council spoke out in against the new policy.

Shortly after the announcement of the newly lowered testing standards was made, Councilwoman Reba McClanan (who happens to be African-American) voiced her opposition. She said: "One of the things that's insulting about it is they're telling us we don't have a right to insist on certain standards.”  

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