Chesapeake police groups say they'll sue if city voids tests

Nice to see that the public service in the U.S. is as sexist and racist against white men as that in Canada.

Here, for example, is the text that accompanies every job posting for the Canadian government: "The Public Service of Canada is committed to building a skilled, diverse workforce reflective of Canadian society. As a result, it promotes employment equity and encourages candidates to indicate voluntarily on their application if they are a woman, an Aboriginal person, a person with a disability or a member of a visible minority group."

The only group of people not on this list, of course, is white men.

There's nothing fair or just about a system that excludes you from hiring because of your gender or your color.

This news story is just another example of how ridiculous it's become.

By the way, Men's Rights Page: http://www.mens-links.net/showlinks.asp?category=1

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. The promotional process is certainly not entirely objective and it can be (is?) manipulated to promote the desired candidates. The three person oral panal, written and practical excersises, and Chiefs board are completely subjective and open to opinion by the evaluators. They may not like the way you look, write speak, etc. and base their scores on such subjective things. The fact that there are "internal" and "external" lists allows for manipulation of who is promoted and when; i.e. if they promote one person at a time from the list the persons promoted may not have been promoted if they did multiple promotions at the same time, and vice versa. This happens because of the 2 lists. The only way to have a completely fair process is to follow the military way and base it solely on the exam results and time in service.

"sickandtired" whines about the inequities in Portsmouth but slants the facts. Go figure. He mentions that minorities score high enough to make the eligibility list for promotion. If you PASS the test, you are eligible. Then you go through the assessment. He fails to mention that we promote from the TOP of the list and it doesn't matter what race you are. Our process is done completely anonymously with the exception of a diverse panel and a one on one interview with the Chief, who during this time period was a black male. He mentions the command staff being all white males. Right now that consists of 5 people! You would have thought it was 100 the way it was portrayed. Additionally, our black police chief was let go because he was incompetant and the FOP handed him a no confidence vote. Our other highest ranking black male is in prison now for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Quit whining and go study!

No one would be having this discussion and there would be no news story had this been reversed.. Guaranteed.

Comparing your comment to my comment....you are comparing apples to oranges. You are saying that all candidates meeting the MINIMUM requirements should be treated equally except for minorities who should get special treatment. I am saying that those who scored the highest should be promoted regardless of gender, race, etc. I do not know how the scores are tallied, but how do you explain to caucasion candidate "A" who scored a 98 that he/she is passed over for minority candidate "B" who scored a 91? "Sorry 'A'...good score but you are too pasty"? If candidate "A" was the minority and "B" the caucasion, then "A" gets the promotion no matter what. Where is the incentive for the caucasion candidate if he/she can not get promoted regardless of performance? Unless there is fraud involved, the highest scoring candidate should be promoted regardless of gender, race etc.

FYI: The ENTIRE command staff of the Portsmouth Police Department is made up of white males. And they are the ones who actually run the department. There are no minorities above the rank of SGT (and only a handfull of those.) I am not in favor of changing tests or making it easier to get promoted, but I do think that there is something wrong when folks make the cut but still cannot get the promotions they have earned. As far as the Chief, Mayor, and City Manager positions; you are comparing apples to oranges. The Mayor is elected, the CM is appointed by council, and the Chief is appointed by the CM. None of which have much influence over the "good 'ol boy" network of day to day city operations. I just think that it's a shame when qualified candidates are eligable for promotion, but it doesn't happen due to unseen forces (network maybe?) at work.

"(1) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for a respondent, in connection with the selection or referral of applicants or candidates for employment or promotion, to adjust the scores of, use different cutoff scores for, or otherwise alter the results of, employment related tests on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin."

This is a quote from section 106 of the Civil Rights Act. My question to the city is if race or sex can not be used in this manner how can you legally justify identifying the race and sex of those who made the cut?

I urge anyone who is as outraged about this as I to write, call, or e-mail the members of the Chesapeake City Council and voice those concerns. This will continue until we, as those who council must answer to, stand up and tell them THIS IS WRONG!

If your child must get life-saving surgery, will you seek a surgeon that just "passed" the required exams and was advanced due to being African-American or would you prefer to have a surgeon that graduated in the top of her/his class? Similarly, If your child's life is endangered at the hands of a criminal, would you prefer to have someone making life-saving or life-loss decisions who just "passed" the exam and was advanced due to being African-American or would you want the most knowlegeable officer to be in charge? Personally, I do not care if the surgeon/police officer is pink, green, purple or whatever. I only want the best!!

This is not about the minority or female officers being upset about the test results. None of the officers complained about the test. This is about the three leaders involved being disappointed with the race and gender of the finalists. The city manager, the director of human resources and the police chief are all of the same race and have made it overly apparent that they want the majority of those promoted to be minorities. The three of them changed the rules when they didn't like the finalists. This is the same type of test that has always been giving. Thousands have been spent to validate the test prior to administering it. They made a mistake by allowing their reverse discrimination to be so apparent and now have tried to use the test possibly being prejudiced as a smoke screen. The test was not prejudiced. Now they are going to be sued by the white officers they openly discriminated against. The city council needs to step up and be the only ones to do the right thing! They need to replace the city manager, director of HR and the police chief. Discrimination is against the law and should not be tolerated by anyone!

All of you who claim that the police promotion test was non-racist need to brush up on your own smarts. The proof of the test's racism is so blatantly obvious that a first grader could see it. Those who doubt that fact are either not very intelligent, or are living in racist denial. Allow me to spell it out for you.

The test was given to every racial group on WHITE paper! No wonder only white people passed it!

Now, aren’t you all ashamed of yourselves for not figuring that out on your own?

sickandtired said, "passed over for white males, like what appears to be happening in Portsmouth?"

During the time period you're referring to, the Police Chief, the City Manager, and the Mayor were all black people. That institutional racism is something else, isn't it? It continues to happen, even when there are no white folks around!

Again someone has NO ethics nor honesty! They have demeaned the entire police force and they have demeaned those who participated-
the news report infers that they were being discriminated against because they are something other than white! Would we see the same report if there were no white males in the selection list??

This is the real discrimnation- The report is intentionally toned to deceive everyone!

If this really is the truth then remember, the next time you need a police office you will get the least capable but they will fit the defined profile-

this is stupid! Those who decided to question the test because of the results not being what they wanted should be charged with discrimination against the well being of the public. The officers involved should arrest the fools who tried this nonsense! They have discriminated and defamed the police officers who took the test! It also infers the rest of the police department has their job not based on skill or integrity but on discrimination

SUE THEM any way and get them fired!!!!

the only way to stop these rediculous issues is to address them the same way they started IN COURT!! Go after them personnally

if ALL the top scores were black or they were all women they would never consider throwing out the results, yet they do if they are all white males.

That defines the words racism and sexism.

If you want to do well on a test you have to study for it...period. this applies to males, females, white, black and any combination thereof. It appears that the vast majority of people who failed this test were white males. It just so happens that the numbers of minorities and women seating for this test were very small to start with, thus giving the erroneous appearance of some type of testing bias.If their sampling group was larger, some would have passed. Leave the test alone. If you want a promotion, meet the standards.

$50,000 for a consultant would pay for another police officer on the street for year. The fees paid to these consultants is nothing but a waste of taxpayer dollars. The bottom line here is: if you didn't pass the test study harder next time. These tests should be based on merit and no other criteria. The test does not know if the person taking it is a white, black, red or purple with polka dots. It only knows whether or not the answer is correct - and if either is or it isn't. There's no in between or gray area it's either right or it's wrong. The dumbing down of America has reached epidemic proportions. The unions make it impossible to terminate incompetent teachers and this results in incompetent graduates. If you can't pass the test you don't get the promotion. End of story. Stop whining and start studying!

A 2+2=4 test is racist. Wow.

Two groups of people should be ashamed by this. The first group consists of the officers that didn't score high enough to move forward with their promotions. They should be embarrassed they didn't take the readily available materials and put in the time to study adequately.

The second group consists of those that seek to have the scores thrown out. Those people are looking to turn a math test into some sinister, racist, promotion blocker.

Imprevento stated, "This test involved knowledge of policies and procedures necessary to become a supervisor." If the applicants don't know the polices and procedures, they don't deserve the promotion.

I do believe that such promotion tests are gender/race neutral. They have to be in order to be absolutely fair. The only reason if they were unfair would be if not all the test takers were given the same study guide material. Everyone in any law enforcement organization knows what to study for when they are serious about advancing in ranks. All too often, the backbone of integrity at the management levels bends and folds at any perception of discrimination based on gender, race, or creed. In law enforcement, integrity and smarts define the best of officer, deputies, and troopers. Law enforcement is stressful enough as it is for a job or career for anyone to have. Why impose uncalled for stress and morale corruption on smart and qualified personnel just because of deficiencies among their peers. Go figure - if you modify the tests just to counter gender/race deficiencies in qualifying numbers, what measure of integrity is brought forth?! Do not promote unqualified personnel because of perceived dicrimination. Doing so only fosters contuation of discriminating perceptions and the old "cry discrimination" card.

I just don't get it? CPD just elevated a very talented, hard working, community oriented black man to be chief, just elevated an outstanding black man to the posistion of Major and a Hispanic to posisiton of Major, and just promoted 2 qualified black men to Captain. What's the problem?

We can avoid all of this nonsense. I can only speak for the Navy way (18 years active duty now), but I can tell you that there is absolutely no problem with the way the advancement exams are written and/or administered twice a year. In fact, the test writers are holding exam re-writes as we speak for the next batch of future exams. All they do is request subject matter experts to attend the conference and then the current exams are reviewed and re-written. Because of this process, diversity reigns throughout, and there is no question as to the integrity of the writers, etc... It's an easy fix, and nobody has to re-invent the wheel here. Sometimes it's o.k. to ask for help, even if we're all grown up.

My neighbor is a police officer in Chesapeake and she is completely humiliated by what has occurred with this promotional process. The over reaction by Human Resourses in challenging the validity of the test has cast a cloud over her intelligence. I hope this is not an underhanded way to retest, so women and minorities get a second chance to advance unfairly. We already know what Mr. Harrell's stance is on minority hiring. I guess his stance is the same on minority promotions. It's time for city council to get involved and clear up this mess.