A non-English-speaking woman living in an English-speaking city in an English-speaking country was robbed. She couldn’t find a cop who spoke Spanish. Someone in the Boston Police Department told her she needed to speak English. (Source)
From this anecdote, which the woman shared at a city council meeting, we get this:
“The executive director of the advocacy group, Oíste, Negretti blamed the experience on a shortage of blacks and Latinos in higher positions and specialized units on the Boston Police Dept. Negretti contends the shortage hurts performance and perception, even hampering the ability to combat youth violence.”
How about hiring Spanish-speaking officers of any color to translate for Spanish speakers? Would that qualify as a diversity effort, or would the police department be coerced to hire based on race?
Police Commissioner Ed Davis seized the opportunity at the city council meeting to complain about the pencil-and-paper civil service exams on which hiring and promoting decisions are based. He said the exams are barriers to minority hiring and aren’t valid for measuring an applicant’s or candidate’s skills in any case. Davis also said, “I will not change my standards. I will not pick people based on race. They have to do the job.”
According to the article, minorities account for 40 percent of the appointed (by Davis) command staff, “above the levels when the department still used race-based hiring,” but for positions in which a civil service exam is required, the numbers are lower.
Draw your own conclusions.
Complaints lodged and lawsuits filed against the use of objective, valid employment exams signify a slow march toward their extinction. It’s ironic. Civil service exams were implemented to prevent race- and politically based decisions. Now, people claim the exams are discriminatory. Whether one considers the exams valid or not, dropping the requirement would mean that police departments lowered standards instead of challenging people to rise up against expectations.
Some people call that progress.
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