Minority police officers who say civil service promotional exams are biased won a key victory Friday when the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the state agency that creates the controversial tests could face employment discrimination lawsuits.
In a 6-to-1 ruling, the state’s highest court said the state’s Human Resources Division, as the designer of the tests used by the Boston police and other municipal forces, is a major player in employment decisions made at the local level.
Comments
If you can't pass the test...sue the test maker!
I wish the Boston Globe would explain exactly how the questions on a test are understood differently by a white and non-white? Most promotional exams come from text books available to all and involve questions on management and law. I am baffled by this and obviously need an education as to this problem. I mean, not only do these officers use the same preparation material, but they have been doing the same job. How are these tests biased toward non-whites? Someone please explain with examples.
You can never do enough for these jokers! Disparate impact my foot..
Why don't they just add the 100 yard dash to the exam...of course then the white officers will be going to court.
Next a group of minorities who flunked out of medical school sue and are awarded medical licenses to even the field...dumb logic. We have a black president and I would hope that he would be distressed that minorities are claiming they aren't smart enough to do their jobs or pass exams so we should just get rid of requirements...shameful!
I generally don't like disparate impact rulings like this. The key question to ask is: What kind of skills does the test measure and how do those skills translate into the real-world job that the police need to do as they rise up through the ranks? Maybe the job of being a Captain requires a different skill-set. Maybe the skills needed to be a good police officer are actually different than the skills needed to be an administrator. It's like the public schools in a way, the skills needed to be a good teacher are only somewhat similar to the skills needed to be a Principal.
The job of a police supervisor is to know the law as well as department's rules and regulations. They need to know this information fast so as to guide patrol officers in the street as well as when preparing reports. The best way to guage this knowledge is by giving the applicant the information, having them study it, and then testing them on it. Is it really more difficult than that? Apparently in this state it is.