Understanding racial differences?
An Ohio city’s decision to lower testing standards for police recruits to increase the number of black officers is being blasted by other public safety professionals, including Connecticut firefighters who were part of a successful reverse discrimination case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The city of Dayton is making it easier to pass its exam for police recruits as part of an agreement with the Department of Justice aimed at addressing the police department’s low number of lack of black officers.
The two-part exam previously required candidates to score at least 66 percent and 72 percent to be considered for the job. The new scoring policy only requires job candidates to earn 58 percent and 63 percent – failing marks by most academic standards.The new policy stems from a 2008 lawsuit in which the Department of Justice under the Bush administration claimed Dayton was discriminatory in its testing practices for choosing police applicants.