Change urged in hiring at IMPD, IFD

Mayoral task force cites reasons diversity is declining, notes ways to reverse trend

by John Murray

A report issued by a mayoral task force says efforts to boost diversity in the Indianapolis police and fire ranks have been stymied by forces ranging from recent department mergers to changes in law and policy.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police and Fire departments -- and elected officials -- must adapt to such challenges by restoring flexibility in hiring and promotions, says the report, issued recently by the Public Safety Personnel Diversity Task Force. It also calls for renewed vigilance to guard against diversity numbers backsliding further.


The report by the 30-member task force largely echoes concerns expressed in recent years both inside the city's Department of Public Safety and in the community.

But the challenge facing public safety officials and others has long been to boost representation of racial minorities and women while ensuring fairness for all candidates.

Even before the task force began meeting in September 2009, public safety officials had started work on an overhaul of recruitment, hiring, training and promotions.

Public Safety Director Frank Straub said Mayor Greg Ballard will announce details of new approaches in those areas in four to six weeks.

"He's going to have a very comprehensive announcement -- one that I think the community should be extremely proud of," Straub said. He declined to reveal details until then.

Indianapolis Urban League President Joseph Slash -- the diversity task force's co-chairman, along with the Rev. Richard Willoughby of Promise Land Christian Community Church -- expressed hope that the report, which has been in the mayor's hands since January, would only add to the sense of urgency.

Slash says it's telling that except in public safety, the racial makeup of city and Marion County employees largely reflects that of the community.

"That suggests that we have an institutional process where minority candidates are screened out instead of screened in," said Slash, also a member of the Indianapolis Civilian Police Merit Board. "We have to change the whole process so we can recruit, hire and promote in the police and fire departments to gain an employed group that reflects the population."

Task force members included community and business leaders, clergy members, city officials, and the police and fire union presidents.

The report identifies key events that, after years of gains, contributed to dips in the departments' minority ranks in recent years, particularly among blacks.

That group makes up about 13 percent of IMPD, down slightly from three years ago, and about 14 percent of IFD, down from 18 percent two years ago -- and the lowest level in more than 20 years.

Why is that? A big reason lies in recent consolidation that added mostly white officers and firefighters to their ranks. The city police department merged with the sheriff's law enforcement division in 2007 to create IMPD, and IFD has absorbed five township fire departments.

Other factors that the report says have worked against efforts to diversify the ranks:

A federal court's dismissal in 2008 of consent decrees that for three decades set rigid racial and gender benchmarks. With backing from Ballard, a Republican, the U.S. Department of Justice sought to end the oversight, saying the goals largely had been met. Ballard's predecessor, Democrat Bart Peterson, had resisted the move.

A 1996 change in state law that removed a county residency requirement for firefighters and police officers. The Justice Department later used that to justify changing the target benchmark for blacks from the county workforce -- now about 26 percent -- to the metro workforce, about half as high.

The removal, upon IMPD's formation, of a provision in city/county code that had allowed the police chief to hire or promote 20 percent of candidates from the eligibility list without regard to score, allowing more discretion.

Though Straub is keeping new plans for hiring and promotions under wraps, public safety officials in the past have said they were considering moving away from a list-based approach. That has meant ranking candidates based on test scores, interviews and other criteria -- some of them subjective -- resulting in candidates separated by a fraction of a point.

One alternative would involve grouping eligible candidates into tiers based on scores in a "banding" system that eschews a straight list.

The task force's report urges restoring the previous ordinance provision allowing the 20 percent flexibility in selecting from the list. But it also endorsed consideration of a banding approach.

Earlier this week, the City-County Council's minority-party Democrats introduced a merit board expansion proposal that also included restoration of the 20 percent flexibility for police. For both departments, the proposal would give preference in hiring and promotions to candidates with local ties, another task force recommendation.

The council's Law Enforcement Study Commission is expected to discuss the proposal.

A year ago, Straub said, the departments began implementing performance evaluations, a tool the task force report says should figure into promotion decisions.

Ballard said that while many reforms are already under way, the task force's report adds a vital community voice.

"It all adds to the conversation, which is very much needed," he said this week, "so I appreciate what they've done."

The list-ranking approach, in use for decades, had long invited lawsuits by both white and black officers and firefighters.

A 2-year-old federal lawsuit, spearheaded by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is still pending. The NAACP is awaiting a judge's ruling on its request to reconsider a September decision tossing out many of the plaintiffs' claims and weakening the suit.

NAACP attorneys and other critics have said the city is moving too slowly, with its efforts bringing little payoff in diversifying the ranks so far.

At the same time, the departments' unions have sought to guard against new approaches that place too much value on racial diversity at the expense of fairness.

Bill Owensby, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he was happy with the task force's report overall.

He intends to discuss the new approaches further with Straub, he said, and sees the most hope in the director's plans to make recruitment efforts more aggressive and proactive.

"I think if we improve recruiting, we can get to where we want to be all around," Owensby said, including boosting the ranks of racial minorities.

Straub and Benjamin Hunter, the Republican chairman of the council's public safety committee, noted a need to keep representation of all minorities in mind, not just blacks.

"My growing concern is making sure we are also recruiting Hispanic officers as well" to attract more Spanish-speaking officers, said Hunter, noting that Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic group in Marion County. The 2010 census showed they make up 9 percent of the population.

Source: Indystar.com