White San Francisco Police Officers Sue Claiming Discrimination

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The officers claim lower-scoring black and female officers get promoted over white and male contenders, because of the department’s race and gender quota system, creating a “pernicious atmosphere of confusion, obfuscation and blatant discrimination.”

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A dozen SFPD employees claim they were overlooked for promotions to sergeant, lieutenant and captain, because they are white and male, save for one retired officer who says that her status as a white lesbian is why she was passed over for a lieutenant’s post.

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The complaint claims the foundation for SFPD’s promotional system has been shaped by a class action filed on behalf of black officers facing discrimination in the ’70s. After Officers for Justice v. Civil Service Comm’n in 1973, the police department began using a “banding” procedure to comply with a consent decree to hire a greater number of minority and female employees, according to the complaint.

“The selections from the Sergeant’s promotional list reveal that white officers were passed over at a rate of nearly 3 to 1, as compared to black officers,” Mullanax writes in the complaint. “Put in its most stark terms, white officers comprised 63.5% of the total candidate pool (combining both promotional rounds) but accounted for only 46% of candidates selected in total, as compared to the 100% success rate for black officers.”

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