New York City Police Department Civil Service Entrance and Promotion Exams Challenged in Suit

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
March 3, 1972 

NEW _YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT 

CIVIL SERVICE ENTRANCE AND PROMOTION EXAMS 

CHALLENGED IN SUIT 

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, filed suit today in federal 

court challenging the civil service examinations used to select and 

promote policemen within the New York City Police Department. 

Attorneys handling the case are Christopher Crowley, Esq; and 

Elizabeth B. Dubois, Esq; a Legal Defense Fund Attorney. The 

lawsuit claims that the examinations are racially biased and that 

they therefore deny blacks and Hispanics equal employment opportunity 

in violation of their rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 

Fourteenth Amendment. Suit was filed in the United States District 

Court for the Southern District of New York. 

Plaintiffs include the Guardians Association of the New York 

City Police Department, the largest organization of black policemen 

in the city, and its President Sgt. Howard Sheffey, as well as the 

Hispanic Society of the New York City Police Department, and its 

President, Sgt. Andrew Rivera. The Guardians Association and the 

Hispanic Society have been intensely concerned for years with the 

recruitment and promotion of black and Hispanic police officers with- 

in the Police Department. 

Named as defendants are the City Civil Service Commission, 

the Department of Personnel, and Harry I. Bronstein, Chairman of the 

Civil Service Commission and Director of Personnel. The Police 

Department is also named. 

The complaint makes it clear that blacks and Puerto Ricans 

are grossly underrepresented in the ranks of the City Police 

(more) 

ACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. | 10 Columbus Circle | New York, N.Y. 10019 | (212) 586-8397 

\liam T. Coleman, Jr. - President Jack Greenberg - Director-C 



CIVIL SERVICE ENTRANCE EXAMS PAGE 2 

Department. Thus while 37% of the City population is black and 

Hispanic, only 1.4% of the Police Department's captains, 2.6% of 

its lieutenants and 4.7% of its sergeants are from those minority 

groups. Blacks and Hispanics make up only 8.7% of the entire 

Police Department. 

Plaintiffs contend that the principal barrier to the 

appointment and promotion of qualified blacks and Hispanics in the 

Police Department is the examination system administered by the City 

Civil Service Commission. The complaint alleges that these examina- 

tions are racially biased and, therefore, that they discriminate 

against minority group members for reasons which have nothing to do 

with their ability to perform as police officers. 

Plaintiffs contend that the examinations are not job-related 

and do not test for merit and fitness, as required by law. They 

charge that the examinations place a premium on rote memorization, 

and paper and pencil test-taking skills, rather than sound judgment 

and the ability to lead. The complaint quotes a recent statement 

of Police Commissioner Patrick V. Murphy, that the Civil Service 

System has "excluded minorities" and has "tragically advanced some 

men to captain who cannot or will not lead." 

Lawyers handling the case stated that the object of the 

lawsuit was to compel the Civil Service System to develop a true 

merit system in place of the present system which discriminates 

irrationally against minorities. 

The lawsuit demands that the Civil Service System develop 

new examination procedures for the selection and promotion of 

policemen. 

LDF Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg stated that this lawsuit 

(more) 



CIVIL SERVICE ENTRANCE EXAMS PAGE 3 

represents another step in LDF's on-going campaign against 

employment discrimination. The Fund handled the case of Griggs v. 

Duke Power which resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court's recent land- 

mark decision in thearea of private discrimination, and is now 

responsible for some 150 employment discrimination cases around the 

country. Mr. Greenberg stated that the Fund "is seriously concerned 

with the problem of employment discrimination by public agencies and, 

in particular, with the biased and irrational manner in which many 

civil service examinations systems operate." 

The Fund brought the case against the Board of Examiners 

which resulted in a federal court decision last summer declaring 

unconstitutional the examinations used to select principals and 

other supervisors in the New York City School System. That case is 

now pending on appeal in the Second Circuit. The Fund is also 

involved in suits challenging police department selection procedures 

in some half-dozen cities. 

=290- 5 

For further information contact: Attorney Christopher Crowley HA -2 340 

Attorney Elizabeth B. Dubois or 
Abeke Foster, Public Information 
(212) 586-8397 

NOTE: Please bear in mind that the LDF is a completely separate and 
distinct organization even though we were established by the 
NAACP and those initials are retained in our name. Our correct 
designation is NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund,Inc., 
frequently shortened to LDF.