Justice Department sues to force South Bend to force police to lower standards

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint on October 11 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, alleging that the South Bend Police Department (SBPD) violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, the DOJ accuses the SBPD of using a written test and a physical fitness test to screen police applicants, resulting in disparate acceptance rates for African-Americans. Americans and women, respectively.

The SBPD uses a written exam developed by Indiana-based Testing For Public Safety, LLC. The city of South Bend claims the DOJ lawsuit “unfairly attacks the SBPD written test, which is… similar to the written tests of other Indiana police departments, including the Indiana State Police », reports WSBT22.

The Indiana State Police provides an official study guide for the written exam, which consists of eight multiple-choice sections designed to measure a range of cognitive skills: learning and applying knowledge; accurately observe and describe events and objects; remember credentials; remember spatial relationships and the location of objects; fill out common forms; communicate using appropriate grammar; communicate in writing – spelling; and ability to solve work-related arithmetic calculations.

Basic arithmetic, reading comprehension, spelling, and grammar are essential skills for most professions. Other sections of the test assess abilities relevant to policing. Yet the DOJ asserts that “use of these tests is not work-related or consistent with business necessity.”

The SBPD physical fitness test requires candidates to jump 13.5 inches, perform 24 sit-ups in one minute, run 300 meters in 82 seconds, complete 21 push-ups, run 1.5 miles in 18 minutes and 56 seconds (or 12 minutes 37 -second mile), and pull the trigger of a gun six times in 10 seconds. By comparison, these standards are simpler than the FitnessGram PACER test given to New York City high school students.

The DOJ recognizes that “keep people away from danger…pursue and apprehend suspects; testifying in court and preparing for that testimony by reviewing reports and notes” are responsibilities that police officers must be able to fulfill. These activities require selection criteria.

The standards for each exam were lowered in August 2019 for the physical fitness test and in 2017 for the written exam, according to the DOJ complaint. Before the physical fitness test standards were lowered, 45.5 percent of women and 87.6 percent of men passed the exam. After the 2019 change, 47.4 percent of women and 83.8 percent of men passed.

Men have more skeletal muscle mass than women, “both in absolute terms…and relative to body mass” in the upper and lower body, according to peer-reviewed research published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Given this biological reality, women should be expected to perform worse than men on a fitness test, especially when it is intended to weed out candidates who cannot keep away adults from danger..

The DOJ complaint does not specify acceptance rates before and after the minimum written test score was lowered from 82 to 80 percent. However, the complaint states that 84.1 percent of white applicants have passed and 62.8 percent of black applicants have passed since 2016.

Based on the SBPD’s disparate acceptance rates, one might think that its police department is significantly less gender and racially diverse than the national average. But this is not the case: “9.9% of all police officers are women and 11.5% of all police officers are black…Nationally, female police officers represent 13.5% of police departments. local police and black police officers 11.6%,” according to South Bend’s response.

Some might argue that an acceptance rate above 45 percent for the privileges, immunities and $74,009 starting salary that SBPD officers receive is not selective enough. The DOJ does not share this opinion.

DOJ asks SBPD to “refrain from using a written test (that) results in disparate impact on African Americans,” as well as eliminating “a physical fitness test (that) results in disparate impact on women. The only way to ensure that there is no disparity between applicant subgroups is to remove the acceptance criteria completely so that the acceptance rate is 100 percent for all.

The DOJ’s fact sheet, Combating Hiring Discrimination by Police & Fire Departments, suggests that removing written and physical selection criteria is its preferred solution. The document warns that all “written tests” and “physical fitness tests” may violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

Instead of weakening qualifications, the standards for police applicants should be strengthened to ensure that armed public officials are cognitively and physically capable of defending the rights of their employers: American civilians.