New Haven Independent

This Time, They’ll Get The Promotions

by Paul Bass | July 14, 2009 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Another batch of public-safety applicants came up for promotions Tuesday — and this time the results of the test they took were certified, despite the fact that all members of one racial group failed.

The test in question was for police sergeant, not fire captain or lieutenant.

The Civil Service Commission Tuesday certified the results of the promotional exam by a 3-0 vote. Of the 36 applicants who passed, 21 were black, 15 were white — and none were Hispanic, even though 10 Hispanics took the test.

That raised eyebrows because of another test, dating back to 2004: the test for the fire department promotions. In that test, not enough black applicants scored high enough for immediate promotion. Fearing a possible lawsuit, the commission decided not to certify the test results. The rest is history: a landmark Supreme Court decision last month in a case called Ricci v. DeStefano, and continuing national attention, including a central presence this week in the Supreme Court nomination hearings of Sonia Sotomayor.

Click here to see who passed the police sergeant’s test, in what order.

Haddad%20Rodriguez.jpg The top scorers were Max Joyner, Matthew DeLeo, and Jonathan Haddad, a one-time Independent cop of the week. (Other cops of the week who passed the exam included Robin Higgins, Daniela Rodriguez, and Shafiq Abdussabur.)

City organizational development chief Emmet Hibson said Tuesday it’s unclear at this point how many of the top scorers will be immediately promoted; Police Chief James Lewis will make a recommendation to the Board of Police Commissioners probably in August based on retirements and budget concerns. Hibson predicted that seven to nine slots would be filled.

In all, 71 applicants started taking the two-part test, which included a written and an oral section. Sixty-four ended up completing the test; 36 passed. The success rate was comparable among white males, white females, black males, and black females, according to city Corporation Counsel Victor Bolden.

But not among Hispanics.

Validation Study Done

Sgt. Tony Reyes, who heads New Haven’s Latino Officers Society, said his organization has no position on the outcome of the test and no plans to raise questions about it. “We don’t take political stands,” he said.

“The fact that not one Hispanic passed was disconcerting to me,” Civil Service Commission Chairman James Segaloff said Tuesday afternoon. “That being said, the city presented statements and reports that left me and obviously these others with a sense that this exam was fair, not flawed, and accurately tested for this position.” (Segaloff had voted to certify the fire promotional test exams, too.)

One difference between this police exam and the Ricci firefighter case: The city commissioned an expert “validation” review of the results before having them certified, to make sure the test wasn’t racially biased.

The firefighters union had asked the city to do that with the fire exams, too, but the city chose not to.

Corporation Counsel Bolden said it’s difficult to compare the two cases. They were different tests, he said.

“The city had more confidence that this [police] exam … was stronger in terms of being job-related,” Bolden said. The questions applicants were asked — about New Haven police’s general orders, for instance, and Connecticut laws they enforce — had to do with their job. Bolden said the city wasn’t as confident about the relevance of some of the material in the firefighter exam.

Given that the city believed in the test, it then turned to an outside expert to conduct the validation study because no Hispanics passed, Bolden said. It wanted to make sure that the results didn’t contain a “disparate impact” under federal civil rights law. Professor John Binning of Illinois State University did the validation study.

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Comments

Posted by: Profile | July 15, 2009 7:48 AM

To the officers who have pass the test, great job. THE REAL RACIAL PROFILERS ARE THE CITY AND MEDIA. I took the test, and did not study as hard as I should have, and did not even make the list. Give 10% get 10% back. To the NHFD save your money and hire a tutor.

Posted by: kamb | July 15, 2009 8:19 AM

Does anyone realize that there are hispanics that are black and hispanics who are white? Hispanic IS NOT a race. Nor is Latino. Just like Italian, or Irish, or Russian is not a race. Those are ethenticities.

Spaniards from Spain are caucasian (white). Most hispanics from the Carribbean region are also caucasion, and some are black or of the negroid classification.

There are several scientific classifications of man:
Caucazoid (commonly white euporeans)
Negriod (commonly african)
Austrailzoid (you'll have to wikipedia this one)
Mongoloid (asian)

Posted by: FRANK | July 15, 2009 9:09 AM

Is Daniela Rodriguez Hispanic?

Posted by: FairHavenResToo | July 15, 2009 9:30 AM

Kamb, you know it and I know it, but good luck getting everyone else to learn it. I tried explaining this to my prejudiced neighbors recently and didn't get very far. Ignorance abounds.

Posted by: Morris Cove | July 15, 2009 9:54 AM

Kamb

The lesson on race is interesting, but there are no Latinos, Hispanics, or people of Spanish origins on the list, and that is a problem that should be addressed, although I'm torn because the NHFD 20 decision was right and just.

Posted by: citizen | July 15, 2009 9:59 AM

FRANK She is not hispanic that is her marriage name.

Posted by: William Kurtz | July 15, 2009 10:57 AM

Kamb,

I assume you meant 'Australoid' which, according to Wikipedia, is indeed a "broad racial classification," albeit one with no scientific basis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typology_(anthropology)

Similarly with 'Caucazoid' (again, more commonly spelled 'caucasoid' although even that term has generally given way to 'caucasian.')

For all intents and purposes, 'ethnicity' and 'race' are synonymous and equally without meaning, except--and this is the important part--the significance we assign to them socially. In other words, genetic research has uncovered little or no evidence of a genetic basis to support the idea of 'race'. Race and ethnicity are cultural constructs. The idea of a 'scientific classification' is useless because there's simply no such thing--I acknowledge that many scientists through the early to mid-20th century would claim one, but they have been discredited by the modern scientific consensus and the Human Genome Project. Read Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man for a more thorough discussion.

Posted by: SHunter | July 15, 2009 11:00 AM

Kamb: thank you for leading me to Wikipedia, where I learned that the "scientific classifications of man" you cite are a huge over-simplification (and furthermore, outdated) of a very complicated and very interesting question. Seriously, thank you for making me want to learn more about this. I've got some reading to do.

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | July 15, 2009 1:02 PM

Beware of Wikipedia.It can be sometime not Accurate.

Posted by: Dave | July 16, 2009 6:47 PM

Why should we be so concerned about what minority groups did or didn't take the test. The City of New Haven and the NHPD should be looking at the bigger picture and ask, out of approximatley 225 persons eligiable to take the test but only 71 were interested in taking the test. I think the bigger picture tells a story the NHPD and City of New Haven are affraid to address.

Posted by: scaredcrow | July 16, 2009 8:56 PM

we need to suspend our race beliefs and just go do the job you were hired for.

Posted by: Obamanation | July 20, 2009 1:31 AM

No one managed to score over 89? I'd worry about the barely C grade scores of those who are the pick of the litter. Really, no one could score a 95? And we wonder why the police department is in the shape it's in.

Posted by: Bridgeport | July 22, 2009 9:23 AM

Great Job preparing New Haven Guardians and Silver Shields! Congratulations to all who passed the exam!

This Time, They’ll Get The Promotions

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