Affirmative Action and the Police (From Police Ethics - Hard Choices in Law Enforcement, P 183-203, 1985, by William C Heffernan and Timothy Stroup, eds. - See NCJ-100351)

• NCJ Number: 100361
• Author(s): T Stroup
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 21 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For microfiche, see NCJ-100351.

Annotation

Police hiring should reward qualifications to promote productivity and efficiency, but affirmative action programs must balance concern for productivity and efficiency with concern about past distributive employment discrimination so as to achieve equality of opportunity.

Abstract

A model for police hiring should be based in a clear conception of the various functions a police officer must perform. Standards to measure applicant qualifications must reflect the skills and knowledge required to perform the required functions. Departments should be skeptical, however, about the ability of applicant tests and their evaluators to make finely tuned judgments about the comparative excellence of applicant qualifications. The hiring decision should not be based on rigid adherence to qualification scores. This usually freezes the consequences and patterns of past hiring discrimination. Affirmative action in hiring ensures that among persons with acceptable qualifications, the hiring selection will take into account the importance of compensating for past employment discrimination. 15 notes.