Dayton

[Highway6]

If you are not yet aware, a story making the rounds this week is that the Police Dept. of the City of Dayton, Ohio recently has been ordered by the Dept of Justice to lower their testing standards because not enough black applicants were getting in.

Coming in from the right, I would like to present exhibit A as one viewpoint on this- http://boortz.com/ne...w-dayton-p.html

In effect, Obama's Department of Justice has said that actual qualifications come in second behind race when it comes to choosing the next recruitment class for the Dayton Police Department.

I know this isn't unique to Dayton, I think the Justice Dept has been doing this since 1990.

My two comments on this are: I don't see how an individual's right to a job can trump their ability to do that job. Public jobs serve the public and only those qualified should hold those jobs. This also leads to my dislike of public unions, esp for schools, and their protection of unqualified teachers but that's another topic. Dayton rookies can now get as low as a 58% on one of the entrance exams and still protect and serve. I don't know what are on these tests, but if the DOJ has determined that qualifications be damned, then they might as well do away with it altogether. Avg IQ, common sense, ability to learn and retain rules and regulations be damned.. be drug free and have no record and you're in.

My other comment is that I'm really tired of this excuse - " I'm smart, I just don't test well". It has been used here to defend these particular unqualified black applicants. It's used to diminish the value of standardized testing in schools. It's used everywhere these days. "Tests have no value" is what that amounts to. BS. If you're supposed to know something that qualifies you for a job, a LEED certification, a drivers license, the right to go up a grade, the right to get into law school, anything... the only way to measure if you know what you are supposed to know is to test you. You either know the material that you're supposed to know, or you don't. It's simple. I'm sick to death of that BS excuse being used everywhere by unqualified parties.

Anyways.. let the convo begin. I'd love to hear my left leaning haifers side on this - esp the "right to a public job trumping qualifications to hold that public job". I'd like to think that even you would have a hard time stomaching that.

Edit:

Link to DOJ news Release - http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/February/09-crt-172.html

Title VII prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin or religion. Title VII prohibits not only intentional discrimination, but also the use of employment practices (e.g. written examinations and qualification standards), which result in disparate impact, unless the employer can prove that such practices are job related and consistent with business necessity.

The United States’ complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in September 2008, alleges that Dayton’s use of an internally created written examination for screening entry-level police officer applicants, and its use of heightened minimum qualifications for entry-level firefighter applicants

,

i.e. requiring that applicants have EMT-Basic and Firefighter I and II certifications at the time they apply, resulted in disparate impact on African-Americans. The complaint also alleges that neither practice has been demonstrated by the city of Dayton to be job related and consistent with business necessity, in accordance with the requirements of Title VII. According to the complaint, although the civilian labor force of Dayton is approximately 37 percent African-American, only approximately nine percent of the city’s sworn police officers and less than 3 percent of its sworn firefighters are African–American. In fact, according to the complaint, the percentage of African-Americans in the city’s fire department actually decreased from 7 percent in 1984 to less than 3 percent in 2008.

[august948]

I guess one flip-side to that is if the standards are set too high then you don't get enough recruits to fill the open positions. Then response times go down since you don't have enough officers available. The obvious answer to that is to raise pay and benefits to see if you can attract better qualified candidates and fill all the needed positions. But then you have to raise taxes and nobody likes that.

[Highway6]

I guess one flip-side to that is if the standards are set too high then you don't get enough recruits to fill the open positions. Then response times go down since you don't have enough officers available. The obvious answer to that is to raise pay and benefits to see if you can attract better qualified candidates and fill all the needed positions. But then you have to raise taxes and nobody likes that.

The previous standard in Dayton was get a 66% on that particular entrance exam. It's not like they were only accepting A students... or B students... or even C students.

I guess having an incompetent person fill a position might be slightly better than having that position unfilled in some cases, but it could also make matters worse, depending on the job.

[august948]

The previous standard in Dayton was get a 66% on that particular entrance exam. It's not like they were only accepting A students... or B students... or even C students.

I guess having an incompetent person fill a position might be slightly better than having that position unfilled in some cases, but it could also make matters worse, depending on the job.

They'll get what they pay for, just like everyone else.

[jgriff]

I guess one flip-side to that is if the standards are set too high then you don't get enough recruits to fill the open positions. Then response times go down since you don't have enough officers available. The obvious answer to that is to raise pay and benefits to see if you can attract better qualified candidates and fill all the needed positions. But then you have to raise taxes and nobody likes that.

Nothing has been said about not getting enough recruits. They are lowering the standards because not enough black people passed. It's pretty insulting to black people if you ask me.

DAYTON — The city’s Civil Service Board and the U.S. Department of Justice have agreed on a lower passing score for the police recruit exam after it was rejected because not enough blacks passed the exam.

[Fringe]

Maybe it's just to get more "home schoolers" recruited.

[august948]

Maybe it's just to get more "home schoolers" recruited.

Doubtful. Home schooled children tend to do better than average on tests.

[august948]

Nothing has been said about not getting enough recruits. They are lowering the standards because not enough black people passed. It's pretty insulting to black people if you ask me.

Actually, they are saying that. They are not getting enough black recruits. I refuse to believe there aren't qualified blacks around, they just aren't attracting them. Could be the same for white recruits too but the DOJ won't usually step in for that.

[LTAWACS]

UGH!