Baker v. City of Detroit

483 F. Supp. 930, 24 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1728, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9426, 23 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 30,980
District Court, E.D. Michigan·Decided October 1, 1979·No. Civ. 5-71937, 5-72264·Published·Cited by 35 cases

Opinion

*935 MEMORANDUM OPINION

KEITH, Circuit Judge,

Sitting by Designation.

INDEX

Introduction

I. Procedural History

A. Statement of the Case
B. Summary of the Legal Claims.

II. The History of Past Discrimination in the Detroit Police Department

A. Hiring Practices
1. 1943 — The First Detroit Race Riot
2. Employment Practices 1944-53
3. Employment Practices 1954-60
4. Employment Practices 1960 — 67
5. The Department’s Relations with the Black Community
6. The 1967 Riot
7. The Detroit Police Department 1967-68
8. 1967-1974 Employment Practices of the Detroit Police Department
(a) 1967 — 1971 Employment Practices
(b) 1971-1974 Employment Practices
B. Promotional Practices
1. The Racial Make-up of the Department’s Supervisory Ranks 1967-1974
2. Promotional Lines of Progression
3. The Promotional Process
(a) Minimum Eligibility Requirements to Sit for the Examination
(b) The Components of the Promotional Model
(1) Service Ratings
(2) Promotional Ratings
(3) Seniority
(4) The Written Promotional Examination
(5) Veterans Preference and College Credits
(c) Additional Eligibility Requirements for Promotion
(d) The Mechanics of the Promotional System
4. Discrimination within the Promotional Model

III. Defendant’s Past Discrimination Model — An Analysis

A. Relevant Labor Market
B. Defendant’s Expert’s Analysis

IV. 1974 — The Adoption of Affirmative Action and Subsequent Occurrences

A. The Board of Police Commissioners and the Adoption of Affirmative Action
B. The Promotional Model 1974— Present; An Overview
1. Immediate Background
2. Efforts to Improve the Promotional Model
(a) Oral Boards
(b) The Written Examination
(c) Eligibility for Promotion

V. The Matter of Relative Qualifications

A. The Written Exam
B. Service Ratings
C. Confirmation Service Ratings and Officer Candidate School Scores
D. Summary

VI. The Legal Standard for Voluntary Affirmative Action

A. The Legal Claims
B. The Title VII and § 1981 Claim
1. The Weber Decision
2. Weber and the Detroit Affirmative Action Plan
3. The City’s Past Violation of Title VII
C. The Constitutional Claim
1. The Board of Police Commissioners’ Findings of Past Discrimination
2. Intentional Past Discrimination
3. Summary
4. Was the City’s Affirmative Action Plan Reasonable?
*936 D. State Law Claims

VII. The City’s Operational Needs Defense

A. The Black Community and Racial Discrimination by the Police Department
B. Prevailing Attitudes in the Police Department

VIII. Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

This case presents a host of issues regarding affirmative action and the broader question of race relations in the City of Detroit and throughout the United States. It brings into focus the tension which exists when the expectations of whites are affected by programs designed to aid minorities.

The controversy in this case can be simply summarized. In 1974, the City of Detroit commenced an affirmative action program regarding promotions in the Detroit Police Department. This program resulted in the preferential promotion of black officers. White officers considered themselves aggrieved by the program and brought this lawsuit. There exist three basic job levels 1 in the Detroit Police Department: patrolman, sergeant and lieutenant. The particular controversy in this case concerns the promotion of officers from the rank of sergeant to the rank of lieutenant. 2

The ordinary procedure which the Detroit Police Department uses to make promotions can be simply summarized. The candidate takes a written examination and, upon attaining a minimum score of 70, the officer’s name is placed on a promotion eligibility list. The officer’s rank on such a list is determined by a number of factors, including exam score, length of service in Department, ratings by superior officers, and level of college education. Although the relative weights of these factors have been shifted over the years, the general procedure has remained that after each factor has been assessed, an overall rating is given to each officer desiring promotion. The candidates for promotion are than ranked numerically from 1 to 500 or however many officers there are on the list. Ordinarily, the officers (in this case sergeants) are promoted to the higher rank (in this case lieutenant) strictly in rank order, depending on how many openings are available. Thus, if the Department needed 12 lieutenants, it would promote the top 12 sergeants on the list.

The City’s affirmative action program added a simple wrinkle to the ordinary promotion procedure — it ensured that equal numbers of black and white officers would be promoted.

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Baker v. City of Detroit, 483 F. Supp. 930, 24 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1728, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9426, 23 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 30,980 (E.D. Mich. 1979).

483 F. Supp. 930 (Baker v. City of Detroit) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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