Denver’s Latino police officers say they have tolerated ethnic slurs and harsher discipline than their white counterparts and have been denied promotions because of their race.
Eight officers from the Denver Police Latino Organization, who filed a class-action federal civil-rights and employment discrimination complaint against the department, also say city and police administrators have ignored or delayed solving the problems.
“They have failed to negotiate in good faith,” Detective Rufino Trujillo, the state chapter president, said Tuesday at a news conference about the suit. “We are ready and willing and able to proceed with a lawsuit in federal court.”
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, with which the complaint was filed, cannot release it. Sgt. Leonard Mares, secretary of the state Police Latino Organization chapter, said the group declined to release the complaint or discuss its allegations in detail, saying officers don’t want to tip off the department about the specific incidents or invite retaliation.
The officers say they have negotiated the issues for four years with Chief Gerry Whitman, the Civil Service Commission and Manager of Safety Al LaCabe.
There is no legal merit to claims that the department and Whitman have created a “hostile working environment” for Latino officers, LaCabe said, but he added that the city must do a better job of recruiting qualified Latinos to the force.
“Are there things we should work on to increase Hispanic officers, and are there things that we should work on to increase the number of Hispanic officers in command positions? I would say, ‘Sure,”‘ LaCabe said. “But I’ll also tell you that it’s something we work on constantly.”
Denver’s Latino population is at 35 percent, according to the latest census numbers.
The police force is 20.3 percent Latino. Among officers at the rank of corporal or above, 18.7 percent are Latino, while 70.3 percent are white.
Whitman did not return repeated requests for comments about the nature of the negotiations or the validity of the officers’ complaints.
Whitman has listened to some of the complaints made by the organization but at times has ignored the problems, said Mares.
The officers say that LaCabe has been the most responsive to their concerns but that changes haven’t come fast enough.
Trujillo said Latino officers attend open houses and recruit at festivals and Latino service colleges but that their efforts go unaided by the Civil Service Commission.
But Earl Peterson, executive director of the commission, said finding minority officers is tough.
The difficulty, he says, is getting qualified candidates in the door to take the exams.
“That is across the board,” he said. “These are not easy positions to fill.”
Chris Olson, president of the commission, said Latino officers have participated in the Police Examination Review Committee and in a diversity committee made up of representatives from police, fire and the sheriff’s department to examine the issue.
“It’s not like nothing is happening, so I’m surprised this is being propagated now,” Olson said. “We are trying to address all the concerns everyone has.”
The commission was also criticized about promotions of officers. While officers have to pass a written test, they also must undergo an assessment by a panel appointed by the commission. The Latino officers say the panel that makes subjective decisions about candidates is not diverse enough.
While Olson said he did not know the ethnic makeup of the panels, Peterson said he requires that they are diverse.
“They do a good job of deciding who can be pushed into a higher position regardless of ethnicity,” Olson said.
Detective Teri Chavez, who has worked for the Police Department for 23 years, says she hopes change will come. Chavez would not be specific about her complaints but said there are many gender-based discrimination problems in the department.
“These are not new issues to the department,” she said. “They have chosen to ignore them, and now with the (complaint) coming forward, this makes them accountable.”
Some complaints made by Latino officers are never investigated or there is a six-month delay before administrators inquire into problems, Mares said. He also said officers complain that discipline is not evenly applied.
He said not a single discrimination complaint filed by a Latino officer has ever been sustained by the department brass.
In an effort to recruit Latino officers, the department has reached out to cities in other states, such as Texas and Arizona, that have higher Latino populations, LaCabe said. And the department will embark on an intense advertising campaign in the next couple of months, part of which will be geared specifically to woo Latinos.
After LaCabe left his previous job at the New Orleans police department, the city’s black officers brought a civil action in order to improve diversity on that force, he said.
“You do what you have to do to represent your interests,” he said. “We have to have a better system that finds qualified officers that reflect our community.”
Staff writers Manny Gonzales and George Merritt contributed to this report.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
The complaint alleges:
Poor recruitment of Latino candidates
Lack of promotions
Preferential treatment for whites, males
Hostile work environment, including racial slurs
