An organization representing black officers in the Denver Police Department plans to share concerns about hiring practices with the Civil Service Commission this morning.
The meeting of the black-officers group and the Civil Service Commission was scheduled a week and a half ago, said Chris Olson, president of the commission.
Sgt. Joseph Unser, president of Black Police Officers Inc., said in a statement that the group plans to discuss recruitment, testing practices and procedures relating to the hiring of black officers.
“We want the public to be aware of what is being done by our organization to help further this cause, as well as what we perceive to be the flaws in the system and what we think needs to be done to fix this system,” Unser said.
He couldn’t be reached Thursday for further comment.
Olson said the commission operates under a court-mandated affirmative-action hiring plan in which minorities often are considered for police jobs over better-scoring white applicants. The Hogue Decree ensures minorities are hired at a rate reflecting the city’s demographics.
This week, the Denver Police Latino Organization began airing its grievances over Latino officers’ treatment by the department and announced the filing of a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
