The Police Sex-Discrimination Case We Should Be Talking About
(colorado springs is home to fungus (aka, focus on the family), ted haggard's new life church, and is also the home of amendment 2, michelle malkin, and doug lamborn, just to name a few of the resident crazies)
The Police Sex-Discrimination Case We Should Be Talking About
In December 2013, Colorado Springs’ Chief of Police Peter Carey introduced a physical abilities test (also known as a PAT) that all officers were required to pass. It involved push-ups, sit-ups and running exercises. The stated goal of the test was to create a “culture of fitness” on the force and to reduce work-related injuries, ostensibly ensuring longer careers for officers. But after 38 percent of the department’s women officers over age 40 failed, some began to question the true intention of the policy.
Twelve decorated policewomen who failed the test were placed on “light duty” as a consequence—they were stripped of their right to wear their uniforms or any police insignia and effectively confined to their desks, resulting in losses in compensation, status and responsibility. They speculated that the test had been designed to get them off the force, especially considering just 2 percent of male officers had failed. Facing possible future termination—a consequence for repeated failure to pass—the women took action: In late April, they filed a sex-discrimination suit against the police department.
In their complaint the officers assert:
The PAT testing protocols adopted by the Colorado Springs Police Department were developed in order to eliminate from the workforce a large number of women over 40. … None of the plaintiffs have ever failed to perform or been unable to perform any of her duties, including making a forcible arrest, because of inadequate upper body or trunk strength [or inadequate running speed]. (p. 14 and p. 9)
The officers point to the cut-off score as evidence of sex discrimination in the test’s design; all officers were required to complete each component of the test in the same amount of time to gain a minimum number of points.
“My ability to do 40 push-ups, or my ability to do 40 sit-ups in a set amount of time in no way correlates to my ability to talk to a 6’5 male and have to go hands-on and put handcuffs on him,” said police officer Rebecca Arndt, one of the complainants, in an interview with a local news station. She, like many of the other officers who failed the test, has received many accolades and awards for her excellence in policing but can’t even identify herself as a police officer anymore.
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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/05/18/the-police-sex-discrimination-case-we-should-be-talking-about/
