Consent decree didn't change enough at SCPD

The agreement between Suffolk County and the Justice Department to end decades of federal oversight of the police department's hiring practices brings that effort to its logical conclusion. Forty-three years after the Reagan administration sued Suffolk for discriminating against women and minorities in hiring, gains in their representation on the force have been modest at best. The goal of a department that better reflects the gender, racial and ethnic makeup of Suffolk's residents remains important, but a more effective way of achieving it must be found.

The Suffolk County Police Department currently has 2,681 sworn officers but just 2.6% are Black, 13.7% are Hispanic and 13.2% are women. That representation is considerably less overall than the U.S. Census Bureau data for the county which pegs it as 7% Black, 13.2% Hispanic and 50% female. While there has been an increase in the number of women and Hispanic officers, the needle hasn't moved much for Black officers.

Filed in 1986, nine years after a similar lawsuit was lodged against Nassau County, the federal government's nationwide goal was to change police hiring practices, with a focus on making standardized screening tests race and gender neutral. Those benchmarks were met for the written and physical strength exams, academic studies have shown. Recruitment strategies also were changed to entice more minority candidates to apply. Once those hurdles were overcome, a more insidious bias emerged in subjective evaluations that led to minorities being disqualified at a much higher rate.

For some time an argument could be made that federal oversight kept the heat on the nation's police departments as they were under a court order to show some evidence of improvement. But oversight was reduced to mechanics, metrics were unclear and, overall, the process did little to transform a department's culture or build trust with minority communities.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed a law giving the Justice Department authority to sue local departments for excessive use of force, but 26 years later the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests nationwide exposed the lack of real progress. Many activists for police reform began to consider consent decrees to be a wasted effort. Now, the Trump administration has gutted Justice's Civil Rights Division so even the pretense of enforcement is gone. Closing this case is at best a victory for taxpayers who have spent millions on outside counsel to represent them.

The ambitious effort started almost a half century ago to change the culture of policing has evolved into a sclerotic oversight process. What will work better is one deeply rooted in community alliances that can be vigilant partners in the process. Individuals always can file private discrimination lawsuits.

Still, the SCPD must do a better job in hiring and promotion so its force reflects the demographics of the population it serves and treats all fairly. If the department's hiring and promotion processes are transparent and Suffolk's elected officials hold it accountable, maybe more progress can be made.