By Rachel Swan
San Francisco Chronicle
OAKLAND, Calif. — An Oakland City Council member who wants the Police Department to hire more African American officers has focused her attention on the written exam for new applicants — which is the point where many candidates get eliminated.
Earlier this year, Councilwoman Desley Brooks suggested the department could consider lowering the passing score on the written test or getting rid of the exam altogether. But she has since realized that the test is mandated by the state body that sets standards for police agencies and is now looking for another way of solving what she believes is a problem.
Brooks is the chairwoman of the council’s Public Safety Committee and says she wants to ensure that Oakland has “a Police Department that’s reflective of the community they serve.”
According to data from the city and the 2010 U.S. census, 35 percent of Oakland’s population is white, while 41 percent of the Police Department is white. Twenty-eight percent of the city’s population is black, while 20 percent of the Police Department is black. For Asians, it’s 17 percent city population and 14 percent Police Department; for Hispanics, it’s 25 percent city population and 23 percent Police Department.
Focus On Black Officers
Brooks has established herself as a spokeswoman for race issues in City Hall, persuading the City Council in June to set aside $617,000 in the city budget to create a Department of Race and Equity to hold other city departments accountable for racial disparities in their services. The Public Safety Committee the councilwoman chairs monitors the city’s law enforcement agencies and Fire Department.
Since the beginning of the year, Brooks has asked Police Chief Sean Whent to submit reports on the department’s efforts to recruit and retain African American officers. She did not respond to questions from The Chronicle asking why she has focused only on African American recruits even though Latinos and Asians are also underrepresented.
In February, Whent pointed out in a staff report to the Public Safety Committee that African American candidates fail the written exam more often than they fail the physical abilities test. The tests are given to applicants to determine whether they are qualified to enter the academy. But because Brooks inquired only about African Americans, Whent’s response was limited.
In reality, Police Department legislative manager Bruce Stoffmacher told The Chronicle, candidates of all races fail the written exam more often than the physical tests.
But at a May 12 meeting, Brooks asked the department to explain its scoring requirements on the written exam. She also asked if the department could consider eliminating the exam and allow applicants to take a course in its place. Police said doing that would violate standards set by the state Commission on Police Officer Standards and Testing, which lays out training requirements for more than 600 police agencies in California.
The exam, which is scored on a curve, measures reading comprehension, and knowledge of certain vocabulary words — such as “corroborate.” The state commission requires a minimum score of 42 points on the exam format that Oakland uses, but recommends that agencies set the minimum at 45 points.
Reflecting Population
Following those guidelines, Oakland’s Police Department requires candidates to score 45 points or better — still lower than the minimum required by neighboring police departments in Hayward, San Jose and Contra Costa County, as Whent noted in a staff report on April 28.
The Oakland Police Department defended its scoring requirement in a July staff report to the Public Safety Committee, saying it helps ensure that applicants “are somewhat above minimally qualified and thus more prepared to succeed in the academy, field training and as a police officer.”
Brooks, however, pressed on, asking the police to provide data proving that applicants with a score of 45 perform better as officers than applicants with a score of 42. At the most recent Public Safety Committee meeting on Tuesday, she asked the Police Department to consider switching to a different exam format.
“The purpose is not to get people to apply so you can systematically weed them out,” Brooks told The Chronicle. “I’m not trying to minimize the standards. I just want to make sure they’re evenly applied and that they have some legitimacy.”
Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who helped form an ad hoc working group in April to study police recruitment in Oakland, said she shares those concerns.
“Our academies for police and fire are overwhelmingly white and male,” McElhaney said, adding a more diverse force would help repair the Oakland Police Department’s historically corrosive relationship with the city it serves.
“It’s problematic when the people who live above the 580 (freeway) trust the police, and the people below do not,” McElhaney said, referring to an idea that Brooks has often presented at council meetings of the city being bifurcated into “two Oaklands” — a privileged class in the hills, and a blighted area in the flatlands.
Councilman Abel Guillen said Oakland needs its police force to reflect the population it serves.
“We need the best-qualified officers who reflect the diversity and richness of Oakland,” said Guillen, who sits on the Public Safety Committee and helped McElhaney start the working group.
A representative of Commission on Police Officer Standards and Testing said it’s a mistake to blame the written exam for racial imbalances in the department.
Alexis Blaylock, who serves as a senior consultant for the state commission, said the written exam is a critical indicator of whether an officer can fill out police reports, gather testimony from witnesses and comprehend the laws he or she has to enforce.
“If those are deficient, how are they going to effectively carry out their duties?” Blaylock asked. “I don’t think race should have anything to do with their standards.”
Eliminating Candidates
Stoffmacher said there are no data indicating that African American applicants are any more likely to fail the exam than applicants of other races, or that the exam is what weeds people out — a recent internal study showed that candidates who did not ultimately graduate from Oakland’s four most recent academies scored slightly higher on the exam than those who graduated.
Stoffmacher said the city has stepped up efforts to diversify its police force and recruit officers “who have an understanding of (Oakland)’s history of social unrest and police-community relations.”
“I don’t think there’s ever been an intent to not hire people of a particular background,” Stoffmacher said. “But like a lot of things, you can’t just be neutral.”
Showing Promise
Councilman Dan Kalb, who serves on the Public Safety Committee, said Oakland could identify problems in its hiring process by conducting exit interviews with African American candidates who almost made it.
“I’m not suggesting we weaken our qualification process,” Kalb said. “I’m saying let’s work with folks who’ve shown some promise, and help them through the steps they couldn’t make.”
He said Oakland police have started a suite of new recruitment programs aimed at hiring Oakland residents and people of color — including a 17-week intensive course at Merritt College to prepare would-be officers for the application process.
Those efforts seem to be working, as illustrated by the racial and ethnic makeup of the 173rd Oakland Police Recruit Academy, which opened in July. It has 11 Asians, 11 African Americans, 13 Hispanics and 17 Caucasians. Twelve of them are from Oakland, Stoffmacher said.
Copyright 2015 the San Francisco Chronicle