Two white Columbus police officers sued for discrimination. They just settled their case
A federal lawsuit filed by two white police officers in the Columbus Police Department alleging discriminatory promotional practices has reached a settlement, according to City Attorney Clifton Fay.
“All parties decided that settlement was better than continuing to litigate the matter in federal court,” Fay said.
Columbus City Council voted to allow the City Manager, City Attorney and Finance Director to make payments totaling $600,000 to settle the claims brought by the officers and pay their attorneys’ fees. One councilman was absent from the vote. The vote was 9-0 with one councilor, Walker Garrett, being absent.
‘’It just made sense for the citizens of Columbus and for the Police Department,” said Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson about the settlement. “We need be focusing all our energies on trying to make Columbus the safest place to live that we possibly can, and I think now that this is behind us it gives us an opportunity to direct our energies toward that goal.”
The case filed by Lt. Ralph Dowe and Lt. Tony Litle, both white males, alleged that they were passed over for promotions by the Columbus Police Department and former Chief Freddie Blackmon due to Affirmative Action policies put in place by the city government.
Dowe is the President of the local Fraternal Order of Police chapter and Litle is a 28-year veteran. The two brought their lawsuit in March 2022 claiming the affirmative action policies used in the promotion process violated their rights under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment and Title VII.
“Blackmon avoided making promotions to the command staff to avoid a majority white command staff and to avoid promoting highly qualified white men to Captain,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit states that Blackmon lowered the time-in-rank and education requirements for promotion which the lawsuit says, “...made his (Blackmon’s) promotional pool less qualified and more heavily minority.”
The 2018 promotional lists expired after that and officers, including Dowe and Litle, were required to undergo a new round of assessment center testing to be placed on the 2020 promotional list in which they were deemed “highly qualified” or highly recommended for promotion, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that the Police Chief is required to promote those deemed “highly recommended for promotion” before officers deemed “recommended for promotion.”
Blackmon made multiple promotions on December 30, 2020, but didn’t promote either Dowe or Litle, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also alleges many of the individuals that were promoted were less qualified than Dowe or Litle for various reasons such as more significant disciplinary history or less seniority, for example.
Blackmon promoted Captain Joyce Dent-Fitzpatrick, a Black woman, and Captain Debra Kennedy, a white woman, to the Assistant Chief positions.
Blackmon also promoted every Black lieutenant eligible for promotion and every female captain or lieutenant eligible for promotion, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit goes on to say that Blackmon made racially balanced promotions at lower levels including promoting three Black candidates and four white candidates for lieutenant positions when there were fifteen white candidates and four Black candidates categorized as “highly qualified” and thus eligible for promotion to Lieutenant.
Blackmon passed over eight white candidates, six male, with higher assessment scores than two of the Black candidates he promoted, according to the lawsuit.
Dowe and Litle are still employed in the Columbus Police Department, according to Henderson.
The Ledger-Enquirer has reached out for a statement from the two officers lawyers and has not received a reply at this time.
This story was originally published July 13, 2023 at 10:10 AM.