Sunday, June 27, 1999
City quotas are stewpid
BY PETER BRONSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Maybe you think I have exaggratted, but spelling mistakes by a few Cincinnati Police recruits caused quite a distrubance. Some missed symple words hibitually and offten. It was histarical, as if they were on heorin.
But even extreamly poor test scores were not fatel. They were irevelent. Four recruits who flunked the city's test were allowed to take it again. Two were hired and two others may get yet another chance to improve their proformance.
If that makes you frightend about public safty, because you might be stopped for a valation by someone who doesn't know “gun” from “gum,” that's your delemma.
All of the mangled words above came from one police academy spelling test. Nobody's purfict. I halve manguld wirds mysalf.
But cops can't write complete sentence no joke. Perps could walk while juries wonder if the police report says “guilty party” or “quilting party.”
Yet the city of Cincinnati is more worried about math. City officials are determined to add minorities and women — even if they have to lower standards below zero. That's chilling.
City officials deny that quotas exist. They deny the recruits received special treatment. But the rookie cops who were tested twice were black. No white recruits have ever been given two chances to pass.
Meanwhile, the Fire Division may be graduating recruits who can't move a hose, pick up a cot, carry a body or set up a ladder — because strength and agility tests have been watered down to make sure females pass.
“We have to cover for them in every phase of the job,” said one Cincinnati firefighter. “It puts everybody in the fire company in jeopardy. It's not comfortable to go into a fire scene knowing somebody there can't pull you out.”
Another firefighter added, “It's not just women. There are some guys who can't do a chin-up. This is not a politically correct job — it's life or death.”
Both would rather walk into a burning building than give their names. “We'd be investigated,” they said.
They are probably right.
When District Chief Al Boyle wrote a two-page memo to city council, asking for better training and equipment, the city manager pitched a fit and the fire chief demoted him two weeks before his retirement.
Then they denied it was a demotion. I guess it depends on what your definition of demotion is — or your definition of quota.
Mr. Boyle defined it this way: “Nobody at City Hall wants to hear the truth.”
Now that he's retired, I asked him if the firefighters' gripes are a false alarm.
“They've got a beef,” the former training chief said. “I don't care how many women they hire as long as they can do the job. But everybody can't be a firefighter.”
That makes sense. If the Cincinnati Reds put the best women softball players in the lineup to be politically correct, the nation's first professional team would come apart at the seams faster than a Greg Vaughn homerun ripped to the cheap seats.
But Cincinnati Fire Division also has a proud history as the nation's first professional team in red. And morale is choking on lower standards.
“There are women who can do the job, who are respected,” the firefighters agreed.
“We have women who are strong enough, I'd go on any job with them,” Mr. Boyle said. “But the bottom line is that most women — not all — don't have the upper body strength.”
Fire Chief Robert Wright said, “I have not heard of one example of a female not performing. The tests were never watered down. They were amended to be more fair.”
But firefighters say recruits are no longer required to lift a 35-foot ladder. Now they lift a 10-foot aluminum ladder. Veterans who can do 11 minutes on a stair-climber wearing a 30-pound vest are being joined by rookies who hardly finish three minutes.
“If they can't do it under normal circumstances, what will they do in a crisis?” asked council member Jeanette Cissell.
“It's not a racial thing, it's not a minority thing, it's not a woman thing. It's where you draw the line on standards,” she said. “We're asking for problems.”
Mr. Boyle said recruits must be “lazy or dense” to flunk out. And everyone knows it.
That's why special treatment backfires. Quotas assume that no women or minorities can carry their end of the ladder without unfair help. That's a patronizing insult to the minorities and women who have made it the hard way. City officials defend their good intentions to just give a few individuals a break. But they're not doing recruits any favors. Unqualified cops and firefighters who get a “free pass” are humiliated. Cops and firefighters know who they are — and wonder if they will fail when the sirens say “This is not a test.”
And that could be fatel.
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or comments, call (513) 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
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