CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — A federal lawsuit has been filed against the City of Chillicothe, the city’s police department (CPD), and the town’s mayor alleging racism and retaliation against minority police officers.
The suit, which was filed in federal court on Wednesday, says that an African-American police officer within the department has been denied pay raises, promotions, and training opportunities because of the color of his skin. While the lawsuit is filed on behalf of only one officer, the lawsuit says that the three other minority officers in the department feel the same way and that they, too have been discriminated against.
The suit reads, “In 2020, all CPD minorities were passed over for advancement within CPD and a detective position became available that was hand selected and given to a white male officer. Several minorities complained to CPD supervisors, and shortly after, another detective position became available. This time the detective position was not posted for sign-up to allow other officers a fair opportunity to apply for the position when yet again another non-minority officer was chosen.”
The suit goes on to say that black officers have requested several training classes and have been ignored or denied each time.
“Plaintiff asked CPD at times for training and even offered CPD to pay for classes and was ignored, while white male officers were always afforded the opportunity to attend free and/or paid training, and among them were officers that have less seniority than all the minorities including Plaintiff. This has discouraged Plaintiff — and other minorities — from applying for positions or training.”
Each time a black officer filed a complaint or said anything about being targeted or discriminated against, the lawsuit alleges that the officers would become targets of unjust internal affairs investigations. In one such case, the named plaintiff was called into the city’s safety director’s office to answer questions about his complaints. When he was worried about his safety going into the meeting, his supervisor allegedly told him he had to “or else.” The suit alleges that the officer was held against his will in an office and told he was not allowed to leave or else he would be fired. The lawsuit goes on to say that the officer was essentially held hostage despite asking for a lawyer or union representative to be present and asking to leave multiple times.
Chillicothe Police Department currently employs more than forty officers, according to the lawsuit, but only four of them are minorities. The complaint alleges that the department and captain in charge of hiring have a profession-wide reputation of being known as discriminatory against minorities and so, many black and female officers who apply end up seeking employment elsewhere, sometimes even at a lower pay because the process with CPD never “ends up going anywhere” despite some of the applicants being the most qualified on paper.
Perhaps the biggest — and most evidentiary heavy — claim in the lawsuit is that the officer was passed over for a K-9 position, despite scoring the highest on an exam and being recommended by an independent board from the Ohio Highway Patrol’s Canine Division; the board has historically selected CPD’s next K-9 officer and the city has always taken their recommendation, the lawsuit reads. When the black officer scored the highest and was recommended by the patrol for the job, CPD administration bucked the panel and the position was handed off to someone else with less experience who was a white male.
“Plaintiff [told administration he was upset with the unfair treatment in the selection process, and the administration said that] the Plaintiff was going to be the next handler.”
According to the suit, the highway patrol evaluators “submitted written results to cover OSP in case a lawsuit [ever came] of the matter.”
The Guardian reached out to the city, including Mayor Luke Feeney, Safety Director Jeff Carmen, and Police Chief Ron Meyers on Wednesday seeking comment for this story. So far, no word back from the top three administrators at the time of this publishing.
Before the lawsuit was filed on Wednesday, the officer had to get a “right to sue” letter from the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, which investigated the claims and agreed that the officer was subjected to unfair treatment.
The officer — who has two law firms representing him in the federal lawsuit — had something to say about the case.
WespBarwell and BKD Legal are the firms representing the officer. The two firms have teamed up before to take on municipalities. Most recently, the duo won a trial against the City of Circleville for more than $3 million in a case involving discrimination against a female firefighter.
“In CPD, there is no fair and equal treatment to minorities especially when it comes to training, opportunity, and advancement. Non-minority — such as white male officers and supervisors — also see the unequal treatment and make comments weekly about this to the minority officers. The other minority officers are afraid to step up and jeopardize their livelihood,” the firms wrote on Wednesday.
Brian Duncan, one of the lead attorneys on the case added, “Our primary goal is to ensure that [the officer] is compensated for the injustices he has been subjected to throughout his tenure with the Chillicothe Police Department. Further, and more importantly, we hope this matter continues to shed light on the systemic issues that continue to plague not only African-Americans, but also other similarly situated minorities in the workplace, and, specifically, as the same relates to law enforcement and first responders.”