State Police hit with $6.8M judgment in lawsuit accusing it of discrimination

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A jury has ordered the State Police to pay $6.8 million after a finding that it discriminated against female and minority troopers.

The verdict confirmed on Nov. 18 by a Suffolk Superior Court clerk came in a lawsuit accusing the agency’s leadership of enabling a discriminatory process for hiring and promotions that kept women and people of color from rising through the ranks.

The 2016 lawsuit accused leadership of handpicking candidates for jobs before they were posted and enabling a “pattern of discriminatory practices that prevent many from obtaining choice assignments throughout the department.”

A group of current and former troopers that included women, Black and Hispanic officers, said employees who were not male or white were regularly passed over for promotions that went to white men who were less qualified with more extensive disciplinary records.

In a statement on Nov. 18, the State Police said it has changed the way it operates and remains committed to building a department “at every rank that reflects the communities we serve.”

“We continue to implement promotional processes that align the Department with national best practices and strengthen our workforce by elevating candidates who not only possess the necessary skills and experience, but also uphold the values essential to delivering excellent police services,” the agency said.

In September 2018, about 5 percent of the State Police force were women and just under 10 percent were minorities, according to the lawsuit, which said the state had “created, maintained, and enforced substantial headwinds that fly against the possibility of having a diverse force.”

The agency has been under scrutiny in recent years, including an overtime scandal that implicated dozens of current and retired troopers. State Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the Karen Read case, was fired after a disciplinary board found he had sent sexist and crude texts about her to his family and colleagues.

Earlier this year, a former State Police sergeant was found guilty of taking part in a scheme to take bribes, including a new snowblower and a driveway, in exchange for giving passing scores on commercial driving tests.