FDNY Sued Over Alleged Discriminatory Testing Practices
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the city this week, accusing the New York CIty Fire Department ("FDNY") of using recruitment exams that discriminate against blacks and Hispanics.
A complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn alleges that the FDNY administered exams in 1999 and 2002 that failed to fairly measure the applicants' ability to do the job.
"The city's testing practices ... do not select the firefighter applicants who will best perform their important public safety mission, while disproportionately screening out large numbers of qualified black and Hispanic applicants," said Wan J. Kim, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division in Washington.
Of the roughly 11,000 firefighters, only about 3 percent are black and 4.5 percent Hispanic, the complaint said.
The city had no immediate comment on Monday. City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo has argued in the past that the FDNY has taken significant strides to improve minority recruitment, and warned that a federal civil rights suit would be "ill-advised."
Bookmark: 
