By Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News
August 1, 2003

A modified version of a federal court consent decree signed by Denver in 1975 is still used to set police department goals for hiring minorities and women.

The catalysts behind that decree were three black female officers, who filed a lawsuit in 1972 claiming they were underrepresented in the police department.

Their claim resulted in the consent decree that was named after one of the plaintiffs, Carol C. Hogue.

The Hogue decree required the Denver Civil Service Commission and the police department to hire one policewoman for every four male officers.

In a second major provision, 20 percent of police officers had to be minorities.

But in 1988, the city realized that the police department's record of hiring black applicants was dismal. The original plaintiffs - Hogue, Rae Beth McCall and Laura Tinnin - and their attorneys worked with the commission, former Police Chief Ari Zavaras, and former Manager of Safety Manuel L. Martinez to devise a new decree.

"The reason for the modified Hogue decree at that time was that we had such a low percentage of African-American officers - we were down to 2 or 3 percent - and (former) Mayor Federico Peña was very concerned about that," Martinez said.

"He was very concerned about increasing the number of African Americans, and that was part of my marching orders to rectify that situation," Martinez said.

City officials met with several employee groups, including the Police Protective Association, put together a new Hogue decree and filed it in U.S. District Court without opposition.

Under the revised decree the Civil Service Commission and safety manager were required in 1988 to immediately come up with an academy that would be composed of 45 percent black and 11 percent Hispanic recruits.

The applicants had to be 20 years old or older and had to be a high school graduate or better.

Subsequent academies were to be made up of, at minimum, 10 percent blacks, 11 percent Hispanics and less than 1 percent American Indians or Asian Americans.

The Civil Service Commission now uses a formula to determine what percent of academy recruits should be minorities. It takes the Denver population of a minority group that is 25 years and older and has a high school diploma or better, then divides that figure by the city's total population with the same criteria.

Earl E. Peterson, the commission's executive director, said minority applicants still must pass the basic tests to be considered.

"If we don't have them as an available work force, or applicants' pool based on testing, and we can't satisfy (the decree) then we can't satisfy it," he said.

The commission works with the safety manager's recruitment department to reach out to minorities and persuade them to become Denver police officers, firefighters and sheriff's deputies, Peterson said.

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