NAACP: Qualified Approval To C.R. Police Aid Program

 

by Mike Deupree, Gazette City Hall Reporter, 6-12-1977

 

Despite feelings that it won’t do much good and is merely a “political device” to silence complaints, the local chapter of the NAACP Friday night gave qualified support to a police aide program in Cedar Rapids.

 

The group approved a resolution authorizing spokesman George Colbert, who along with a special mayor’s committee helped create the program, to tell city officials the NAACP supports the program for those it is designed to serve.

 

The resolution made it clear, however, the organization doesn’t feel the aide program will do much toward putting a black on the police force, and it contained a strong statement urging other avenues be tried, including scheduling of a civil service examination as quickly as possible.

 

The police side program, federally funded under the comprehensive employee training act (CETA), is designed to give women and members of minority groups an opportunity to get first-hand experience in law enforcement while also taking college courses in the field. The idea is to help them decide whether they want to make police work a career, and eventually to assist them to join the local force.

 

Problem Areas

 

Several problems have arisen, though. The CETA funding carries with it a number of restrictions, including one that requires an applicant to be unemployed. There have been 15 applicants, and as of Friday night, only three were found to be qualified after preliminary screening.

 

The three — a white woman, a black woman, and a black man — still must pass physical examinations and other hurdles. Meanwhile, Safety Commissioner Ed Colton said applications will be taken until five qualified applicants are found.

 

Colbert told NAACP members Friday night he plans to suggest scrapping the aide program if next week’s tests disqualify more applicants. He also said his idea in helping set up the program was to provide a larger pool of black applicants when the next civil service examination is taken.

 

That was in defense of his role in the program, which was heavily criticized in the often-heated meeting at Jane Boyd Community House.

 

Colbert said several reasons limited the number of applicants (only one black man applied), including the low salary, set at 60 percent of the base rookie pay, or about $6,000 per year. The unemployment requirement also hurt, he said.

 

“I had a couple of college kids (interested in the program) but they left, went back home,” he said.

 

Low Salary

 

“Other black males aren’t going to apply, those on my list, because they are employed now.”

 

And, he said, the salary is too low to attract most men in the required age group of 21 to 33 years.

 

“$6,000 a year is no money when you’re making $13,000 or $14,000 in a factory,” he said.

 

Sylverster Grady, 1380 O avenue NE, said the police aide program had been twisted for political reasons by city officials who don’t want blacks on the police department.

 

“The job is degrading to the black man,” he told Colbert. “You put yourself in a mousetrap when you designed it.”

 

He said the idea of a low-paid aide, without full police powers, is being used in an effort to quiet criticism of hiring policies and racial attitudes at the police department without doing anything about them.

 

That view seemed to be shared by most of the dozen or so persons at the meeting, as did the opinion that blacks in Cedar Rapids don’t want special favors, but just an equal chance in the civil service testing procedures.

 

Chapter President Luther Trent said all those in the room should make sure to talk to prospective candidates before the next test is given, to do their own recruiting, so a significant number of blacks will be among the applicants next time police officers are selected.

 

Criticisms

 

Several NAACP members were critical of civil service commission procedures, particularly a rule that prohibits an applicant from learning his or her test score. They said concealing that information would make it easy to exclude blacks by claiming they failed the test when they actually passed.

 

“It’s getting pretty bad when the guy tells an applicant, ‘you did real well, hope to see you on the force,’ and then a letter comes out saying he failed the test,” one member said.

 

Trent and Colbert also reminded other members that a new test could be scheduled sooner than expected, and include more black applicants, if investigators of the federal law enforcement assistance administration (LEAA) find discrimination occurred in the latest police test.

 

A complaint alleging two incidents of discrimination is being investigated by the LEAA, and a decision is expected within a month.