HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania State Police pays more than $ 2 million into a compensation fund and changes physical fitness standards to resolve a lawsuit over how the agency’s recruitment practices exclude otherwise qualified women.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday announced proposed settlement of litigation that began seven years ago, leaving a federal judge in Harrisburg to give her final approval.
The law enforcement agency has also agreed to make recruiting up to 65 women who were affected by previous soldiers’ entry-level fitness standards a priority.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit alleged that nearly all male recruits passed initial physical readiness tests, but about 30% of women failed. The state police only have more than 4,500 sworn members and 314 are women, the agency said on Tuesday.
Communications director Ryan Tarkowski issued a statement saying the Pennsylvania State Police are committed to recruiting the most qualified applicants “with an emphasis on recruiting women and minorities.”
The lawsuit said the physical fitness tests that examined women contained standards that were not required to perform a soldier’s duties.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division argued that different success rates for men and women showed that the tests had different effects on women. If women passed as quickly as men, about 120 more women would have advanced in the hiring process and about 45 would have deployed the armed forces over a 10-year period, according to the Justice Department’s lawsuit.
According to the 2003 standards, 55% of women and 88% of men passed. According to the 2009 standards, 73% of women and 98% of men passed, the court found.
The pending deal prohibits the agency from performing physical fitness tests that affect women differently unless they are “job-related and in line with business need”.
State Police tests included a 300 meter run, a 1½ mile run, pushups, situps, and a vertical jump. In a joint filing on Tuesday, both sides found that state police had developed a new physical fitness test. Tarkovsky said it was first used in the academy class, which began in January.
In addition to cash payments, those who were passed over due to the earlier testing standards and can meet any other hiring requirements will be invited to become cadets. Those who meet certain criteria and graduate from the Hershey State Police Academy are given retroactive seniority for wage and vacation accrual.
When the lawsuit was filed, the then State Police Commissioner alleged that lowering the standards would jeopardize safety and offend those who had already complied.
“We are not bullied by the Justice Department or by others to change and lower our standards,” said former Commissioner Frank Noonan in 2014.
