That was one thing Brown took away from his review of DPD training standards. The other is that there is that two police academy courses — driving and field sobriety training — have been weeding out minority recruits at a disproportionate rate.
Over the past five years, five would-be cops have been fired after flunking their driving test. All five were black or Hispanic. (The recruit referenced by Pinkston is black.)
During the same period, nine would-be cops have flunked the field-sobriety training. Eight were black or Hispanic.
Cletus Judge, president of the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, says those numbers are suspicious.
“I think it has to do with the way the test is given,” he says.
Both the driving and field-sobriety tests include evaluations by a supervisor, which leaves considerable room for subjectivity. Anecdotally, Judge hears of cases of disparate treatment — maybe one recruit who brush up against a cone on the driving course is docked more than another who knocks the cone over — but he wants to see the data: who’s passing, who’s failing, and, most importantly, who’s doing the evaluations.