Boston pays $2.6M to Black police officers who alleged racial bias in hair tests for drug use

The Related Press

BOSTON (AP) — The town of Boston has paid $2.6 million to a number of Black cops to settle a longstanding federal discrimination lawsuit over a hair take a look at used to determine drug use, attorneys for the officers mentioned Nov. 16.

The town eradicated the take a look at in 2021 and has now paid damages to 3 Black officers and a cadet who misplaced their jobs or have been disciplined on account of the take a look at, their attorneys mentioned in a information launch.

The case file famous {that a} settlement had been reached, however the particulars had not been filed but. Messages looking for remark have been left with the Boston Police Division and the lead legal professional representing them.

The officers sued town in 2005, claiming its hair take a look at is discriminatory as a result of Black folks’s hair is extra vulnerable to false positives. The town and the corporate that carried out testing for Boston police rejected any suggestion that the checks are racially biased.

The case was twice thought of by the First Circuit Courtroom of Appeals. In 2014, the court docket agreed that the hair take a look at fell disproportionately on Black officers. Two years later, the court docket discovered proof ample to indicate that town had continued to make use of the hair take a look at even after having been knowledgeable of a much less discriminatory different.

The case went to trial in 2018, and the events subsequently entered into mediation, ensuing within the settlement.

“This settlement places an finish to an extended, ugly chapter in Boston’s historical past,” mentioned Oren Sellstrom of Attorneys for Civil Rights, a nonprofit that has represented the officers. “On account of this flawed take a look at, our shoppers’ lives and careers have been utterly derailed. The town has lastly compensated them for this grave injustice.”

The Massachusetts Affiliation of Minority Regulation Enforcement Officers additionally was a plaintiff.

“The town remains to be making an attempt to make up for the lack of variety on the police power that resulted from use of the hair take a look at,” Jeffrey Lopes, affiliation president, mentioned in an announcement.