March 14, 2001

In Favor of HB 3492 (Hinojosa)

Police Promotions Accountability Act

Need for Action

Ø Today, police promotions are based entirely on an exam score plus one point for each year of seniority with the Department. (LGC 143.033) For example, an officer who scores 65 on the promotion exam and has five years with a department will have an overall grade of 70, high enough for promotion under the Civil Service rules for cities under 1.5 million.

Ø Civil service police departments cannot take misconduct into account in promotions.

Ø Therefore, officers with a significant record of sustained citizen complaints who have enough seniority and make a passing grade on the promotions exam will be promoted, despite the sometimes serious problems they have had.

Example: Austin Police Officer Hector Polanco was fired for lying. Though allegedly coerced false confessions forced re-evaluation of dozens of criminal cases in which he testified, Polanco exercised his usual appeals rights and soon was placed back on the force. Later, he took the Lieutenants exam and was promoted. APD Captain Juan Gonzales became head of APD Internal Affairs after he’d had a sustained excessive force charge and another sustained allegation that he’d used departmental computers to do private investigator research for a law firm.

The Proposal

This bill holds officers accountable for the sustained citizen complaints against them by deducting from the final promotion grade one point (the same amount added to the grade for each year of seniority) for each sustained complaint, and five points each for a smaller category of sustained complaints related to “excessive force, perjury, other job-related lying, spousal abuse, or willful tampering with evidence.” A maximum of 20 points may be deducted from an officer’s score.

This is a moderate first step to ensure accountability in promotions.

Ø Most citizen complaints against officers are not sustained, and this proposal will not result in any officer losing a promotion because of unfounded allegations or allegations that cannot be proven one way or the other. However, when department investigators sustain complaints of excessive use of force, sexual assault, wife beating, tampering with evidence or other serious problems, the officer will find that this behavior affects his chances for promotion.

Ø This proposal does not require point deductions for traffic-related complaints (traffic accidents, high speed chase damage), even if they involve serious property damage.

Ø As a first step, this proposal only requires the deduction of a single point for each non-traffic-related sustained complaint. Therefore, the promotion process remains skewed heavily in favor of the exam grade. An officer with a high exam grade (say an 85), five years seniority (plus five points) and five sustained complaints will still score 85 overall and qualify for promotion. This proposal will encourage officers to see a direct professional consequence for misbehavior on the street, and thereby a new and better attitude toward citizens.

This proposal is supported by The Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, the Texas NAACP and the ACLU of Texas.