Whistleblower Lawsuit: NJ State Police Ignore Background Checks for ‘Diversity’

NJ Officer Punished for Following Hiring Standards

We have always been assured that special diversity rules and quotas do not necessarily mean lowering standards. But how could it be otherwise? In the case of acting Sgt Jaclyn Jiras, a veteran state trooper acting as a background investigator for hiring new cadets, she was retaliated against by superiors after objecting that police academy background checks were ignored due to pressure to increase racial diversity among the ranks.

Acting Sgt. Jaclyn Jiras, who spent five months working as a background investigator at a time the division was being scrutinized for its lack of black cadets, claims she was reassigned and denied a promotion when she flagged applicants with troubled legal histories and criminal backgrounds.

Jiras claims in her suit that her superiors, under pressure from the state Attorney General’s Office to boost recruit class diversity on short notice, approved candidates who had been automatically disqualified for having suspended licenses, criminal affiliations and active warrants.

Jiras was responsible for conducting background checks for the division’s 152nd and 153rd academy classes in 2012 and 2013, according to the lawsuit, filed Feb. 10 in Superior Court in Mercer County.

Both classes were touted in succession as the most diverse in State Police history. But they came only after the New Jersey chapter of the NAACP threatened legal action because the division had accepted a class with just five black troopers in 2011.

The 2011 drop in black recruits was seen as particularly troubling for the State Police, which historically struggled to grow its ranks of racial minority and female troopers but was publicly increasing its outreach efforts. The division also had spent a decade under federal monitoring for racial profiling and entered into a settlement with the NAACP in 2000 that mandated improved minority recruiting.

“We’re not looking to change the process or lower the standards,” said Melvin Warren, the criminal justice chairman for the state NAACP who has worked with State Police on recruitment efforts. “But we live in a diverse state. That’s a fact. The makeup of the State Police needs to represent the state of New Jersey.”

Jiras’ attorney, Katherine Hartman, said her client was not opposed to diversity efforts, but raised objections because the division was taking shortcuts.

“The way to (increase diversity) is through mentorship programs, forming partnerships with local police departments — not through manipulating the process,” Hartman said.

The suit claims Jiras and a colleague flagged a number of individuals who failed background checks based on 24 “automatic disqualifiers” set forth by the state attorney general.

One candidate had been found guilty of tax evasion and had a suspended driver’s license, another had an active criminal warrant and a third candidate’s Facebook account showed ties to the Bloods street gang as well as posts from the applicant “making race-based comments,” the suit alleges.

Jiras claims she and her coworkers later learned several of those disqualified applicants had been “forced into the process” anyway amid pressure from Gov. Chris Christie’s administration.

“Because the Academy was to start shortly and the Attorney General’s Office determined it wanted additional ‘diversity,’ twenty minority candidates who had been automatically disqualified and were no longer part of the process were removed from the disqualification list and put back into the process,” the complaint states.

“This is at the highest levels,” Hartman said. “You had captains objecting and saying, ‘What’s going on?’ And there were people higher than them sending (the applicant roster) back. The answer was, ‘The governor’s office said the class was not diverse enough.'”

When Jiras complained, she said her supervisors retaliated by removing her from background investigations and denying her a scheduled promotion to sergeant in May 2014. Another trooper with no experience in background investigations was assigned to replace her, according to the complaint.

“Out of the seven background investigations Jiras conducted, six candidates were disqualified and one withdrew,” the lawsuit states. “When the next class came, Jiras was informed that she would not be doing background investigations as she was ‘too good’ at her job.”

Hartman said she and Jiras detailed their concerns about the recruit vetting process in a January 2015 letter to the State Police’s Office of Professional Standards, but have received no response.

Jiras and [fellow officer] Griffin are appealing the disciplinary charges through the state Office of Administrative Law and the case is pending, records show.

There are few these days who object to diversity in the public square unless there are extenuating circumstances. But when the objective for diversity overrides the fairness and quality that the public deserves, that is a perversion of favoring one group over the other, and that is simply wrong.

If someone wants to play on an NBA basketball team, he or she should have an equal opportunity to try. But the fact is that 70 or 80 percent of that team will be made up of African Americans, and that is as it should be. They have earned that right because of their skill and experience. And if a person decides that they would like to attend Harvard University and they have the grades and test scores to do that, they should welcomed over all the others who don’t measure up to quite the same level. And certainly, if someone applies for a position with the New Jersey State Troopers they should have an equal and impartial chance of winning that opportunity.

No one should take precedence because of ethnicity, gender, family connections, or wealth. It is disappointing that police officials do not see that, and the public will pay the ultimate price with less qualified, less prepared officers so that government officials can pay homage to the great God of Diversity.

Source: nj.com