AKRON, Ohio — Despite efforts to delay the Akron Police Department’s Captain promotion exam from happening Wednesday, Attorney Eddie Sipplen said it didn’t work.
Sipplen said it’s back to the drawing board to try and make the captain selection process more diverse.
“We are evaluating that because part of what Lieutenant Murphy has to understand, he was not fighting this battle just for himself,” said Sipplen.
Last Thursday, Sipplen filed a 26-page lawsuit against the City of Akron and the Akron Civil Service Commission on behalf of Lt. Michael Murphy.
Sipplen accuses city leaders of making exceptions for promotions that primarily benefit more white officers versus black and minority officers.
“We filed the lawsuit to give Lieutenant Murphy an opportunity to take the captain's exam. The city said, well we have a two-year rule and we're not making exceptions to that rule,” said Sipplen.
According to the lawsuit, Murphy applied to take the police captain exam on Sept. 15. He was sent a denial email on Oct. 10, writing that “your application does not indicate that you meet the minimum experience requirement in the classified service.”
Akron’s Human Resources Department also followed up to deny his application, so on Oct. 16, Murphy wrote a letter to Frank Williams, Deputy Mayor of Labor Relations, to request reconsideration.
But Murphy was denied once again on Nov. 4 after Williams said, “There is no mechanism in place to allow or substitute job performance for time in rank.”
“Argument is well, Lieutenant Murphy on his career path says, look I've been in rank at least a year. You've made the exception before to allow less than one year, and if it’s an operational necessity, expand the exam, change the exam to allow one year eligibility,” said Sipplen.
In 2017, Sipplen claims exceptions were made due to operational necessity.
“The city made an exception. But not only did the city make the exception from going from Lieutenant to captain, it allowed other officers within 18 months to go from sergeant to captain,” said Sipplen.
Sipplen said he wants the same treatment for the department’s current 21 lieutenants, so he said he fought to delay the captain promotion exam to allow more people to qualify to compete.
But he said that the temporary motion failed, and only six people took the exam Wednesday.
“We're not saying that the city does not have the right to have that two-year rule. What we're saying is how they apply that rule is in a discriminatory process, in a discriminatory manner that has discriminatory results against other minorities and other women and other people who may want to move up in the ranks,” said Sipplen. “What we're saying is let's make it fair and equitable to everyone.”
News 5 reached out to the city for comment, and they said their policy is not to speak on pending litigation.
