The Greater Indianapolis NAACP branch has filed suit against the city over police and fire department promotions that it contends have repeatedly passed over black officers under Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard.

It's the latest pendulum swing in three decades of litigation that also has seen recent lawsuits filed by white officers and firefighters over a perceived bias in promotions at the Indianapolis Fire Department and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

The new lawsuit, filed Friday in Marion Superior Court, charges that both departments have discriminated against blacks by altering promotions criteria in ways that favor white applicants. It says the result has been lower rankings for better-qualified black candidates on promotions lists.

The suit also contends that both departments have failed to properly manage black officers and firefighters in the pipeline for promotions, keeping them from advancing, and are falling short on minority recruiting.


"We do not want to have a turn back of the clock to get back to where we were in the '60s or '70s," said Nathaniel Lee, and Indianapolis attorney representing the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.



He filed the suit on behalf of 22 police officers and 10 firefighters and said the list may grow.



The suit comes about six months after the city and the U.S. Department of Justice reached a deal ending recruiting and promotions benchmarks put in place under a consent decree in federal court. The Justice Department initiated the action in 1978 and 1979 to boost the departments' minority and female ranks.



The Justice Department also initiated the end to the benchmarks a few years ago, but Mayor Bart Peterson, a Democrat, opposed the change. Ballard, who took office last year, supported the Justice Department's request.



Public Safety Director Scott Newman, who oversees both departments and reports to Ballard, referred questions to city legal. Jonathan Mayes, the city's chief litigation counsel, noted the suit cites no specifics where plaintiffs were treated unfairly.



"This is a perfect example of why the city is getting away from management by litigation," Mayes said. "Suits like this are not going to frustrate our efforts."



The lawsuit seeks damages for the plaintiffs as well as a court order requiring new promotion practices and that "testing and hiring be administered fairly for all citizens, including African Americans."



Newman, who reports to Ballard, has promised such a system, but without a reliance on affirmative action. While fire and police officials work out proposals -- which likely will emphasize grouping candidates into tiers in a "banding" system -- both departments are relying on the old ranking list system.



"People have the right to expect that in the Police Department and Fire Department, people will be evaluated in their job, that those evaluations will matter and that the best people will be promoted to positions of supervision," Newman told The Star in August.