by James A. Bacon

Delton Goodrum, a Black police officer in the Alexandria Police Department, has been awarded compensatory damages for racial discrimination at the hands of Alexandria’s acting police chief Don Hayes… who is Black… and who aspired to create a more diverse workforce… and who even told others that he wanted to promote Goodrum “because he was Black.”

But White police officers reacted negatively to the perception of favoritism based on Goodrum’s race, and he never got the promotion from lieutenant to captain. The jury awarded him $7.5 million in damages, although awards in TItle VII lawsuits are capped at $300,000.

The court case illustrates what can happen when a police force abandons the principle of color-blindness in favor of pursuing “diversity.” It is hard to imagine how the racialization of internal politics has helped the morale of either White or Black officers. The more official policy makes hiring and promotion decisions a matter of race, the more employees will interpret every decision through the win-lose prism of race and the losers will feel aggrieved.

As recounted by ALXnow, the convoluted story began in June 2021 with the resignation of Police Chief Michael L. Brown and the elevation of Don Hayes as acting chief and then as chief in June 2022. As acting chief, Hayes had two captain vacancies to fill.

In late June 2021, Hayes held a meeting with the department’s lieutenants. He discussed the need to create a more diverse workforce and then startled the officers by saying that he intended to promote Goodrum to captain “because he was Black,” according to testimony from the meeting participants.

“That statement did not go over well with the white lieutenants, and that was the catalyst for his behavior towards me and him trying to walk back his statement,” Goodrum told ALXnow.

Hayes denied on the witness stand that he favored Hayes because of his race, but he acknowledged after the meeting that rumors began circulating that he was racist.

Two White lieutenants cited in the article said that Hayes did make the statement and that they couldn’t believe that he’d said it. Even Goodrum confirmed that Hayes made the remark. “I felt like he doomed me, because the other lieutenants were offended because all they heard was ‘Chief Hayes is only promoting Black people or minorities.”

Goodrum didn’t get the job. Months later, he was transferred from leadership of training and recruitment to traffic and safety. Hayes testified that the transfer was based on performance issues. The chief replaced him with a White male lieutenant and later tried to get the lieutenant promoted to the acting captain position. The City Manager’s office intervened to block the promotion.

Once he was made full chief, Hayes had a freer hand to fill the vacant positions as he saw fit. According to ALXnow, he made Ballantine, who was at the top of the promotion list, and another White male “at the bottom of the list” both captains.

in March 2023, unidentified Black police officers told ALXnow that Hayes’ reorganization of leadership “rewarded close connections” and “disregarded officers of color and civilian staff,” which they attributed to Hayes’ unwillingness to “make waves.” The Black officers complained that most of the department’s leadership was White and that officers of color were being passed over.

APD had no non-white captains or detectives at the time, and only 10 sergeants of color out of 38 sergeant positions, according to a staffing directory provided by APD. There were no Asian officers above the rank of sergeant, and there was only one Hispanic lieutenant. Nine employees interviewed by ALXnow said the disparities reflected “a concentrated effort against minorities,” and that middle management at the department had some “very rotten” employees.

Departmental employees filed multiple complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Hayes retired last year.

In March WTOP News reported how the new police chief, Tarrick McGuire, held a panel discussion during Women’s History Month to discuss issues of concern to women in the agency. When he began his police career in 2003, there were only two women in his academy class he said. Now 20% of the 322 members of the police force are women, ahead of the national average of 13%. But that’s not good enough for McGuire.

He’s aiming for 30% by 2030.