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Suburban Officers Sue City, Cite Bias

Dozens of city police officers who live in the suburbs are suing City Hall because a 2003 civil service exam gave a two-and-a-half-point bonus to residents of the five boroughs.

In court papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court, more than 50 officers with homes on Long Island and in upstate counties, such as Westchester, contend that the bonus punished them for seeking "to advance their family situation respecting air quality, less population density, and suburban living benefits."

Because of the bonus, resident sergeants who answered fewer questions correctly are being promoted to lieutenant ahead of better test takers, the suit says.

"The reality is, if you want to live in a good neighborhood in New York City, you're not doing it on a lieutenant's salary," the plaintiffs' attorney, Louis La Pietra, a retired police sergeant, said.

A city Law Department spokeswoman, Connie Pankratz, said the city has not seen a copy of the court papers and declined to comment.

Advancement to sergeant, lieutenant, and captain is determined mostly by competitive multiple-choice exams on police-procedure knowledge. Test takers are ranked according to their score and promoted in order as positions become available.

Mr. La Pietra said the extra points in 2003 could skew the priority by several hundred spots on the promotion list.

Some of the plaintiffs have since been promoted but are suing because their rank took effect after new contract negotiations, meaning they lost benefits they would have received had they been promoted earlier, Mr. La Pietra said.

The Lieutenants Benevolent Association's president, Anthony Garvey, said the union is "adamantly opposed to residency points."

"You can have an individual who lived 37 years in the city of New York and then decides to move outside the city," Mr. Garvey said. "That person is now subject to a disadvantage of two points."

Residency bonuses have been attempted periodically in the past few decades in order to have a police force whose members better reflect the communities where they work.

The department's chief spokesman, Paul Browne, noted that the percentage of uniformed officers who are city residents has risen to 55% this year from 52% in 2001, and that 66% of the latest rookies are city residents. However, efforts to diversify the upper ranks have faltered because minority officers tend to score lower than whites on promotion tests.

A 1999 City Council report, prepared after the police killing of Amadou Diallo, suggested that a two-point bonus would make police leadership "more reflective of the residents of the city."

Mayor Dinkins told the New York Times in 2001 that because of the New York Police Department's lack of a residency requirement, too many officers were white men from the suburbs.

Mr. La Pietra said many of his clients lived most of their lives in the city but were forced to move to the suburbs because of the high cost of housing in the five boroughs.

"You're being punished for pursuing the American dream of owning a private home and a white picket fence and a lawn that you can mow," he said.