June 19, 1998

Police Agree To New Policy In Investigating Sex-Bias Cases

By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

owing to pressure from Federal prosecutors, the New York City Police Department has agreed to overhaul its system for investigating sexual harassment complaints and gender discrimination charges within the department.

The policy changes came as part of a settlement, announced yesterday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, of a lawsuit the Government filed against the department.

The department has also agreed to strengthen its policy against displaying pornographic materials in station houses, to increase the staffing of its Office of Equal Opportunity Employment to 30 investigators, from 20, and to start mandatory programs to teach all 38,000 officers and commanders procedures for preventing and reporting sexual harassment.

The United States Attorney's office sought the stricter standards two years ago, after a former police officer filed a lawsuit alleging that her commanders at the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst, Queens, had ignored complaints that male officers routinely watched pornographic movies in the lounge of the station house and posted photographs of naked women on the station's walls.

After reviewing the officer's charges, Mary Jo White, the United States Attorney for the Southern District, also sued the department, saying that tougher standards and more vigilant enforcement were needed to protect female police employees.

The lawsuit was the first of its kind to be filed by the Government against a city police department, and White said yesterday that the settlement, which allows the United States Attorney to review all of the department's harassment investigations, was an encouraging sign that police commanders might improve their efforts in the future.

"Our goal in bringing this lawsuit was to insure that all employees within the New York City Police Department are free to do their jobs without fear of sexual harassment from other members of the department," White said.

Deborah L. Zoland, the police lawyer who negotiated the settlement, said the lengthy court battle helped police commanders improve their policies by viewing their anti-harassment measures from an outside perspective. Zoland said the pact would ultimately make the department more active in preventing workplace harassment.

"I don't think the investigations were done poorly before, but they weren't done uniformly," Zoland said. "This agreement will help improve the quality of life for female members of the Police Department."

The police officer who field the original complaint, Sheryll L. Goff, was awarded a $320,000 settlement by the city last summer, after the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found there was "reasonable cause to believe" her complaints that commanders had made little effort to stop the repeated display of pornography in the precinct work areas.

Goff's complaint also charged that a supervisor once humiliated her in front of other officers by suggesting she have a bulletproof vest specially designed to accommodate her large breasts. Goff, who no longer works for the department, has an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment.

Police policy already forbids officers to display inappropriate material in department buildings, but under the guidelines adopted yesterday, the desk commanders in each precinct must now inspect their buildings at the start of each shift and immediately confiscate any pornography. Police officials also agreed to add new sections to the department's patrol guide that strengthen the requirements to report any harassment and to include a new section in supervisors' performance evaluations that grades their sensitivity to harassment complaints.

But neither Federal officials nor police commanders would discuss how the settlement would affect another recent sexual harassment case in the Police Department. In that case, Police Commissioner Howard Safir overruled the recommendation of his commissioner for Equal Employment Opportunity that a high-level commander be disciplined for failing to respond properly to a female officer's harassment charges.