Crime & Safety

City Settles Gender Discrimination Lawsuit

BHPD officer Rachel Shannon alleged that she was denied a promotion to detective multiple times in favor of male colleagues with less experience.

The city has reached a settlement with a Beverly Hills police officer who claimed she was repeatedly passed over for promotion to a detective post in favor of less qualified men.

Lawyers for Rachel Shannon filed papers last week with a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge stating that a resolution of her gender discrimination lawsuit filed in April 2010 has been reached. The terms of Shannon’s settlement with the city were not disclosed.

Shannon was hired by the Beverly Hills Police Department in June 1994, working most of that time as a school resource officer. She alleged that beginning in 2008 she was denied promotions to the position of detective multiple times, despite a sergeant’s comment to parents at Hawthorne School that same month that she would be given the job as soon as the position opened.

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But each time a detective position was available after that, the BHPD promoted “a less experienced and qualified male,” according to Shannon’s court papers.

Lawyers representing the city claimed that because she spent most of her time with the department as a school resource officer, Shannon was a “one-dimensional police officer” who was not as qualified as those who were promoted to detective, despite having more years of experience with the force.

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“Officer Shannon was more of a teacher or an assistant principal and less of a police officer,” according to the city's court papers. “As a result, she offered a narrow and limited set of experience, knowledge and skills.”

City lawyers also claimed that Shannon needed to improve her investigative and report writing, which had become “rusty and substandard.”

This report was compiled with information from City News Service.


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