Milwaukee Police Chief Nannette Hegerty is not in an enviable position right now. She has had to deal with her predecessor getting slapped with $2.2 million in damages over discriminatory promotion practices; she will have to revise the standards for officer hiring and promotion in the wake of the lawsuit; and three officers are accused of beating a black citizen while off-duty.

The discrimination suit stems from 17 white police officers who felt that former Police Chief Arthur Jones favored under-qualified black candidates and women over them for promotion. Last week, a federal jury sided with the plaintiffs and awarded them a total of $2.2 million in damages. These damages will probably come from the city of Milwaukee and may impact the budget of the police force, perhaps (in an alternate universe) forcing the police into desperate money-grabs like busting college parties.

While the irony of a group of white men complaining about discrimination in one of the most segregated cities in America is not lost on us, a federal jury found that Jones was discriminatory. No matter what one feels about the verdict of the trial, the city and Hegerty will have to deal with this.

On top of this sordid affair is the even more sordid beating of Frank Jude, Jr. Jude, an African American, was accused of stealing an off-duty officer's badge at a Bayview Party in October. This allegedly led to three white, off-duty police officers brutally beating Jude about the head and cutting off his clothing.

While the accused were off-duty at the time, the Milwaukee Police Department was negligent in allowing the accused to roam free around the crime scene, letting them consult with one another and failing to pick up all of the evidence from the crime scene. Also, none of the accused officers were ever given a psychological profile, which may have pointed out a tendency toward violent or racist behavior. The accused are innocent until proven guilty, however that does not change the fact that this incident has shown some major flaws in the ways MPD conducts itself.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Hegerty seem to already be dealing with these affairs. Mayor Barrett proposed that psychological evaluations, higher supervision, an examination of the practices of other police departments and increased oversight by the Police and Fire Commission be used when hiring and promoting candidates.

However, more needs to be done to insure that a discrimination incident does not happen again. Steps like presenting anonymous and racially blind reviews of candidates for promotion to the police board could help make the process more objective and less subject to reproach.

Also, steps need to be taken so that MPD does not play favorites with officers who are suspects in a crime. Psychological testing and hiring reforms help the city cover its tracks when officers commit blunders, but the violation of crime scene procedure has gone unchecked. The investigators on the scene should be disciplined for their neglect and Chief Hegerty needs to make clear that when a suspect is a member of the force, they should be treated just like any other suspect.

Such measures will help prevent future incidents and allow MPD to move onto what they should be doing — stopping college kids from drinking and upholding the law in an urban area with a high crime rate. While Chief Hegerty's job will never be easy, at least it could be less sordid.

This editorial appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 14 2005.