More than a dozen former police officers are suing the Camden County Police Department saying they were denied jobs because of their race and age.
The 13 plaintiffs were laid off from the Camden city force when the county force replaced it in May 2013. The Courier-Post reported on Wednesday that the lawsuit says the black and Hispanic applicants were passed over in favor of about 150 new officers who had no training and had to attend the police academy. The suit says they were younger and white.
The suit argues that the rejected applicants were ``highly qualified'' and that ``all or mostly all (were) highly decorated officers who served as role models for the children of Camden.''
County spokesman Dan Keashen described the suit as a waste of time.
“All of the individuals included in this lawsuit were given a chance in the one year run up to the formation of the new department. They all would have been offered jobs, like their 157 colleagues who applied and work for the Camden County Police Department, if they had applied by a proscribed deadline and passed a medical and psych exam," Keashen said. "This suit has got more fiction in it than a Harry Potter novel and is a utter and complete waste of the taxpayers time.”
The suit, which seeks an unspecified amount in damages and legal fees, states that the 13 plaintiffs did meet all the deadlines when applying to become county police officers.
Keashen says they did not meet the application deadline.
A Philadelphia attorney for the former officers who brought the suit could not be reached for comment.
The plaintiffs are Tyrone McEady; Robert Babnew; Steven Fritz; Karen Feliciano Ruiz; Kenyatta Kelly; Orlando Segarra; Raul Beltran Jr.; Vincent J. Saunders; Mark Hoopes; Christopher Kelly; Darryl Lofland; Neil Long; and Henry McLeod Jr.
