Lawsuit alleges age, race bias at Camco PD

CAMDEN - Thirteen former Camden City police officers have sued the Camden County Police Department, alleging they were denied jobs with the county agency due to racial bias and age discrimination.

The ex-cops assert the county force violated the state’s Law Against Discrimination when it “hired a slew of younger, Caucasian police officers while overlooking” longtime veterans of the city force. The plaintiffs, including five blacks and three Hispanics, are all age 40 or older, according to the suit.

It asserts the rejected applicants — laid off when the county force replaced the city department in May 2013 — were "highly qualified" and that "all or mostly all (were) highly decorated officers who served as role models for the children of Camden.”

A county representative described the suit as "frivolous" and "a waste of the taxpayers' time."

"We offered all Camden officers a job by the end of March in 2013," said spokesman Dan Keashen. "We wanted to capture the experience and skill sets of the former officers."

According to Keashen, "more than 155 officers met that deadline and became valuable members of our organization after passing a psych and medical exam."

The county force was created as a state-funded, better-staffed alternative to a city police department that critics said was too costly and inefficient. But the county's opponents said the municipal force had been hobbled by cost-cutting layoffs, and that the new department was intended to break the union representing city officers.

The suit, filed in Superior Court, Camden, seeks unspecified damages and legal fees. An attorney for the former officers, James A. Bell IV of Philadelphia, could not be reached for comment.

The suit asserts the county passed over applicants from the city force to hire about 150 new officers "who still needed to attend the police academy and had no training."

It also contends the 13 plaintiffs met all deadlines while seeking to become county police officers. Keashen disagreed, asserting the former officers "did not meet the application deadline back in 2013."

Former officers who brought the suit 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.

Jim Walsh; (856) 486-2646; jwalsh@gannettnj.com