A Culture of Bias in the Los Angeles Fire Department

Mayor Garcetti has vowed to change the culture of the LA Fire Department. It's a major consideration as he searches for the city's next fire chief. In November a Superior Court awarded a little over a million dollars to a black firefighter, Jabari Jumaane, in compensation for the 30 years of discrimination he said he endured on the job. Over the previous year the agency paid out another million and a half dollars in bias cases, and from 2006 to 2010 LA Fire Department discrimination and harassment payouts cost taxpayers $17 million. Over the years these settlements have sparked reforms, including monitoring by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and a voter mandated independent assessor to oversee handling of misconduct complaints.