Discriminatory practices within the department included pervasive use of racial epithets and other inflammatory language, according to the complaint.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit allege that the department has for decades pursued hiring practices that favor heterosexual white males at the expense of minorities and women.
“The evidence will also show that the department has tolerated the use of unbelievably offensive racial, sexual and ethnic slurs. It has become so pervasive that it has long been a departmental practice,” Solomon E. Gresen, the attorney representing the officers, said in a statement.
A representative for Gresen’s law firm, Rheuban & Gresen, said the lawsuit would be publicly announced at a news conference Monday in Los Angeles.
“The facts of this case will demonstrate that the Burbank Police Chief and several of his supervisors cultivated an atmosphere in which officers reporting wrong doing faced retaliation and were placed in fear for their jobs,” Gresen said. “The [department] is run as an insider’s club where if you aren’t white, male and heterosexual you had better keep your mouth shut and play along with the bigots or suffer the consequences. This is illegal. It is a bad thing for the City of Burbank. It is bad for the Burbank Police Department, and it undermines the safety of Burbank residents.”
The department takes allegations against it seriously, said Police Chief Tim Stehr, adding that he couldn’t comment directly on pending litigation or investigations within the department.
