Crime & Safety

2 Sue Cobb Police, Chief

James Brown and Craig Owens have sought promotions to the rank of captain since the late 2000s. They claim white officers got the promotions instead of them.

Two Cobb County police lieutenants who said they were repeatedly passed over for promotions recently filed a federal lawsuit against the department and Chief John Houser.

James Brown and Craig Owens have sought promotions to the rank of captain since the late 2000s, according to the 26-page suit. Each time, they claim that white officers got the promotions instead of them because the "Cobb County Police Department has a policy or custom of promoting officers on the basis of race."

In one case described in the suit, the promotion went to an officer with no college degree. In another, someone who Brown trained as a rookie got the job. And in May, the position went to someone else even though an external interview panel gave Owens the highest rating of all of the candidates in line for the promotion.

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The Cobb police command staff does have one African-American, county spokesman Robert Quigley said. Maj. Robert Sampson is assigned to the special operations division, he said.  Sampson has been with the department about the same length of time as Brown and Owens.

Brown, who works in Precinct 5 (West Cobb) in the department's uniform division, has been with the agency since Dec. 18, 1988, Quigley said. Owens, assigned to the criminal investigations unit in Precinct 3 (Southeast Cobb), has been with the police department since Aug. 13, 1989. Both have held the rank of lieutenant for a number of years.

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Owens, who holds advanced degrees and certifications and is a member of the United States Army Reserves, was deployed overseas in 2007 and 2008. That service, Owens claims in the suit, was another factor that blocked him from rising through the ranks.

Then-Chief G.B. Hatfield allegedly said that Owens would not be considered for a promotion during the summer of 2008 "because he was on military duty and could not be promoted while away on military duty," according to the suit. Owens returned to the United States in March of that year.

He and Brown want a judge to promote them "to the rank of Captain and any subsequent rank to which they should have been promoted, with back pay and all benefits, privileges, and rights that accompany the rank," according to the suit.

Owens and Brown are represented by Atlanta attorneys Brian J. Sutherland and Edward D. Buckley.

"For no reason other than their skin color, they find their career has been completely stymied, and they have to go home every night knowing no matter how hard they try they are never going to get a promotion," Buckley told WSB-TV.

Quigley, the county spokesman, told WSB-TV and the Marietta Daily Journal that Cobb does not comment on pending litigation.


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