DETROIT – The Local 4 Defenders have been investigating a settlement between the Detroit Medical Center and a whistleblower who accused security at the DMC of using racial codes to identify black and white employees.
The case was headed for trial until DMC's CAO testified under oath.
The DMC is a highly regarded group of hospitals, including Children's, Receiving and Harper. It has more than 12,000 employees, many considered among the country's best.
It was hard for many to believe when a whistleblower who is white and worked at the DMC for more than 20 years made allegations that the top security bosses were using racial codes to identify black or white members of the security staff.
"He wrote the number three on a piece of paper and he turned it 90 degrees and he said, 'See, that's a 'w' for white,'" the whistleblower said. "Then he wrote a four, flipped it upside down and showed me how it represents a 'b' for black."
The term 03 for white people and 04 for black people isn't new in law enforcement. It began decades ago when computers needed numbers for coding to fill our reports. The terms are still used today by surveillance officers who don't want subjects of investigations to know what they are discussing over police radio channels.
The whistleblower insists the codes were used in a derogatory manner towards black people.
"If people (were) applying for jobs, 04s are applying for this job because it's an easy job and they don't want to work," the whistleblower said.
The hospital was headed to trial to fight the allegations until the attorney for the whistleblower, Leonard Mungo, was able to sit down a potential witness for depositions. Conrad Mallet, who was then CAO of the DMC, testified that he was told by the head of security, Richard McCarty, that the codes were used, but not to discriminate.
"Mr. Mallet clearly stated that he said they did use the race code, the 03 and 04 for purposes of increasing a diverse pool of applicants," Mungo said.
The Defenders obtained a copy of the deposition, and on page 102, Mallet said, "It was used to allow Rick to have a conversation with his managers to be sure that the applicant pool was a diverse applicant pool, and that this system was not used in any way for hiring, but that it was used to track the diversity of the hiring pool."
Mungo said his whistleblower is confident the codes were used disparagingly toward minorities, but even if they were to help minorities, they can't be used.
"So it has to be approved by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights to make sure that it doesn't have an adverse impact on other people of color, such as white people, or any other protected group," Mungo said. "They have no affirmative action plan. It does not exist."
He called Mallet's admission of using 03 to describe white employees and 04 to describe black employees the key to the case.
"Color codes are just fraught with the characteristics of hiding something," Mungo said. "A notion of hiding something, and that is what they are doing."
Shortly after the deposition, the head of security retired and the hospital and whistleblower agreed to settle the case out of court.
The DMC couldn't comment because of ongoing litigation from other security staff members. Mallet can't comment because he is still employed by the DMC.
As part of the settlement, both sides have agreed not to discuss any of the financial or other terms negotiated to have the whistleblower drop the case.
There are still two security staffers suing over the racial codes. If they don't reach a settlement, a trial would take place to determine if they were harmed, and if so, to what extent.