Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the U.S. Capitol Police's (USCP) uniformed workforce, focusing on its composition, recruitment and hiring practices, and promotion polices and practices. GAO found that: (1) as of June 1995, USCP had 821 nonsupervisory and 206 supervisory officers; (2) minorities and women made up about 45 percent of the nonsupervisory and 26 percent of the supervisory workforce; (3) black males are underrepresented in the USCP supervisory workforce, although this underrepresentation is not necessarily the result of prohibited discrimination; (4) the underrepresentation of some groups in the supervisory workforce may change because USCP promotes from within its ranks; (5) the examination and selection stage of USCP hiring process may have an adverse impact on minority candidates; (6) the percentage of blacks who qualified under the written promotion examination was lower than the percentage of whites; (7) the percentage of males who qualified under the written promotion examination for the ranks of sergeant and lieutenant was lower than the percentage of females; and (8) most of the top-ranked candidates who took the simulated examination, the final step to determine order on promotion lists, were white males.
