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Three Black detectives from New York filed a lawsuit, alleging they were discriminated against in the NYPD’s Intel Division have now settled for $700,000.

Retired detectives Jon McCollum, Roland Stephens and the family of Theodore Coleman settled with the NYPD on April 3 according to The New York Daily News. The group of officers filed the suit in 2017 accusing Intelligence chief Thomas Galati and now-retired Deputy Commissioner David Cohen of denying their promotions based on their race.

The suit claims that despite the work and the experience that the three black detectives had, the promotions were given to underqualified white officers.

“In spite of their proven track records of achievement and strong recommendations from their direct supervisors, they were repeatedly passed up for promotion due to their race,” read court documents.

“More than one supervisor who recommended them said that if they had been white then they would have been promoted” an anonymous source told the New York Daily News.

“They all worked for Galati, who promoted everyone else except them because they weren’t ‘friends of Galati,’” the person said. “If you’re not a ‘friend of Galati’s,’ he doesn’t take care of you.”

The detectives claims were backed up by a report from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The 2016 report described a ”wholly subjective and secret process (that) operates without any structured guidelines.”

The Department of Justice declined to sue the NYPD over the finding that black Intel detectives weren’t treated equally, but it was a critical piece of evidence in the lawsuit.

“The NYPD, as well as DOJ, over the course of years, carefully reviewed statistical and other evidence on promotions and diversity within the Intelligence Bureau. Race discrimination is not a factor in the promotional process,” an NYPD spokeswoman said.

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