This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Oakland police department asks officer applicants if they have ever been sexually assaulted, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Sunday.

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Legal experts said the inquiry was odd and potentially problematic but there was disagreement over whether it was illegal.

Professor Joan Williams, an expert on employment law and sex discrimination at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, called the disclosure requirement “clearly illegal”.

“The stereotype is that women who have been sexually assaulted turn into raging ids and tear machines and could never be objective again,” she said.

Deborah Rhode, a Stanford Law School professor who studies equal protection and sex discrimination, said the question, which is posed to men and women, is not illegal. But she too found the disclosure request puzzling.

“I don’t know if the assumption is that someone who’s been a victim can’t be objective,” she said.

The newspaper questioned police in the 10 most populous cities in California and could not find another instance of screening for sexual assault victims.

Oakland police officials said no candidate would be denied a position for being a sexual assault victim. Officials said they wanted the information so they could review police reports in which applicants may appear.

The release form has been in use since at least 2011, well before the #MeToo movement that accelerated a year ago after accusations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. The question comes up when recruits sign and have notarized a form that allows Oakland police to conduct a background check.

The form authorizes the release of educational transcripts, credit history and local criminal history information “including if I have been a victim of sexual assault”.

Oakland police officer Marco Marquez said background investigators were “interested in every police report that an applicant might appear in”, including whether the person was a suspect, witness or victim. The Chronicle said questions about an applicant being a witness or suspect are not asked.

Retired Portland, Oregon police chief Penny Harrington, the first woman to lead a major city police force, said the practice was “inexcusable”.

“There’s absolutely no reason to be doing that,” said Harrington, who founded the National Center for Women and Policing. “I can’t imagine why they would need to know that information, except as a way to wash out women.”

The newspaper reported that representatives of police departments in San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Anaheim and Santa Ana said they do not ask applicants to disclose whether they are sexual assault victims.

Representatives for Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf and Oakland police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.