{"id":303481,"date":"2025-10-14T20:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T20:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/303481\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T20:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T20:04:13","slug":"philadelphia-police-departments-first-dei-chief-sues-city-for-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/303481\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Police Department\u2019s first DEI chief sues city for discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Leslie Marant was hired in April 2022 as the Philadelphia Police Department<\/a>\u2019s first chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, then-Commissioner Danielle Outlaw called<\/a> the lifelong Philadelphian \u201cuniquely qualified to succeed in this position.\u201d <\/p>\n

But less than two years later, Marant was fired in the first days of Mayor <\/a>Cherelle L. Parker<\/a>\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

The city chalked up the termination to leadership restructuring that\u2019s common with a new administration. But in a federal lawsuit<\/a>, Marant says she was a victim of the systemic discrimination that she was tasked with addressing.<\/p>\n

The police department\u2019s \u201cculture of sex discrimination and harassment has infected every level of the organization,\u201d according to the complaint, which was filed Monday in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the city\u2019s law department declined to comment. Marant\u2019s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The ex-DEI chief reported directly to the police commissioner, the suit says, and served as a member of the department\u2019s executive team. <\/p>\n

From her first days on the job, Marant \u201cwitnessed firsthand the depth of the sexual harassment and discrimination that permeated the department,\u201d the lawsuit says. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Philadelphia Police Department\u2019s first DEI officer is fired<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Marant observed male commanders making light of sexual harassment, the suit says, with one commenting during a training session that \u201cit is only harassment if you look like Forrest Gump, but if you are cute, then it\u2019s a date.\u201d High-level members of the department also expressed displeasure when a federal jury in May 2022 awarded $1 million to two former officers following a sexual harassment and retaliation trial<\/a>, the complaint says. <\/p>\n

That case had <\/b>led to the abrupt resignation of former Commissioner Richard Ross<\/a> in 2019. Former Cpl. Audra McCowan accused Ross in the lawsuit of ignoring a sexual harassment complaint she filed against another officer in part because she broke off a two-year affair with Ross. Ross denied accusations of retaliation<\/a> and was removed as a defendant during the course of the litigation.<\/p>\n

Marant conducted interviews with about 50 commanders as part of a review of the discriminatory culture in the police department, and 14 brought up that previous commissioners had reputations of being \u201cladies\u2019 men\u201d who had sexual relationships with female subordinates, her lawsuit says. <\/p>\n

And in December 2023, when Marant wanted to respond to a complaint of sexual discrimination and harassment against an incoming member of the executive team, the suit says, she was directed to stand down.<\/p>\n

The DEI chief also <\/b>raised concerns about \u201crampant racism\u201d and observed discrimination against LGBTQ employees and a Jewish officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, rather than embracing Plaintiff\u2019s efforts to reform the department\u2019s discriminatory culture, Defendant subjected her to the very discrimination she sought to combat,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

Marant says that she was excluded from meetings, denied resources, and criticized for her leadership style. She was omitted from the public listing of executive team members, alongside two other Black women in leadership positions, the suit says. She complained about the \u201cdiscriminatory treatment\u201d and being \u201ccriticized and challenged more because she was a Black woman\u201d multiple times to the department\u2019s leadership and senior city officials.<\/p>\n

After Outlaw resigned during the final months of Mayor Jim Kenney<\/a>\u2019s administration, in September 2023, John Stanford took the reins as interim commissioner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The suit says Marant told Stanford that \u201cshe would not be criticized for her leadership style if she were a white man.\u201d <\/p>\n

Stanford fired Marant<\/a> on the morning of Jan. 2, 2024, as one of his final acts as interim commissioner. Parker\u2019s pick to lead the department, Kevin Bethel<\/a>, was sworn in that afternoon. <\/p>\n

The reason for Marant\u2019s termination was restructuring by the incoming administration, according to the complaint and the department\u2019s statement to The Inquirer at the time. <\/p>\n

But the lawsuit calls that reason a \u201cpretext\u201d and notes that Marant was the only employee terminated as part of the restructuring. <\/p>\n

The police department confirmed that no other people were let go that day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Leslie Marant was hired in April 2022 as the Philadelphia Police Department\u2019s first chief diversity, equity, and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":303482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,154064,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-303481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-police-dei-sexual-harassment-discrimination-lawsuit","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115374316937786841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}