Three black sergeants from the St. Louis Police Department have accused the department of discrimination in promotion practices.

Sergeants Reginald Davis, a 27-year veteran of the St. Louis police department, Ja-Mes Davis, who has worked for the department for 16 years, and Heather Taylor, who has been with the department since 2000, together filed a lawsuit against in the St. Louis Circuit Court.

The Ethical Society of Police, which is composed of approximately 250 officers on the St. Louis police force, is a union organization that represents black officers, is working with the sergeants to fight against racist promotional tactics and to fight for equal opportunity in the workplace for black officers.

The sergeants are arguing that there was clear preferential treatment for their white colleagues in 2014.  

Out of 16 promotions from sergeant to lieutenant that year, not one of the three sergeants were promoted. Only one of the 16 officers promoted was black.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the lawsuit, the department “failed to use neutral, outside evaluators during interviews, to prevent cheating on tests and to properly train and monitor internal evaluators.”

The lawsuit claims that the persons who promoted the officers had been allowed “to evaluate candidates against whom they had personal biases and/or had previously disciplined.”

The sergeants want to be compensated for lost wages and punitive damages, but most importantly they hope to bring an end to discriminatory practices within their police department.

The lawsuit has not been officially served as of yet.

Diversity is incredibly important within police departments.

There have been absolutely too many acts of police brutality—clearly, there is a present and ignored racism within police forces across the nation.

Promoting more officers of color may highlight this fact and hopefully work as the nudge departments need to change their current policies and practices.