Cobb commissioners to consider consent decree with USDOJ over how county hires firefighters WSB-TV Channel 2 [Video]

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Following a 2020 U.S. Department of Justice investigation into how the Cobb County Fire Department screened potential hirees for job interviews, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners will consider entering a consent decree with the federal government on Tuesday.

According to the Cobb County Government, the Fire Department used credit checks as a screening device from 2016 to 2020, in addition to a rank-order usage of the Accuplacer in 2020, which they described as a standardized test for prospective hires.

The U.S. Department of Justice was reviewing the hiring policies of the Cobb County Fire Department contending that, according to the county, the practices desperately impacted African American job applicants.

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While the USDOJ did not find evidence of intentional discrimination, the county said, both the use of a credit check and Accuplacer were voluntarily ended in 2020.

In the county’s own words, the federal government found …