A Los Angeles police captain is suing the city, alleging he has been repeatedly denied a promotion to commander because he is Latino and due to his fellow Latino captains’ complaints that the test to promote to commander is unfair to them.
Capt. Alex Baez’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges whistleblower retaliation and discrimination based on ethnicity. Baez seeks unspecified damages. A representative for the City Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit filed Thursday.
Baez was hired in 1989 and promoted to captain in August 2018. He currently holds the rank of captain 3.
The department held an exam in 2020 for captains interested in promotions to commander and some Latino captains complained that the test’s format was unfair to them, according to the suit. In December of that year, an anonymous email was sent to dozens of command staff members complaining that a captain had mocked Latino captains who had spoken out about the alleged unfairness of the commander promotion exam, the suit states.
The email was sent to internal affairs and a personnel complaint was generated against the captain, according to the suit, which further states that then-Chief Michel Moore and other command staff members believed Baez sent the anonymous email.
The suit does not state whether Baez sent the email, but does say he believed that the communication disclosed a violation of federal and state law as well as local statues, rules or regulations.
In April 2021, the captain promoted to commander and began working as the assistant commanding officer of the Office of Operations and in March 2022 he was named the employee relations administrator for the department, the suit states.
Baez alleges that in April of 2023 the commander used his position to transfer Baez from Newton Division to the Transit Services Division, harming the plaintiff’s promotability because he had significantly less responsibility and less visibility as a captain 3 in the new location, the suit states.
The transfer also amounted to a “functional demotion” based on the decrease in Baez’s responsibility and visibility in the department, the suit further alleges.
In January 2024, the commander was elevated again, this time to deputy chief as well as chief of staff to the police chief, the suit states. From then on, Baez was denied promotions multiple times, despite being more qualified than other candidates, and he was denied the opportunity to take part in the LAPD working groups, established in or around early 2025 to make policy and other recommendations to current Police Chief Jim McDonnell, the suit states.
Baez also was not given an Excellence in Leadership Award that the plaintiff was set to receive in or around March 2025, according to the suit, which further states that he was not allowed to attend a force science certification program in Virginia in April 2025 that could have helped him get promoted.
Baez contends all of the alleged adverse actions taken against him were due to his being a whisteblower and also because he is Latino. He further alleges that he will continue to suffer damage to his reputation and to his ability to advance his LAPD career.