Female Dispatchers Can Pursue Bias Suit Over Arrestee Search Rule

A lawsuit will continue against Warren, Mich., over allegations that female police dispatchers are discriminated against under a city rule that sometimes requires them to search women who are arrested, while male dispatchers don’t have to search male arrestees, a federal judge ruled.

The city failed to show that no reasonable option exists to combat the shortage of female police officers it says the rule was implemented to address. Female dispatchers got a raise 40 years ago to compensate them for the extra duty, the city said.

The city and four women suing it acknowledge that prisoner privacy rights require ...