A dozen white male officers have filed a lawsuit against the department alleging the agency has been engaging in reverse discrimination.

According to Forbes, plaintiffs claim that although they received higher grades on the civil service promotional exam, minority and female candidates were promoted ahead of them.

As a result of a 1973 racial discrimination lawsuit, San Francisco uses a system called “banding” of test results to increase the number of women and minority candidates considered for promotion.

The lawsuit says, "…somehow a female 22 positions down the list, who in rank order would not have received a promotion based on merit, received a first-round promotion. In fact, four of the 12 females promoted would not have received jobs had not a gender oriented promotional process been utilized. Seven males were passed over for promotion so the Police Department could accomplish its gender biased agenda."