Veteran Black police sergeant settles retaliation lawsuits against San Diego for $3.1 million

Arthur Scott alleged the city and police department retaliated against him for years after he challenged racist images and discrimination within the department.

Veteran San Diego police sergeant Arthur Scott settled two remaining lawsuits for $3.1 million, resolving years of claims that the city and police department retaliated against him for challenging racism.

Scott, who served in the San Diego Police Department for 29 years, filed three lawsuits over an 11-year period, Atlanta Black Star reported. His first complaint, filed in 2015, said he was punished after objecting to racist images displayed in locker rooms and during officer training.

One image depicted then-President Barack Obama as an African tribal chief. Another was a 1909 newspaper cartoon portraying San Diego’s first Black police officer, Frank McCarter, as an ape. Scott said a supervisor called him “hypersensitive” when he challenged the cartoon’s use during mandatory training for prospective lieutenants.

Scott alleged that he was later denied promotions, threatened with disciplinary action and transferred to a traffic assignment that limited his advancement. A jury ruled for the city in that first case in 2017, although the department disclosed during the trial that it had stopped using the cartoon in training.

Scott’s 2015 lawsuit accused the department of punishing him for objecting to the racist training image.

Scott’s claims of San Diego police retaliation expanded after he testified in lawsuits involving sexual harassment and excessive force. He supported a Black female officer who accused a white colleague of inappropriate touching and later testified on her behalf.

The department and City Attorney’s Office subsequently investigated whether Scott had lied under oath. The district attorney closed the criminal inquiry in April 2023, while an outside administrative investigation ended in January 2024. Scott received a termination notice two months later and filed another court action in 2025 challenging the process.

His case follows other disputes involving Black officers who say they were punished for reporting discrimination. In 2022, a Black Columbus police lieutenant won a discrimination and retaliation case but received only $2 in damages.

The City Council voted in closed session May 18 to settle Scott’s two pending cases for $3.1 million, including damages, costs and attorney fees. The city maintained that it acted lawfully and in good faith.