Dyslexic police candidate who failed typing test three times claims discrimination

The Police College candidate "dramatically" failed the typing test which was a requirement to enter the police. Photo / NZ Police Association

A dyslexic man who failed the typing test to get into Police College three times, claims he was discriminated against and has taken his fight to the High Court.

"It was a rude awakening to be told you have to choose a different career and start from scratch," Guy Greenslade said in a statement to the court.

"All my friends and family knew I had applied for Police College. It was intensely embarrassing to explain I was rejected. To this day I'm still asked about it."

Greenslade was 18 when he applied to join the police in 2018. He passed all the other fitness and psychological exams needed to join but failed the typing test which requires applicants to type at a speed of at least 25 words per minute.

His speed was negative 62 words per minute and after one test he'd made 106 mistakes.

The test supervisor said after reviewing the results of his tests she had never seen so many red lines indicating mistakes and in an email to a colleague said he had "failed dramatically".

A senior psychologist for the police said Greenslade's performance could indicate "highly relevant cognitive issues, related to his dyslexia" and could be a problem when it came to recording evidence and giving reliable evidence in court.

His application was permanently declined, barring him from ever reapplying to the police.

In 2020 he took his case to the country's foremost civil human rights court, the Human Rights Review Tribunal, claiming he was subject to unlawful discrimination.

The Office of Human Rights Proceedings took up Greenslade's case - meaning it was funded by the taxpayer - but the tribunal ultimately found he was not qualified to be a police officer if he couldn't pass the typing test.

The Director of Human Rights Proceedings, Michael Timmins, has appealed against the tribunal's decision and represented Greenslade at the High Court today where his case was presided over by Justice Cheryl Gwyn, Dr Nicola Swain and disability rights advocate Dr Huhana Hickey.

Greenslade is seeking $50,000 in damages for emotional harm arising from the alleged discrimination against him by the New Zealand Police.

Justice Cheryl Gwyn presided over the case in the High Court. Photo / Supplied

Timmins referred to the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which states that disabled people have the right to inherent dignity, individual autonomy, non-discrimination, and full and effective participation and inclusion in society.

"Inclusion is about challenging the status quo that exists in society," he said.

"I suggest the perspective that's built into our society is a perception of able-bodied people."

He pointed out that police recruiters acknowledged that there were dyslexic officers on staff and that most officers were encouraged to use dictation software for their notes.

He was also told by a staffer that there was an "urban legend" of a candidate who had failed the test as many as 17 times without being declined.

However, an internal police email between recruiting staff said: "Guy will never be able to achieve a pass mark in typing".

Staff then forwarded the complaint up to police senior psychologist Ian Saunders who said that it was too great a risk to recruit him, and his dyslexia hinted at more serious cognitive issues.

"This starts to create a construction of assumptions that is ultimately behind the decision to permanently decline his application," Timmins said.

"Those assumptions meant the police cut the door off too soon."

Saunders was due to meet with Greenslade for further assessment of his suitability as a police recruit, but the meeting never happened.

Part of Greenslade's argument is that he should have been given more attempts at the test and that declining him permanently from reapplying was unnecessary.

The test itself was designed in 1994 and requires candidates to copy a paper document into Microsoft Word - without the aid of spell-checking software.

"How is being able to copy type, relevant to being a frontline police officer?" Timmins asked the court.

University of Otago psychology expert Dr Nicola Swain. Photo / Supplied

Greenslade has also subsequently passed other typing tests with much-higher speeds than needed to meet the minimum requirements for a police officer.

However, as part of his evidence to the court today he said he focused on sports at school and never had a computer of his own.

"His evidence is that the reason he failed was not because of his dyslexia but because he was not used to using computers," Timmins said.

Crown Law, on behalf of the police, said Greenslade had failed at each stage of the test and wasn't qualified for employment as an officer.

"Even if he was qualified, police's decision to decline was not because of his dyslexia but because he failed the typing test," Crown lawyer Debra Harris told the court.

"There is no basis to advance an applicant who has not passed the test. Everyone has to pass the test whether they're disabled or not.

"There are people in the force who have disabilities."

The police receive roughly 7000 applications every year, with around a quarter of those accepted.

Of the remaining three-quarters approximately half of them opt out of the process and the rest are declined either on a temporary or a permanent basis.

In response to Greenslade's argument that he should have been allowed further attempts at passing the test, Harris told the court that further attempts wouldn't have mattered.

"This was a dramatic fail. Most people pass at least on the second attempt," she said.

"There was nothing to suggest to police that further testing would have changed that based on the typing skill that they saw."

Harris made the analogy that if swimming was required for a certain job and an applicant couldn't swim, then they wouldn't be the right person for the job.

"Everyone goes to Police College with these minimum skills, this is threshold testing. This is the triage by which they shift through 7000 candidates a year and work out who is going to advance."