A recent series of lawsuits filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against police and fire departments may serve as a blueprint for eliminating physical and mental standards under the banner of equity.

In October, the DOJ settled two lawsuits and filed a third against local departments, alleging discrimination after Black applicants disproportionately failed to pass cognitive written tests, while female applicants faced challenges in passing physical tests. The DOJ classified the tests as discriminatory based on the outcomes, even though applicants of all races and genders were held to the same standards, the Daily Caller reported.

The three lawsuits, all filed within weeks of one another, may be just the beginning, as an expert told the Daily Caller that a Harris administration could accelerate the process “10x.”

As part of an early October settlement, Maryland’s State Police (MDSP) will pay more than $2.75 million in back pay to previously denied applicants following a DOJ investigation into “racially discriminatory hiring and promotion practices.”

The DOJ complaint alleges MDSP’s use of a written test called the Police Officer Selection Test (POST) “disproportionately excluded African-American applicants” and that its use of the Functional Fitness Assessment Test (FFAT) “disproportionately excluded female applicants,” according to the DC.

Of the dozen academy classes that MDSP has graduated since 2017, 91% of their white applicants passed the POST compared to only 71 percent of black applicants, according to the DOJ.

This, the DOJ alleges, “has had an adverse impact on African-American applicants for the trooper position.”

Additionally, the FFAT, which includes push-up and sit-up tests, a 1.5-mile run, and a flexibility test, showed a significantly lower pass rate for female applicants. Since 2017, men have passed at an 81% rate, while women have only passed 51% of the time, according to the DOJ.

The tests, the complaint claimed, “are not job related or consistent with business necessity.”

Naturally, police and fire officials disagreed.

“It’s important that they have to catch bad guys. It’s important that they’re in good shape, that they have standards,” Klickitat County, Wash., Sheriff Bob Songer told the Daily Caller.

“That keeps them in good health, physical condition, because out on the street there, when you’re a patrol officer or detective, primarily a patrol officer, when you answer those calls, you don’t know from one minute to the next whether you’re going to be in a fight with an individual who is going to take you on because they don’t like what you’re doing, they don’t respect authority,” Songer told the Caller.

Police, Songer noted, need to have standards because they have “an awesome responsibility” working in “the only career I know of, outside of war, where you may be called upon to take a human life under certain circumstances.”

Less than a week after Maryland’s settlement, the Durham Fire Department also reached an agreement with the DOJ over a similar claim. The DOJ alleged that the city’s fire department used a written test that discriminated against Black candidates.

According to the DOJ complaint, Durham’s written test, the Comprehensive Examination Battery (CEB), “disproportionately excluded African-American applicants from employment.”

As a result, Durham will pay out $980,000 in back pay to previously denied applicants and implement a new test.

The CEB, developed by Fire and Police Solutions Inc. (FPSI), consists of basic arithmetic questions.

A practice test circulating on Twitter, which FPSI officials confirmed to the Daily Caller comes from their Candidate Orientation Guides, includes multiple-choice questions such as: “What is the total weight of four firefighters who weigh 202 pounds, 186 pounds, 133 pounds, and 211 pounds?”

Other cities and jurisdictions have refused to cave to the Biden-Harris DOJ.

In Indiana, after the South Bend Police Department became aware of Justice’s impending lawsuit through a DOJ press release, they pledged to “vigorously defend” themselves against the forthcoming action.

“The South Bend Police Department believes its screening process fairly measures a candidate’s ability to perform the job,” SBPD wrote in an Oct. 11 Facebook post. “Like every other city in Indiana, South Bend must ensure its officers meet certain minimum criteria.”

Others pointed to typical far-left federal hypocrisy.

“Ironic the Justice Department has not said a word about its law enforcement branch – the FBI – and its physical standards,” John H. Ohrnberger, a national trustee for the Fraternal Order of Police of Virginia, told the Daily Caller.

“If you look at the FBI standards and compare it to South Bend, the only difference is the trigger pull and vertical jump requirements. The FBI academy then has to eliminate or wash out recruits who may have passed the entrance physical exam but can not shoot a gun or physically make it through the academy. I think maybe the Justice Department should look within before they engage in these types of lawsuits,” Ohrnberger added.