The U.S. Department of Justice’s watch over Austin Fire Department’s hiring process has been lifted, according to city fire officials, four years after the department was federally cited for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Under what is known as a “consent decree,” the DOJ has signed off on every list of potential hires produced by the fire department since 2014. The decree followed a complaint that the written test issued by the fire department in 2012 disproportionately blocked African-Americans and Hispanics from the hiring process, according to a release from the DOJ in 2014. Austin could not defend the test’s necessity when pressed by the DOJ and was thus placed under the decree. During the DOJ’s investigation in 2013-14, the fire department was held from hiring anyone. Fire officials told Community Impact Newspaper in 2017 the hiring moratorium directly resulted in “unusually high” vacancy numbers over the last few years. Last year, the department spent over $21 million on overtime. The department currently has 91 vacant positions. In a memo to mayor and council Tuesday, interim fire chief Tom Dodds said the DOJ communicated to city lawyers that the goal of the consent decree had been achieved. Although he said complying with the decree was “complex and challenging,” Dodds said the department felt it improved the hiring process. “All parties, including the DOJ, agree that [the fire department] never had any intent to disadvantage African-American or Hispanic candidates in our past hiring processes,” Dodds wrote. “However, we recognized based on the statistical results from DOJ’s investigation that we could improve how we conduct our hiring.” Assistant fire chief Aaron Woolverton, who oversaw the hiring process in 2015 and 2017 under the decree, said improvements focused on communication between the candidates and the department. "Doing this ensured the candidates were more informed and prepared for each step in their quest to become a fire cadet," Woolverton said. "Additionally, the DOJ reviewed our process at each milestone before we could move on to the next. Given that they decided not to extend the consent decree, we feel confident about the way we’re doing things.” In a statement released Tuesday, Dodd’s said the department is pleased to move forward with the next hiring window, which will open on February 4. Since the decree's implementation in 2014, the department has hired 261 firefighters, 21 of which were African-American and 67 were Hispanic. Earlier this month, Austin City Council approved the hire of Joel Baker, the department's first ever African-American fire chief. ————————————————————————————————————————— Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a statement from assistant fire chief Aaron Woolverton.