A police officer in the Chicago Police Department sent this story to me. It appears that the CPD is moving oward dropping the entrance exam for officers to add more minority officers and avoid legal battles over applicants rejected on the basis of the exam.
Chicago would become one of few cities that have an application-only process. Applicants would need to have at least 60 semester (90 quarter) hours of college credit or four years of continuous active duty in the U.S. armed forces — or 30 semester (or 45 quarter) hours of college credit and one year of continuous active duty in the military.
Chicago has not held a police exam since Nov. 5, 2006.
Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue said the idea “sounds too stupid to be true.” It appears that it is true.
The city plans to add 86 officers — far less than what is viewed as necessary for the optimal size of the force.
It would appear that you do not want just minority officers but the most qualified minority officers. Rather than drop the entrance exam, the city would be better off removing any bias in the exam and actively recruiting minority officers from Chicago and the military.
Chicago may be repeating the mistake of Washington, which cut corners on the training of officers in the 1980s to take advantage of federal money for new officers. Those officers in the classes of 1989 and 1990 lead to a series of later arrests and discipline problems among those graduates, here.
This is one of the most important public positions in our society. These officers stand the line of both law enforcement and the protection of civil
For the full story, click here.
I said it before here:
http://jonathanturley.org/2009/12/28/high-school-officials-allegedly-cuts-science-program-because-it-primarily-benefits-white-students/
And I’ll say it again.
Dysgenics and the road to the bottom. Sponsored by appeals to emotion and affirmative action.
Different cities have their own interpretations about credit for military service usually based on their state Civil Service laws. However most will only add a certain number of percentage points to the final exam score and those points can only be added once and then never count again. I believe the theory decades ago was that those who served in the military were entitled to “bonus” points when applying for government jobs.
What I can’t figure out is why someone with 60 semester hours of college credit wouldn’t be able to score well on a competitive exam. One would think that someone applying for a job in LE would have spent some of those 60 semester hours on Police Science credits.
Is anyone else uncomfortable with the ‘4 years continuous military service’ in lieu of an exam? I don’t think that is necessarily a mindset or work experience that translates as a perfect fit for policing the citizenry. I wonder how common military experience in lieu of a test is in our nations’ cities?
As a former Civil Service Commissioner, I wonder if the lack of a competitive exam is legal. Just one tax-payer suite could bring the whole thing tumbling down.
It all depends on what the entrance exam actually looks like. Naturally, you might devise a test that works for or against minorities.
Let’s say, we want to see you dance.
If passing the test means remaining in one spot while shooting one arm out at a time and making walking motions with your legs, occasionally twirling around and doing a 360, the test might very well be biased against minorities.
James–
You said: “I don’t know how to break this to you gently but exams have a very limited utility. All test do is gauge the ability to take a test. They most certainly do not measure anything useful. They do not measure leadership skills, judgment, probity, or common sense.
“Plenty of incompetents get jobs and get advanced because they are idiot savants; they are good test takers. Personally I have seen it literally hundreds of times. I’ve seen people advance because they rocked an exam, they tested well. Those people studied their books and had great book knowledge but they were hopeless as leaders and / or competent technicians.”
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As a former teacher, I agree with your comments…to a point. I do, however, think that people who are prospective police officers should be able to read and comprehend above a third garde level.
Maybe a better solution would be to look at the kinds of tests that are typically administered to prospective police recruits.
As a law professor I can see why you might be invested in exams. You prepare students for the Bar (a test) and you justify your grades at least in part by tests (mid term and final exams) I don’t know how to break this to you gently but exams have a very limited utility. All test do is gauge the ability to take a test. They most certainly do not measure anything useful. They do not measure leadership skills, judgment, probity, or common sense.
Plenty of incompetents get jobs and get advanced because they are idiot savants; they are good test takers. Personally I have seen it literally hundreds of times. I’ve seen people advance because they rocked an exam, they tested well. Those people studied their books and had great book knowledge but they were hopeless as leaders and / or competent technicians. We are talking about people one would not trust to lead a group of Cub Scouts to a restroom.
As to the other point, that candidates can somehow rack up 60 hours of college credits but then test out on a third grade level, that speaks to an educational system that is seriously broken. Guess who are the people most likely to be victims of failing educational systems? Think permeate tanned, think also in politically correct terms of “ESL learners”
If goal here is to have police officers who more closely resemble the neighborhoods they serve, then localities are going to have to do some outside the box thinking. Some sacred cows are going to have to be made into hamburger. Frankly since there is no reliable test for common sense, nor prudence that cops could take any other test is pointless, even if measures what it is supposed to measure, which in point of fact no test ever does.
Reading comprehension can always be brought up to par. What is more difficult is finding conscientious men and woman who have the self-restraint and humility not to power-trip on when they are made peace officers. Is there a test for that?
Eniobob,
what you say makes sense to me. Put Officers in patrol cars and you divorce them from the citizenry and create the “us vs. them” mentality that we see so much of today. As for not living in the cities they patrol this is also a problem of disconnect. In NYC most PO’s live outside the City and that is true also of LA and I guess many other major cities.
Mike.S:
This is only a personal observation,but when police officers stoped walking the beat in no matter what neighborhood it was it took away that hands on know the people you are suposed to be protecting,to riding in cars and that to me is when the problem really started getting out of hand.
And now you also have the problem of most police officers not living in certain communities that they patrol.
This is a way out comparison but when they show our soldiers in Iraq or Afghanastan mingling with the people there it could just as well us looking at what goes on in the inner city.
I hope That I am making sense.
Admittedly this was a foolish way to achieve a certain result, but in our disdain let us not dismiss what is really behind this. The Chicago Police and indeed the PD’s of many large cities like LA, NYC, DC, etc. have long histories of ignoring the rights of people of color. In truth history shows that the “City Fathers” implicitly and explicitly implemented these prejudiced policies and clearly gave the message that people of color were to be repressed. (See LAPD 1920’s & 30’s recruitment of officers from Southern States) Sadly, and perhaps purposely, the response of the
“City Fathers” toward the obvious repressive tactics has generally been to implement policies that would be viewed negatively by the white working class.
An example occurred with Brown vs. The Board of Education, a lawsuit that was meant to correct the imbalance in funding of segregated schools. The response to “busing” couldn’t have been better calculated to cause racial conflict among the working classes and ultimately impede progress in racial harmony.
The issue in Chicago is how do you get your PD to treat people
equally and this solution is a pallid attempt at redress that in the end will cause more harm than good.
Hmmm…
Mo. Town’s Top Officer Faces Child Sex Charges
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 6, 2010
Filed at 1:34 p.m. ET
FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. (AP) — A Boy Scout leader who is also the top police officer in the Missouri town of Fredericktown is facing statutory sodomy charges for allegedly having sex with children.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/06/us/AP-US-Missouri-Officer-Sex-Charge.html?_r=1
Why do they need to add more minority officers? Why does the need to add more minority officers outweigh dropping the entrance exam, which presumably helps to select competent officers? Has to be due to political pressure.
“dropping the entrance exam for officers to add more minority officers and avoid legal battles over applicants rejected on the basis of the exam.”
If my memory serves me right isn’t this the opposite effect of that ruling for those firefighters in New Haven Ct.?
I am just asking, and besides I think it is an insulting jesture.
From the article:
“If you don’t give someone at least a reading comprehension test, can you just put them in and risk the possibility of having so many of them fail? That could get quite expensive,” Roberts said.
“We were getting people with 60 hours of college credit who were reading at a third-grade level. What do you think you’ll get if you have no screening process?”
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Let’s just hope the new recruits WILL be able to read and write!
I hear they’re planning on renaming the CPD (Chicago Police Department). It will now be called DDPD (Dumb & Dumber Police Department).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZBdxvego1E&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
I have expressed my complaints many times within this blawg about this type of ‘dumbing down’ of LE. Society will suffer adverse financial and social consequences if this trend continues.
Can someone explain to me how a test can be biased toward minorities?
Stel,
Again, you are a master of the understatement.
Oh this is going to end well.
Xe (Blackwater) is doing a lot of police training these days, I hear.
From Professor Turley’s article, in case it was missed by anyone: “Chicago has not held a police exam since Nov. 5, 2006.”
No police exam since Nov. 2006? Astounding. Would like to know the rationale.
Now professor if the thought is train them in military tactile fashion then why worry about properly trained officers that know anything about the constitution, you see it does not apply.