Police may scrap entrance exam
'OPEN UP THE PROCESS' Union chief: It's 'too stupid to be true'
January 6, 2010
BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND FRANK MAIN Staff Reporters
The Chicago Police Department is seriously considering scrapping the police entrance exam to bolster minority hiring, save millions on test preparation and avert costly legal battles that have dogged the exam process for decades, City Hall sources said Tuesday.
If the process is opened to everyone who applies and meets the minimum education and residency requirements, Chicago would be virtually alone among major cities. Most cities have police entrance exams -- and for good reason, experts say.
"A background check and a psych [exam] alone will not eliminate some people who should not be there," said Brad Woods, who ran the Personnel Division under former Chicago Police Superintendents Phil Cline and Terry Hillard.
Calling an application-only process a "step backward" and the "wrong way to go," Woods said, "When you lower your quality, you will get poor police service and more complaints. ... Whenever you make it easier to be the police, you're doing the citizens and the Police Department a disservice."
Charlie Roberts, who ran the training division from 1995 to 1999, noted that there are "eleven tracks" recruits must go through in the police academy, including the law and the municipal code.
"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?"
Human Resources Department spokesperson Connie Buscemi acknowledged Tuesday that the Daley administration has been exploring other "options" since last fall, when a "request-for-proposals" for companies interested in preparing an on-line police entrance exam was cancelled.
The last police entrance exam was held on Nov. 5, 2006.
"We wanted to try to develop something on-line to allow the city to accommodate members of the U.S. military who are on active duty. But, we didn't get any responses that met our needs. No one said they could administer an on-line exam" and guarantee its integrity, Buscemi said.
"We're [now] reviewing our options on how to administer the police application process."
Other sources confirmed that the police entrance exam could be scrapped altogether "to open up the process to as many people as possible." A final decision could be made later this week.
Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue said the idea "sounds too stupid to be true."
"You need a testing process. ... You need to be very concerned about the very limited information you would get from just a screening and application process," Donahue said.
Hiring and promotions in the Police and Fire Departments have generated controversy in Chicago for as long as anyone can remember.
The criticism reached a crescendo in 1994 after a sergeants exam produced just five minority promotions out of 114.
The test was the first to be administered by the city after "race-norming" -- the practice of adjusting scores on the basis of race -- was ruled unconstitutional.
In November 2005, City Hall announced plans to offer the police entrance exam a record four times the following year -- and for the first time on the Internet -- after an unprecedented outreach campaign that bolstered the number of minority applicants to 34 percent black, 24 percent Hispanic and 26 percent women.
More than two years later, black ministers told newly-appointed Police Supt. Jody Weis that, if he was serious about re-establishing trust between police and the black community, he should start by hiring and promoting more African Americans.
The Police Department is currently operating at least 2,000 officers-a-day short of authorized strength, counting vacancies, medical leave and limited duty.
Mayor Daley's 2010 budget uses federal stimulus funds to add just 86 officers, 30 of them for the CTA.
That's nowhere near enough hiring to solve a manpower shortage that, Weis fears, will get dramatically worse when as many as 1,000 more officers retire later this year.
'OPEN UP THE PROCESS' Union chief: It's 'too stupid to be true'
January 6, 2010
BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND FRANK MAIN Staff Reporters
The Chicago Police Department is seriously considering scrapping the police entrance exam to bolster minority hiring, save millions on test preparation and avert costly legal battles that have dogged the exam process for decades, City Hall sources said Tuesday.
If the process is opened to everyone who applies and meets the minimum education and residency requirements, Chicago would be virtually alone among major cities. Most cities have police entrance exams -- and for good reason, experts say.
"A background check and a psych [exam] alone will not eliminate some people who should not be there," said Brad Woods, who ran the Personnel Division under former Chicago Police Superintendents Phil Cline and Terry Hillard.
Calling an application-only process a "step backward" and the "wrong way to go," Woods said, "When you lower your quality, you will get poor police service and more complaints. ... Whenever you make it easier to be the police, you're doing the citizens and the Police Department a disservice."
Charlie Roberts, who ran the training division from 1995 to 1999, noted that there are "eleven tracks" recruits must go through in the police academy, including the law and the municipal code.
"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?"
Human Resources Department spokesperson Connie Buscemi acknowledged Tuesday that the Daley administration has been exploring other "options" since last fall, when a "request-for-proposals" for companies interested in preparing an on-line police entrance exam was cancelled.
The last police entrance exam was held on Nov. 5, 2006.
"We wanted to try to develop something on-line to allow the city to accommodate members of the U.S. military who are on active duty. But, we didn't get any responses that met our needs. No one said they could administer an on-line exam" and guarantee its integrity, Buscemi said.
"We're [now] reviewing our options on how to administer the police application process."
Other sources confirmed that the police entrance exam could be scrapped altogether "to open up the process to as many people as possible." A final decision could be made later this week.
Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue said the idea "sounds too stupid to be true."
"You need a testing process. ... You need to be very concerned about the very limited information you would get from just a screening and application process," Donahue said.
Hiring and promotions in the Police and Fire Departments have generated controversy in Chicago for as long as anyone can remember.
The criticism reached a crescendo in 1994 after a sergeants exam produced just five minority promotions out of 114.
The test was the first to be administered by the city after "race-norming" -- the practice of adjusting scores on the basis of race -- was ruled unconstitutional.
In November 2005, City Hall announced plans to offer the police entrance exam a record four times the following year -- and for the first time on the Internet -- after an unprecedented outreach campaign that bolstered the number of minority applicants to 34 percent black, 24 percent Hispanic and 26 percent women.
More than two years later, black ministers told newly-appointed Police Supt. Jody Weis that, if he was serious about re-establishing trust between police and the black community, he should start by hiring and promoting more African Americans.
The Police Department is currently operating at least 2,000 officers-a-day short of authorized strength, counting vacancies, medical leave and limited duty.
Mayor Daley's 2010 budget uses federal stimulus funds to add just 86 officers, 30 of them for the CTA.
That's nowhere near enough hiring to solve a manpower shortage that, Weis fears, will get dramatically worse when as many as 1,000 more officers retire later this year.
Huh? Are you kidding me? This has to be one of the most insulting story to come form the Libtards that I have ever seen. It is basically telling me that the 'LEADERS' in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Chicago feel that we, as minorities, are too stupid to understand and take an entrance exam. I took it, along with hundreds of other minorities and passed it. I would not want this job or any other that I didn't earn. I could understand it if I weren't able to take this exam because I'm Hispanic or an African-American because of his race, that would be an outrage!
This isn't the case, it is because of minorities that they want to take this exam out. This is totally the wrong message that should be put out but it is perhaps a truthful indication of how the Libtards view us. Then they are the ones that don't want us to assimilate and are always trying to have us emphasise our differences. I'm an American and am proud of that fact. I served this country and city proudly my entire adult life. I am also proud of my heritage and hope that I have been able to bring the best of that culture to ours.
This is shameful and too stupid to even be considered. It will not provide enough information on the intellectual ability of an applicant. It most likely will be a measure of what damage the public education sector has done to it's citizens. If minorities are having trouble taking these tests then perhaps it's not because they are minorities but because they are victims of the Public Education System that the Libtards have forced down our throats.
I hope that the members of our 'Intelligentsia' take this dumb and ignorant idea and file it in the circular file. This entire idea belongs in the garbage because this is what it is.
This is who we are. We are all Brothers and Sisters in Blue.
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