As the poor showing by minorities in the police sergeant’s promotion exam generated more criticism of the test itself Monday, Daley administration aides insisted the city took every precaution to ensure minority applicants a fair shake.
In fact, the man who crafted the test said he was asked about the possibility of using a questionable statistical technique to boost the scores of minorities, and technically skirt federal prohibitions against “race norming,” which gives minorities extra points on test scores to make up for past discrimination.
The test developer, Geral Barrett, said that even such numbers fudging-called “statistical banding”-would not have achieved the desired result. And he said that the federal courts and the 1991 Civil Rights Act prohibit race norming in any form.
But in the world of Chicago politics, this is what happens when only 5 black or Hispanic police officers are among 114 promoted to fill a critical shortage of supervisors from the results of a test in which minorities, for the first time in years, were given no extra points because of their race:
– U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Chicago), who is toying with the idea of running for mayor next year, called for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate alleged racial bias in the test.
– Aldermen called for public hearings, some wondering why $5 million in tax dollars were spent to achieve such impolitic results.
– The Daley administration went into full damage control mode, with some officials admitting privately that they would have preferred if the test results would have produced more minority promotions at the outset of Mayor Richard Daley’s expected re-election bid.
When the sergeants test was given last January, 4,700 police officers took the exam and 1,937 passed. They included 1,453 whites, 300 blacks, 160 Hispanics, and 23 who listed themselves as “other.”
More Top Picks Best Meal Prep Containers For Heart Healthy Diets
Of the 114 initial promotions announced last Friday by Police Supt. Matthew Rodriguez, two are black females, one is a black male, and two are Hispanic males. Another Hispanic officer was also promoted, but that was related to a court settlement.
Over the next three years, officials say, 500 officers who posted the highest scores will be promoted, a number that will include about 40 blacks and 22 Latinos.
Of the department’s 1,081 sergeants, nearly 72 percent are white, 22 percent are black and 6 percent are Hispanic. Of the estimated 12,500 police on the force, 25 percent are African-American, 8 percent are Hispanic and 17 percent are female.
The next test for sergeant is scheduled for 1996.
At City Hall, Daley was nowhere to be seen Monday. But Susan Sher, corporation counsel, and Acting Buildings Commissioner Cheryl Thomas, an African-American and Daley’s former chief of staff, were on hand to defend the test.
At the same time, Thomas said the administration had commissioned a new study to investigate the disparity between the test results and the racial makeup of the department.
Thomas said Daley was “disappointed” in the results. She suggested that in the future, minority and other candidates take special classes offered by a variety of police groups, including those that represent African-Americans.
Sher, too, seemed apologetic over the test results, while noting it was the first held by the city that did not involve race-norming. Sher said that since the 1970s, when U.S. District Court Judge Prentice Marshall ordered the city to promote more minorities, subsequent court decisions and legislative actions have turned against racial quotas.
Included in those decisions and rulings are the 1991 Civil Rights Act, a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case prohibiting the city of Richmond, Va., from issuing quotas on contracts, several U.S. District Court rulings on “reverse discrimination,” and clauses in the current police contract.
“The test was given,” she said. “It was given fairly and we are living by the results. The numbers speak for themselves. Those that did the best are being promoted.”
Test developer Barrett said he spoke with city officials early last week, before the test results were made public, and that the administration made it clear it was worried about the results.
“There was a discussion that suggested we use a variation of `banding’ to improve the minority numbers,” Barrett said in a telephone interview. “But that wouldn’t have achieved the result. Banding is a controversial technique. One can argue that it is like race norming. And it was my recommendation then, as it is now, that the test was fair and unbiased.”
Barrett said that his company, Barrett & Associates Inc. of Akron, Ohio, employs several minorities, including a Ph.D. who helped develop the test. He also interviewed minority police to help determine the proper questions.
“This test isn’t culturally biased. It has nothing to do with culture or race. It has everything to do with what it takes to be a good police sergeant and understanding the criminal code,” Barrett said. “This is a case of equality of opportunity clashing with the idea of equality of result. But that’s politics. This test was scrupulously fair.”
The African American Patrolman’s League, which represents half of the city’s approximately 3,000 black police officers, on Monday repeated a threat to sever its ties with the Fraternal Order of Police, the rank-and-file bargaining agent for police officers because of the alleged discrimination.