UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, March 29,1995
7A
Affirmative action stirs Chicago
Mayor struggles with promotion of police officers
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Chicago spent millions to design what it believed was an unbiased police promotion exam. Then the test results came back: just 13 minority officers among the top 175 scores.
Mayor Richard M. Daley added to the furor by promoting another 13 officers — most of them minorities — without regard to scores.
Now both police and minority leaders are angry, and Daley has a hot issue on his hands just a week before the mayoral election.
The promotion system, which ignored some test scores in the interest of diversity, is an example of the kind of affirmative action programs increasingly under fire in Washington.
The promotions are particularly thorny in Chicago, where friction between police and minorities has persisted for decades along with suspicions that political clout, not merit, propels civil service careers.
Daley's administration delayed
releasing the results of the lieutenant's exam until after he won the Feb. 28 mayoral primary. The mayor finally announced March 14 that 54 sergeants, including three minority officers, would be promoted on the basis of test scores.
An additional 13 sergeants, eight of them minorities, would be promoted on the basis of merit evaluations, in the interest of diversity.
Daley said the department needed diversity. "It cannot be all Black. It cannot be all women. It cannot be all men. It cannot be all Asian or Hispanic. This is basically a fairness issue."
The decision seemed to please no one.
Patricia Hill, president of the African-American Police Association, said the exam was biased and the 13 sergeants were political appointees. The city denies these claims.
Meanwhile, minority and white officers marched side by side last week at city hall to protest the merit promotions. One carried a sign that read: "Clout-less, will work for promotion."
"Of course we need more minorities. That goes without saying," said Ray Patterson, a 57-year-old Black police lieutenant. He said the solution was to come up with a more fair test.
"Everybody knows who the 13 are, so it's going to be hard for them," said Sgt. Michelle Owens, a 19-year police veteran who said she was passed over for promotion despite high test scores. "There's always going to be a cloud around them."
Sgt. Melba Bradford, one of the merit appointees, told the Chicago Tribune that the merit-selection process was fair. "I have earned it.
and that's all have to say,' she said.
Chicago's police promotions have long been criticized as biased and politically motivated.
On the advice of a blue-ribbon panel, Daley two years ago spent $5 million to have outside consultants revamp and administer the
“
were minorities.
The controversy comes at an inopportune point in the campaign. Daley's closest competitor is Roland Burris, a former state attorney general who is Black and has criticized the promotions.
But Burris has trailed far behind Daley in recent polls, and the flap isn't expected to affect the outcome of the April 4 election.
Of the 222 lieutenants in the department before the latest promotions, fewer than one-fourth
Alderman William Beavers, a
tests. A furor erupted last year when minorities scored poorly on the redesigned sergeants' exams.
Every time we make promotions in the police department, there are lawsuits, sometimes white officers, sometimes Black officers, sometimes both
Susan Sher
Top lawyer in Chicago
beavers, a Black former police officer who is chairman of the City Council's Police and Fire Committee, said he thought the promotions would stand but argued that changes in testing were needed to give minorities a better chance for promotion. I favor exams, but there's
always been good police officers who can't take tests," Beavers said. "But then there's always been people who can take good tests but couldn't track a bleeding elephant in the snow."
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