Dismembering "Merit"
The ChicagoContrarian lays out the possible reasoning for eliminating "merit" promotions:
- 150 years after the House of Commons rid its military of the Purchase of Commissions, Charlie Beck, the interim Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), announced the suspension of the practice of “merit” promotions. A means of advancement in which an officer attains an elevation in rank by virtue of designation from a superior officer, the form of promotion used by the CPD is eerily redolent of the system which wrought calamity on the British Army.
As usual, Florian Sohnke shines a bright spotlight on many of the points we've covered before for a new generation of readers and novices to the political swamp that is Chicago. Give it a read at the link up top.
Labels: department issues
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
71 Comments:
Chicago, over decades, instituted various means to advance the promotion of the select connected. The last being merit, couple that with cheating. However, the City was able to wrestle 30% from the FOP into contract negotiations since before the turn of the century. Don’t look for any revamp of the merit system to last past Beck’s departure. How else can Department brass be more reflective of the Department and community they service, just as with points for selected classes. Garbage in, garbage out. It’s the Chicago Way!
Good article, but the author says 20% of CPD promotions were by merit. It’s actually 20% for Detectives, but 30% for SGT and LT. Let’s not forget that the test for Captain doesn’t even exist anymore, they are all “appointed”, which basically means the City gets 100% merit for Captain.
God bless Beck and Fast Eddy Johnson needs to be in jail!
I have been robbed of a better life. I hate this place and just want to move away! I hope God gives all the cheaters what they have coming - he’ll!
Daley started merit so he could control the favors. They watered down the department and incompetence is now rampant. The cost is on everyone and everyone pays. They pay is not only money but, in sorrow. Life is at steak. Incompetents causes the public and police to lose their lives. They have outsiders getting payed to create systems on how we should run the department. Yet the ones getting paid to run the department run a round wearing fake ribbons they gave themselves.
This whole place stinks! I will be retiring soon and would upset if another one I love were to take this profession. I told my family do anything else but be a Police Officer! I would hate to see them messed over.
Yeah, but if he’s doesn’t make any promotions while the rule is in effect, who cares...
This comment has been removed by the author.
I wish there was a way to get all test scores of the meritoriously promoted and have it posted here just so all can see how messed up the department is. People who never took the time to study anything, who left after part 1’s insulting announcement, or in some instances NEVER EVEN SHOWED UP to part 2 (not required before last Sergeant test) have been promoted. These people literally jumped thousands of other officers. SMDH
All exempts promoted under Eddie Johnson were forced to nominate someone for merit who they do not know as payback favors for their own promotion. Their merit packet includes some B.S. about their relationship with that candidate and that candidates qualifications. That official form is signed by the exempt and then sent to HQ.... we’ll it supposed to be. Instead those packets are filled out by other higher ranking exempts (their secretary or the candidate themself) and then the nominating exempts signature is forged and sent directly to HQ for EJ’s approval. How come no exempts ever questioned this immoral practice or spoke up about this wrong doing? Hmmmmm, I’ll be sure to know my exempts past merit nominations if I’m ever accused of wrong doing.
Get rid of it. Promote from the list.
Toss merit.. use raw scores only....and what’s taking so long for the multiple choice scantron test scores to be revealed? 70% should be passing. Once again the city is trying to figure out how to curve the scores instead of setting the passing score in stone. Grading on a curve should be considered unethical when it comes to promotional exams. Now here comes cries of the slackers in 5, 4, 3, 2,..1.
Well first off, the initial reasoning for merit was bullshit to begin with. Absolutely nothing but intelligence, competence, and ability to do the job should be what decides promotions. Gender, skin color, ethnicity, ect. are idiotic reasons to promote someone. I couldn't care less what my sergeants and other supervisors look like as long as they aren't bumbling idiots. The only merit I want to see are people who show extreme bravery, sacrifice, ect. If you're going to go above and beyond, especially for your fellow PO's, you should be taken care of.
Merit needs to go. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe in it. Yes, just because one does well on an exam doesn’t mean that he/she will be a good leader; but come the F on! Look at some of these spineless, air-headed and incompetent merit bosses that we have today. It’s a joke!
Here s a BIG problem I see. With the second part of the Sgt merit process being some type of oral interview. The City can now shape the list and make it up anyway they want , because we ll never know how well we did. Not enough women? Not enough minority, They ll just add this to make up for no merit. Good hard studying people will get screwed.
Well said. The author did his research.
Same old shit
Release the video!!!!! What about the “investigation?” Which one of his merit broads was he with? How far will they go with this?
The military has merit promotions too. They’re way more stringent and less political but still have issues too
CPD is strife with top heavy over promoted exempt level leadership which are most likely triple merit hacks. Prime example of Meir promotion abuse is when a useless female merit detective related to Riccio can be in the Academy taking detective training get pulled out then immediately get mage into a Sergeant and go to Sergeant School. This is utterly ridiculous and a slap in the face of every decent copper taking the promotion exam. The only thing worse are the secret study group given by Subject matter expert to their little minions who all end up scoring in the top 50 or the cheating LIE-tenants. It’s a great day for the rank and file that the merit promotions are eliminated, noe The Who promotional test grading MUST be taken out of the hands of the city so they don’t continue to Cheat. Oh, and the passing score should be 70 and not 53.
They will just go back to norming or it will be a repeat of the 1994 Sgt. test?
Remember 96 percent of the 114 top scorers, eligible for immediate promotion, were white. There were two Hispanics in the top group and three blacks, two of whom were women.
The last time Chicago minted new sergeants was in 1985. Then, of the 458 promoted, 26 percent were Black and nine percent were Hispanic. That year, as in previous years, scores were “race-normed” to ensure that non-whites were promoted in proportion to their numbers on the force. Race norming appears to have improved the chances of black promotion ten-fold: 26 percent in 1985 as opposed to 2.6 percent in 1994.
Well said and points out some of the reasons the CPD is in the shape it is. When deserving officers get past over it fuels resentment that lasts a long,long time. Leaders can't lead if they are not leaders just cheaters and the officers serving under them know who they are. No respect for a lot of the so called leadership of the CPD leads to where the CPD finds itself today, all fucked up! And don't for a minute think the civilians haven't picked up on the fact that the CPD is corrupt. That leads to the loss of respect for all Officers good or bad. It's your bed and sleep in it if you can.
"Charlie Beck, the interim Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), announced the suspension of the practice of “merit” promotions."
I'll be believin that when me shyte turns purple and tastes like rainbow sherbet.....
clout rules chicago. black clout, white clout, hispanic clout whatever nothing was ever fair and nothing will ever be fair. just remember its a fucking job, collect your check and go home.
BLAH BLAH BLAH
I'm still waiting for my Captains bars my friends.
Signed,
Ozzie
A very informative article all should read and understand. The corruption and ruination of the British military officer core (1800's) stands speaks for itself. Chicago PD Merit system is corrupt, unfair, propagates mediocrity, poor and incompetent leadership, is divisive, weakens morale, and ensures crime will flourish. Merit is another hand out to the "gibs me" crowd.
Beck's and Groot's halting of Merit for the next couple of months is a cheap reform tactic that will be reinstituted when the new Sup in announced. Merit is an all to powerful tool for corruptive politicians, aldercreatures, revrun's and powerful Democratic Socialist to relinquish. It's Groot's tool to cripple effective law enforcement leadership in the Dept's command structure.
Groot is not trustworthy, unreliable and exercises poor judgement.
Were BJ’s part of the purchase price back in the day?
The suspension of Merit Promos adds to the legacy left behind by Jugghaid SpecialEd.
Ranks right up there with marching down an active US Interstate Highway that was illegally closed down.
Aside from the mere suspension of merit promotion, there should be a full review of ALL merit appointments in the past 3-1/2 years and hand down demotions where the corrupt system proves an abuse, or a candidates incompetence and/or inability.
I came on 2 years before “merit” started for supervisory rank. I slowly watched it eat away at the competency of management and the morale of the rank and file. When the Justice Department announced it was investigating us part of me was hopeful. I’ve always thought there were 3 pillars of promotion on this job. There were legit test takers,”merit” and thieves. There have always been Mauer’s minions, the Cline/Devine crew, NOBLE, etc. My partner had all the essay questions to the 1999/2000 detectives test. I thought it was a joke until I went back and looked at them after I took the test; stupid me. You were lucky if 50% of promotees were legit. When my brother made lieutenant there were 5 “merits” in his class. All of them were exempts within two years. Only one of the rest of the class made it to captain. My old sgt would always joke that the testing process was broken because our best and brightest test so poorly that they have to be handed promotions. If only they would study their exceptional qualities and design a test to identify them he would joke. And there was Well Fed Ed giving oral exams all of his own without me knowing about it. But my hopes were dashed when Obama & Holder sent a bunch of dipshit millennials to investigate how the community felt about the facial expressions of P.O.’s making traffic stops in 006 at 3am. There’s nothing wrong with the men and women of this department. They are fine people living in a shitty city and doing a thankless job. They do the best they can under circumstances and management they were given. The true corruption of the this department is the cronyism and nepotism of city government. The police department is only a reflection of the politicians that run it. Even if “merit” never comes back it’s still going to take 20 years to get rid of its stink and we’ll still have the thieves. Plus there’s no professional ethos on this job because of cronyism and nepotism. We all laugh at the “earned not given’ posters that dumb ass Jody Weis slapped up everywhere. That poor fool had no idea how this place functioned. Oh well, I’ll be gone soon and this will be someone else’s burden to bear.
And yet the ever incompetent Bill Bradley just got promoted to Chief.
Florian Sohnke is one of the few voices of reason in the press. He consistently shines a light on the idiotic policies of local politicians. Check out his work if you haven’t already.
Merit is about "who's who" and absolutely nothing else. 5 of our six current chiefs were merit lts. And the other one is a Bridgeport lackey. The current lieutenant's list had 601 people on it. Number 597 was merit promoted in the first group of promotees off of that list. This lt. was then made a tactical lieutenant in a north side district. Had to be dumped after numerous examples of lack of leadership skills. What was the reward? That lieutenant is now a commander of another north side district. WTF. Yet the city continues this charade. The end result, bad decisions that cost the city money and harms the individual copper at the street level. But politicians friends are taken care of so I guess the rest of us are nothing but pawns in their crazy game.
Associate Judges in Cook County Courts are pretty much the functional equivalent of merit picks.
Not all judges, Associate Judges or otherwise, are stone cold awful by any means but still it shows how much the merit system is entrenched in Cook County/Chicago.
You can't blame a guy for not trying. Can you?
Chicago, over decades, instituted various means to advance the promotion of the select connected. The last being merit, couple that with cheating. However, the City was able to wrestle 30% from the FOP into contract negotiations since before the turn of the century. Don’t look for any revamp of the merit system to last past Beck’s departure. How else can Department brass be more reflective of the Department and community they service, just as with points for selected classes. Garbage in, garbage out. It’s the Chicago Way!
1/06/2020 12:16:00 AM
get you shit straight
patrol and detectives is 20%
Just looking at the exempt rank members today is a very good reason why we have to get rid of the merit promotions !!!
Off topic but saw a story that lists JFK,LAX and O’Hare as being on the Iranian list for terrorist attacks. Is there any sort of preparations being done? At times like this their should be at least an OT initiative at O’Hare like post 9/11, my wife works for American and I’d like to think if O’Hare is a target at least the bad guys might potentially pause due to a massive police presence like in Europe.
How would you like to find out your doctor was last in his graduating class because he just "didn't test well".
Every professional occupation is ripe with corruption and nepotism but at some point that employee had to prove him or herself by some standard, most times testing, either written or practical.
The tests not just proving intelligence but also an ability to read, retain and apply the information necessary to make decisions in whatever field.
Officers do not work in vacuums, an officers accomplishments are usually the result of teamwork.
To consider that officer for a promotion that officers test scores need to be part of the evaluation.
Can somebody explain to me how Ron Huberman went from Patrolman to Assist Deputy Superintendent in 2yrs time on the Dept. I still don't understand that one?
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Off topic but saw a story that lists JFK,LAX and O’Hare as being on the Iranian list for terrorist attacks. Is there any sort of preparations being done? At times like this their should be at least an OT initiative at O’Hare like post 9/11, my wife works for American and I’d like to think if O’Hare is a target at least the bad guys might potentially pause due to a massive police presence like in Europe.
1/06/2020 03:59:00 PM
Relax it’s not like the people at the airports are ready to retire, do nothing, and are all KMA members. Lmao. She’s fucked.
Superintendent will be back from conference in Texas soon. When he gets back he is going to announce Sgt and Lt classes, both with no merit spots. Classes will start end of this month and middle of next month.
An fto from 6 was promoted merit to Sarge , she slept , never exited car on traffic stops , met men friends on duty , maybe tighten up that merit spot , not the police , now a merit supervisor , will she still be sleeping , will she be logging cars from Pdt , radio , submitting false official supervisors log , maybe merit Inspector escamerit esca milla can catch her .
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Off topic but saw a story that lists JFK,LAX and O’Hare as being on the Iranian list for terrorist attacks. Is there any sort of preparations being done? At times like this their should be at least an OT initiative at O’Hare like post 9/11, my wife works for American and I’d like to think if O’Hare is a target at least the bad guys might potentially pause due to a massive police presence like in Europe.
They would be lucky to find one out at O’Hare. They are well camouflaged. So good it’s like can never see one in the terminals
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Off topic but saw a story that lists JFK,LAX and O’Hare as being on the Iranian list for terrorist attacks. Is there any sort of preparations being done? At times like this their should be at least an OT initiative at O’Hare like post 9/11, my wife works for American and I’d like to think if O’Hare is a target at least the bad guys might potentially pause due to a massive police presence like in Europe.
1/06/2020 03:59:00 PM
Yeah, let’s put all the security preparations on the blog! Not today Al Qaeda!
Not all that well-researched as far as the practice of selling commission went in the British army. It actually worked pretty well during the time it was in practice.
The real problem at the time was there was no educational Institution that new officers had to go through. Eventually the British army instituted Sandhurst.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Superintendent will be back from conference in Texas soon. When he gets back he is going to announce Sgt and Lt classes, both with no merit spots. Classes will start end of this month and middle of next month.
How many in each class oh wise one??
I’ll believe this whole No merit ordeal once they actually promote a class without any merit promotions. Why would this guy make a big announcement about no more merit without promoting anybody for anything off any list. I guess only time will tell. But isn’t he gone in a few months ???
Anonymous said...
They will just go back to norming or it will be a repeat of the 1994 Sgt. test?
Remember 96 percent of the 114 top scorers, eligible for immediate promotion, were white. There were two Hispanics in the top group and three blacks, two of whom were women.
The last time Chicago minted new sergeants was in 1985. Then, of the 458 promoted, 26 percent were Black and nine percent were Hispanic. That year, as in previous years, scores were “race-normed” to ensure that non-whites were promoted in proportion to their numbers on the force. Race norming appears to have improved the chances of black promotion ten-fold: 26 percent in 1985 as opposed to 2.6 percent in 1994.
1/06/2020 07:25:00 AM
The results of 94 test is what created Merit promotions as a compromise can promote minorities and politically connected!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Merit is about "who's who" and absolutely nothing else. 5 of our six current chiefs were merit lts. And the other one is a Bridgeport lackey. The current lieutenant's list had 601 people on it. Number 597 was merit promoted in the first group of promotees off of that list. This lt. was then made a tactical lieutenant in a north side district. Had to be dumped after numerous examples of lack of leadership skills. What was the reward? That lieutenant is now a commander of another north side district. WTF. Yet the city continues this charade. The end result, bad decisions that cost the city money and harms the individual copper at the street level. But politicians friends are taken care of so I guess the rest of us are nothing but pawns in their crazy game.
1/06/2020 12:32:00 PM
Michelle RUBIN is the one!
Anonymous said...
Can somebody explain to me how Ron Huberman went from Patrolman to Assist Deputy Superintendent in 2yrs time on the Dept. I still don't understand that one?
1/06/2020 05:05:00 PM
He was very connected politically. It’s called the “Chicago way “
Eliminate Captains, promotions to Sergeants and Lieutenant by test scores.
Promotions to command staff can be from qualified Patrolman ,Detectives, Sergeants, Lieutenant, pay them their normal salary which would be pensionable with a yearly non pensionable bonus based on performance.
End of story , you might actually get some qualified police officers applying for the position.
It would be way better than this political hack system of unqualified command staff.
Look at EJ , Escamilla escamerit, Cato and another 70 goofs running CPD .
Can somebody explain to me how Ron Huberman went from Patrolman to Assist Deputy Superintendent in 2yrs time on the Dept. I still don't understand that one?
1/06/2020 05:05:00 PM
Just explain the techniques (Ha!) I mean skills")
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Can somebody explain to me how Ron Huberman went from Patrolman to Assist Deputy Superintendent in 2yrs time on the Dept. I still don't understand that one?
1/06/2020 05:05:00 PM
And you never will!
Anonymous said...
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Superintendent will be back from conference in Texas soon. When he gets back he is going to announce Sgt and Lt classes, both with no merit spots. Classes will start end of this month and middle of next month.
How many in each class oh wise one??
1/06/2020 09:20:00 PM
———————————-
It’s called......BULLSHIT. It’s not happening. Enough of this hogwash. As long as he’s Supt, no merit. No classes will be made under his tenure. Therefore, no merit. Simple.
Merit is about CONNECTION AND how much money your willing to fork over for that next step up. Don't kid yourselves many are buying their way up the ladder.
No merit in upcoming lt and sgt classes isn't because Beck cares about POs, it's because it's an easy way to check off one of the consent decree requirements for transparency in promotions. Department will be making classes shortly before March to show progress with consent decree.
70 sgts 32 lts
Nothing new here.
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/411/218/1643478/
What were the results of the 1973 sergeant examination? They were uncontroverted and as distressing as the results of the 1971 patrolman examination. In 1973 blacks and Hispanics comprised 17% of the 11,431 patrolmen in the Department. They made up 20% of the pool of 6555 patrolmen who took the sergeant examination, again indicating a higher interest rate than their percentage of the available "labor force" would cause one to predict. But, only 13% of those who passed the test were blacks and Hispanics and only 7.2% of those with a reasonable expectation of promotion were. The practical success rate of whites versus blacks and Hispanics was 7.07% to 2.23% or 3 to 1. 385 F. Supp. 550-553.
United States v. City of Chicago, 411 F. Supp. 218 (N.D. Ill. 1976)
US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois - 411 F. Supp. 218 (N.D. Ill. 1976)
February 2, 1976
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/411/218/1643478/
Insofar as future hiring is concerned, we have concluded, albeit reluctantly, that some quota standard is needed. As we said in November, 1974, "It is far better in cases of this nature that the remedy come from the parties rather than the court." 385 F. Supp. 561. But we have despaired of such a voluntary remedy.
…
In all of the circumstances we have concluded that a hiring standard of 16% females, 42% black and Spanish surname males and 42% other males should be imposed on the Chicago Police Department until further order of the court.
…
We have reached a like conclusion with respect to the promotion of sergeants. Here there is no new method of selection in the offing. But the Department will need middle level supervisors, although some of those needs have undoubtedly been met by the temporary sergeants program.
In these circumstances a promotion standard of 40% black and Spanish surname males and 60% other males is reasonable. These candidates may be selected from the 1973 sergeant roster, as the Arado defendants urge, until new selection methods are developed.
So long as the city is not under a federal consent decree regarding promotions/hiring they can do what they want. These came about in the 70's and then they expired. 1993 Sgts test -there was no merit. The city was free to do that because the consent decrees from the 70's were no longer in effect. But there were lawsuits from minorities regarding the 1993 Sgt. test so the City empaneled a "Blue Ribbon Panel" which suggested the 30% for Sgt (Lt's and Dets 20% - not sure if that was decided at that point) and the City and all parties agreed. So there was no Federal oversight but the City agreed to the 30% - why? who knows - well I guess we all know - political reasons, certainly not a desire for more qualified supervisors. So here we stand, in 2020, no federal oversight and Beck and LL decide to forego merit. They can do that, but this will last for about 10 minutes until the first lawsuit is filed after the first crop of Sgts are made in rank order. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 defines a prima facie case of racial discrimination when one race is not promoted at a rate 4/5 that of another race. So a lawsuit is a DONE DEAL. My bet is the lawyers are already starting their paperwork. The City can only defend such a suit if the Sgt test is job-related, meaning it can be shown to predict success, meaning it is actually testing what it takes to be a Sgt., and can't just be an IQ test (even though any test is going to overlap with an IQ test - it's inherent). The City can easily do this as it has been done by police depts in the past. But the City will fold. They will dumb down future Sgts test and then select based on final digit of SS#, as they now do in hiring. That's just my guess. Only it won't be a truly arbitrary digit, it will align with racial quotas so the 4/5 EEOC rule is not violated, therefore negating the prima facie case. Remember the entrance test used to be "Well Qualified," "Qualified" and whatever the third category was? Well the city gave up on that -as we all know - because the racial numbers were not to the city's liking.
Is there some new performance rating system and score due at the end of March for everyone? Interesting questions on it. But really just common sense rating
When will CPD send us results from Part 1 of sgt. exam and notify us if we will be eligible to take part 2 and what date we will be scheduled to take part 2
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Off topic but saw a story that lists JFK,LAX and O’Hare as being on the Iranian list for terrorist attacks. Is there any sort of preparations being done? At times like this their should be at least an OT initiative at O’Hare like post 9/11, my wife works for American and I’d like to think if O’Hare is a target at least the bad guys might potentially pause due to a massive police presence like in Europe.
1/06/2020 03:59:00 PM
What's the name of the story? Where did you see it?
Almost 180 well qualified people who tested well got screwed because of Merit on this current list. To make things fair and right, 180 should be promoted off the current list!
Anonymous said...
United States v. City of Chicago, 411 F. Supp. 218 (N.D. Ill. 1976)
US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois - 411 F. Supp. 218 (N.D. Ill. 1976)
February 2, 1976
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/411/218/1643478/
Insofar as future hiring is concerned, we have concluded, albeit reluctantly, that some quota standard is needed. As we said in November, 1974, "It is far better in cases of this nature that the remedy come from the parties rather than the court." 385 F. Supp. 561. But we have despaired of such a voluntary remedy.
…
In all of the circumstances we have concluded that a hiring standard of 16% females, 42% black and Spanish surname males and 42% other males should be imposed on the Chicago Police Department until further order of the court.
…
We have reached a like conclusion with respect to the promotion of sergeants. Here there is no new method of selection in the offing. But the Department will need middle level supervisors, although some of those needs have undoubtedly been met by the temporary sergeants program.
In these circumstances a promotion standard of 40% black and Spanish surname males and 60% other males is reasonable. These candidates may be selected from the 1973 sergeant roster, as the Arado defendants urge, until new selection methods are developed.
1/07/2020 10:37:00 AM
A lot of black surnames are the same as white surnames spanish too!
No they shouldn’ T , let’s see how they did on this last test ?
Nice try though . One small class off current list , that’s it .
Less than 900 will move on to take part 2 of Sgt exam , list will be up by June 2020 .
Listen idiot , IQ doesn’t matter if you don’t know Police General,Special Orders , Illinois Law ,CPD rules and regulations, Police Procedures .
Wake up my friend , sounds like you bombed the last few exams , well did ya 🥚 Head
Almost 180 well qualified people who tested well got screwed because of Merit on this current list. To make things fair and right, 180 should be promoted off the current list!
1/07/2020 02:47:00 PM
Same could be said about Lieutenants and detectives
No they shouldn’ T , let’s see how they did on this last test ?
Nice try though . One small class off current list , that’s it .
Less than 900 will move on to take part 2 of Sgt exam , list will be up by June 2020 .
NO CHANCE the second part of the Sgt’s Exam will be graded by June. Last test took 6 months to grade.
GREAT POINT! I think this theory would be a sound legal argument in a civil suit!
list will be posted by June 2020
less than 1,000 moving on to take part 2
Michelle RUBIN is the one!
1/06/2020 10:27:00 PM
RUBINO
If you wish cutie, not only can I thoroughly explain, but demonstrate how DaLube jumped several ranks so quickly.
White wine spritzers will be served.
Now, kees me you fool!!!!
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