"Merit" Under the Spotlight Again

We've been talking about this for years, decades now. So much so that the authors of the article reached out to us for information and comment (the first part of the article deals with one particular connected person):

• For most Chicago cops looking to advance through the ranks, the path is through an exam that is notoriously difficult and inconsistently offered—sometimes only once or twice per decade—that has inspired multiple cheating scandals over the years. For a select few, the alternative path is to be nominated by a department higher-up for the CPD’s merit process. 

  After being nominated, such officers are reviewed by a Merit Board made up of additional CPD insiders, including five deputy chiefs and the head of the OPSA, who serves as a nonvoting secretary. For most of the program’s history, members of the Merit Board couldn’t also nominate officers. That changed under Superintendent Johnson, who only required that they recuse themselves from votes on their nominees.

  The city’s human resources and OPSA offices then compile a nomination packet on each nominee, including their complimentary histories and limited disciplinary information from recent years, and the Merit Board interviews some nominees, according to city policies. Merit Board members vote up or down on each nominee and send their results to the superintendent—who has ultimate decision-making power. The superintendent can even select officers for merit promotions who weren’t put forward by the board at all.

That isn't quite how the process goes according to our contacts, but it's close. A lot more favors and phone calls are involved.

But as we've said here numerous times (and what got quoted in the article) is that if you believe the process is transparent and/or fair, you're a moron. Until the City and Department publish what makes you qualified for "merit" then the process is rigged, unfair and political.