Oversight Report Details A Whole Bunch Of Cheating On A Sergeants Exam By NYPD Officers

When school students are tested, those overseeing the tests seemingly are willing to do whatever it takes to prevent cheating, even if it means utilizing extremely intrusive spyware to lower the risk of dishonesty. Students are just supposed to take this in stride, but the lessons they’ll often learn of just how little respect school administrators have for them.

But when it comes to cops taking tests, no one even bothers to do the bare minimum. Here’s Jonathan Bailey of Plagarism Today describing the far-from-sterile testing environment afforded to NYPD officers taking a sergeants exam:

The city did just about everything possible wrong when administering this test: It did not enforce cell phone rules, it allowed ineligible people to sit for it, it did not change the questions between sessions/days, and it did not adequately follow up on allegations of cheating.

That’s the upshot of the detailed report [PDF] on this cheating scandal compiled by the city’s Department of Investigation. Somewhat ironically, this came to light thanks to the complaints made by honest cops who apparently didn’t appreciate the massive amount of dishonesty they had witnessed.

In the days and weeks following the Exam, which consisted of 100 multiple choice questions, DOI received approximately 80 complaints from NYPD police officers alleging widespread cheating, involving candidates who took the Exam on Day 1 and passed questions and answers to candidates taking the Exam on Day 2. It was reported that officers used their cell phones in the waiting room and received communications or disseminated information to other test-takers, and that officers who took the Exam on Day 2 received answers to the Exam through social media posts and text messages

Of course, the ratio of honest cops to dishonest cops was still pretty low. Even if we generously assume the 80 complaints came from 80 different officers, the total number of officers who participated in this test was 10,300. Sure, not all of them cheated and obviously not every officer was privy to cheating by others, but that’s still a pretty low number given the total number of test takers.

The large number of test takers was due to the COVID pandemic, which delayed the annual testing for two years. So, there was obviously pressure on the department to get as many officers through the testing as possible, which probably contributed to the nearly nonexistent efforts made to deter cheating.

Not every officer had a chance to cheat. But a whole lot of officers were provided with the opportunity by other officers who were even more ethically compromised than the people they helped cheat.

DOI found that after that first session, 35% of the test questions and answers were disseminated via social media to more than 1,200 Exam candidates.

Given the opportunity for cheating and the lax testing room standards, the real surprise here is how many officers failed to pass the test.

Of the 10,399 candidates taking the exam, only 1,730 of the test takers candidates (17%) achieved a passing score.

While the DOI report notes that some test takers are not eligible for a promotion to sergeant, many officers still take tests like these to polish their test-taking skills, something the department allows. And while that may have contributed to this very low percentage of passing scores, it doesn’t explain why so many officers who desire this promotion are so ill-prepared for a test like this, especially when (at least in this case) some were given questions and answers by other test takers. (Then again, as noted elsewhere in the report, about half of the answers shared on social media by NYPD officers were wrong.)

Then there’s whatever the hell this is:

DOI discussed with IAB the candidate who received a score of 3%. IAB identified that candidate as a retired NYPD captain who was not eligible for the exam because he had retired more than three years prior to taking the exam. The retired captain currently runs a promotional exam school which charges approximately $800 per student for a 20-week course; while still at NYPD he cofounded an NYPD promotional exam training academy. He explained in his interview with IAB that he scored 3% because he intentionally chooses the wrong answers to be able to protest any questions he believes to be unfair. It is unclear how the selection of incorrect answers would support a “protest” of test questions because, according to DCAS, protests are deemed valid only if a candidate can establish that the answer they selected is as accurate — or more accurate — than the answer in the test’s answer key.

In any event, the retired captain registered for 19 exams from 2002 to the present, and was ineligible for all of them. According to the Sergeant’s Exam requirements, applicants must maintain the title of NYPD Police Officer for at least three years preceding the date of the Exam. DOI reviewed the retired captain’s NYPD employment record and DCAS exam history and found that he was promoted to NYPD captain in September 1999 and retired from the NYPD in October 2013. Since 2002, the retired captain has registered for 19 NYPD promotional exams, 11 of which were from 2002 to 2012 while he was employed as an NYPD captain. DOI reviewed the Exam application, which outlines eligibility requirements, and found that the retired captain was not eligible to take any of the 19 exams for which he registered. While DOI did not establish that the captain took any exam for an improper purpose, allowing ineligible candidates to sit for exams plainly poses a risk to exam integrity.

Great stuff, that. Some cop boss who thinks he’s better than the tests was allowed to take tests he wasn’t permitted to take, perform some sort of performative failure during testing, and take all the info he had gathered and use it to run a for-profit test-taking class for other NYPD officers.

And what’s come out of this other than a bit of temporary embarrassment for the NYPD? Not much. According to Bailey’s write-up at Plagiarism Today, only seven officers were lightly wrist-slapped for receiving test answers from others via text messages or social media. 103 officers were declared ineligible to take the test and their tests were thrown out. But no effort was made to perform a do-over in a more sterile testing environment and the two government contractors who combined forces to deliver this test-taking farce are apparently still considered valid options for future testing.

While this may show police officers are, above all else, human beings just as prone to temptation as the rest of us, they’re supposed to hold themselves to higher standards. But only about 80 of them did. The department they work for apparently isn’t willing to hold them to a higher standard either. And if NYPD brass doesn’t give a fuck, why should they?