RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, In 2015, the City created a police accountability task force to review the system of accountability, oversight and training that is currently in place for Chicago's police officers; and
WHEREAS, Among several recommendations, the task force recommended that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) should develop and use recruitment, selection and promotion strategies that increase diversity and the likelihood that officers will be culturally competent, fair and impartial, especially when policing communities of color; and
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago is currently undergoing a major recruiting effort to improve diversity in the Chicago Police and Fire Departments; and
WHEREAS, Applicants to the Chicago Police and Fire Departments must undergo a variety of tests to gain entrance to the respective academies, including a written exam, POWER test (Police Officer's Wellness Evaluation Report), background investigation, drug screening, medical examination, and a psychological examination; and
WHEREAS, Despite successfully passing other application components, African-American candidates are disproportionally eliminated from the applicant pool during the psychological examinations; and
WHEREAS, There have been attempts to address why African-American candidates were "washing out" at a rate 13 percentage points higher than white police recruits, including., switching testing vendors, but there has not been a significant improvement in results, now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Members ofthe City Council of the City of Chicago, do hereby request that Superintendent Johnson of the Chicago Police Department, Commissioner Choi of the Department on Human Resources, and test vendors, Law Enforcement Psychological Services, Inc. and Center for Applied Psychology and Forensic Studies appear at hearings before the Committee on Public Safety to discuss the psychological exam's disproportionate elimination of African-American candidates from the CPD applica...
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