EXCLUSIVE: Nine sergeants sue over NYPD lieutenants' exam cheat sheet
BY GRAHAM RAYMAN, STEPHEN REX BROWN
An NYPD cheat sheet is at the heart of a new lawsuit brought by nine sergeants alleging widespread test-fudging on last year’s lieutenants’ exam.
The suit, to be filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Thursday, charges that an answer key posted on a message board popular with cops resulted in skewed passing rates.
“The percentage that passed (the test) is scary,” a police source said.
Papers detail a test-administration system ripe for cheating. On April 18, 2015, 2,400 sergeants took the lieutenants’ test. Test-takers’ belongings were not searched during the six-hour, 45-minute exam, the suit alleges
Sgt. Jonathan Blatt, who is among the plaintiffs in the suit, says in documents that test-takers commiserated during bathroom breaks about correct answers.
On May 13 and 14, test-takers were invited to the headquarters of the Citywide Administrative Services Department, where they could compare their completed tests to an official answer key. The so-called protest session also had lax supervision, according to the court papers.
Also on May 13, a user under the name ProfessorFiveZero posted a photo on the message board Rising Star of the test answer key. According to papers, the image — which is still online — is legit.
On May 18, user Tavares91 kindly offered: “(If) you need the exact wording of a specific question, message me the question number and i will send it to you!”
User Doggieloverwoof vouched for Tavares’ info. “He sent me 2 questions VERBATIM so he is good on my book lol,” Doggielover wrote.
On June 22 the lieutenants’ exam was administered to about 80 sergeants who couldn’t attend the earlier test.
According to a NY1 story on the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau inquiry into the alleged cheating, only 164 of 2,400 sergeants passed the initial test.
Nearly half passed the makeup exam.
The police source said tricking the test was nothing new.
“Everybody knows that over the years it’s become a rite of passage,” the source said. “It’s a much larger problem.”
Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, emphasized that not all test-takers cheated.
“What you have is a broken system,” he said.
The NYPD said it was reviewing the controversy.
The suit seeks class-action status and an order freezing promotions.
“The simple question here is whether or not the NYPD wants to promote sergeants who cheated on an exam to get to the position of lieutenant,” said attorney Randolph McLaughlin of Newman Ferrara. “We don’t believe that’s in the public’s interest ... or in the department’s interest.”
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