Interim Chicago Police Supt. Charlie Beck may have appeased the Fraternal Order of Police by halting merit promotions notorious for being based on clout. But black and Hispanic aldermen don’t like the idea because it could hurt promotions of black and brown officers.
Public Safety Committee Chairman Chris Taliaferro (29th) said Wednesday it makes no sense to abolish a tool used to diversify the Chicago Police Department’s supervisory ranks at a time when it is trying to rebuild public trust shattered by the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.
Beck told officers Tuesday he will not make any merit promotions during his time leading the department and will recommend his successor not use the system. Instead, Beck will encourage the department to hold promotional exams every two years.
Taliaferro acknowledged merit promotions have been fraught with politics over the years — and a bitter source of contention among the rank-and-file because the standards are so murky. He is a former Chicago Police officer who retired at the rank of sergeant and never received a merit promotion.
But Taliaferro contended the department needs to find some middle ground to elevate and cultivate a new generation of police leaders who may not be the greatest of test-takers.
“You’ll see a class of 100 officers [and] without merit [promotions], you’re gonna see probably 80 to 90 of those being white. … You have folks who work very hard but may not test well. They won’t be a part of that class. And we will move in the future toward a police department that, from a supervisory rank, that will be white,” Taliaferro said.
Police supervisors are already “predominantly white,” he said, but the merit system “helps to ... balance it to some degree.”
“When you have a district that’s predominantly African American and Latino and there are no African American and Latino supervisors, that’s disheartening to those who live in the community,” Taliaferro said.
Sources said Mayor Lori Lightfoot agrees with Taliaferro about the need to find an on-the-job alternative to merit promotions to elevate black and brown supervisors who may not perform well on written tests.
Instead of abolishing merit promotions, Taliaferro suggested “more transparency as to how and who’s being selected.”
“When I was on the police department, we had an issue with commanders that would submit a name for merit promotion that didn’t even work in his district. That’s wrong,” the alderman said.
Former Public Safety Committee Chairman Ariel Reboyras (30th) agreed Beck went too far and planned to tell him so during a face-to-face meeting Wednesday at City Hall.
“I’m worried about the Latinos not getting enough representation in our communities,” Reboyras said.
“I’d like to see more parity — closer to the population in the wards. If you have a majority Latino ward, you should have majority Latino police officers at the sergeant, lieutenant and commander level.”
The department has used merit promotions to diversify its supervisory ranks since the early 1990s.
Twenty percent of detectives and 30 percent of other ranks are promoted under the merit system. Supervisors nominate candidates and a five-member board of deputy chiefs interviews them and votes . The names of the candidates approved by the board are forwarded to the superintendent for final approval.
The rest of the promotions are made through a testing process.
The Justice Department shined light on a merit-promotion process roundly condemned by the officers it interviewed as a “reward for cronyism” and clout.
The DOJ report that laid the groundwork for the consent decree in place said the “lack of transparency” surrounding the process of nominating and qualifying for merit promotions was “one of the major complaints from officers” interviewed.
“Many of the officers we spoke with, minority and non-minority alike, told us they feel merit promotions are not truly based on merit, but rather the clout you hold in the department or who you know,” the report said.
