Editorial: Relaxed hiring standards must still weed out bad cops

Follow @csteditorialsBefore City Hall goes further in relaxing hiring standards for new police officers, somebody should spell out exactly what past crimes the city might be willing to overlook.

A youthful indiscretion, such as getting busted as a teen for pot, shouldn’t necessarily bar somebody forever from becoming a Chicago cop, especially at a time when the Police Department is struggling to hire more minorities. But other past crimes, such as beating somebody up, should be viewed as big red flags even when committed many years ago. A police officer must be able to control his or her temper.

On Wednesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel opened the door to hiring people with minor drug and criminal offenses as police officers. He did so as part of an effort to recruit more minorities, but also out of a sense of fairness.

“Look at all of you, look at me,” the mayor said to a roomful of reporters, some of whom no doubt had reason to squirm. “We all know what we did in the past. But I’m standing here. You’re here in this room.”

The sad fact is that the mistakes of our youth don’t follow us all through life equally. Studies show that the poor and minorities are more likely to pay the price of criminal records that cannot be expunged. The wealthier or more privileged you are, the more likely you are to have good lawyers, well-connected parents and sympathetic police officers on your side to beat the rap.

There are good arguments for cracking open the door and, for the first time, allowing people with less than perfect criminal records to join the police force. But in a city trying to live down a long history of rogue cops, we had better be cautious and conservative in deciding which past offenses no longer rise to the level of deal-breakers.

Emanuel described the kinds of infractions he would be willing to overlook as “small.” But what is small? And how long gone must this small offense be?

Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) gave the example of someone who got a trespassing citation for playing basketball in an arena that was closed. He’s right. It’s actually silly to pretend that this person is forever unacceptable cop material.

But cops carry guns. And we grant them a tremendous amount of authority.

Let’s see a complete and detailed list of past offenses by future cops that Chicago just might be willing to overlook.

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