Beck’s decision to abolish merit promotions could shortchange blacks and Hispanics, aldermen warn

Black and Hispanic aldermen unloaded on interim Chicago Police Supt. Charlie Beck on Wednesday for abolishing merit promotions used to bolster the number of minority supervisors in the ranks of the Chicago Police Department.

“I told him I was completely against it. It puts the department back 20 years — even further than that,” said Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), the former police sergeant now leading the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety.

“I agree with the superintendent that it probably has been abused. There’s a lack of transparency. But why not fix those problems and the abuse rather than getting rid of the whole system of merit selection?”

Taliaferro said Beck “stood his ground” during a closed-door meeting at City Hall — even after being warned about the potential impact on black and Hispanic officers.

In fact, Beck told Taliaferro the department was “one of the last” police departments in the country to rely on merit promotions, the alderman said.

“His position is wrong. It will have consequences. In fact, I informed the superintendent that we have a whole [25th] police district ... that doesn’t even have a black sergeant, a black lieutenant or a black captain. How can you have a district that’s predominantly Hispanic and black and not have a black field supervisor?” Taliaferro said, warning of more of the same without merit promotions.

Beck breezed in and out of City Hall without commenting on the controversy.

Earlier this week, Beck told rank-and-file police officers he would not make any merit promotions while holding down the fort until Mayor Lori Lightfoot chooses a permanent replacement for fired Supt. Eddie Johnson and would recommend his successor do the same.

Instead, the interim superintendent recommended promotional exams every two years.

The decision to halt merit promotions appeased the Fraternal Order of Police, which tried for years to reduce the percentage of promotions based on merit.

But abolishing a tool used to diversify CPD’s supervisory ranks made no sense to minority aldermen at a time when the city is trying to rebuild trust between residents and police in the black community shattered by the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

“You’ll see a class of 100 officers [and] without merit [promotions], you’re gonna see probably 80 to 90 of those being white,” said Taliaferro, who claims he never received a merit promotion.

“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 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.

But he urged Beck and Lightfoot to find some middle ground to cultivate a new generation of police leaders who may not be the greatest of test-takers.

Sources said Lightfoot agrees with Taliaferro about the need to find an on-the-job alternative to elevate black and brown supervisors who may not perform well on written tests.

Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30th), who chaired the Committee on Public Safety under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, also met privately with the interim superintendent.

Reboyras agreed Beck went too far and told him so.

“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.

Officers interviewed by the Justice Department roundly condemned the merit promotion process as a “reward for cronyism” and clout.

The DOJ report, which laid the groundwork for the consent decree, 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.