Page 44 - November 2015

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Lodge commitment to promotional exam goes back to Dean of detectives
■ BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Some 20 years ago, the City’s Civil Service Commission announced its once-every-decade Detective Promotional Exam. At the time, Mayor Daley set up a task force to improve promotional exams, and Chicago Lodge 7 President Bill Nolan wanted to make sure improve- ments would be made to accurately and fairly assess candidates.
So Nolan asked nationally-renowned promotional test prep guru, Dr. Jeff Bernstein, to be part of the commission. And to represent the union, he assigned an FOP Trustee, a noted detective who would help make the promotional exam better, to work with Dr. B. That trustee was Dean Angelo, Sr.
“Bill Nolan wanted to make sure all FOP members had access to the best study groups, so he picked a guy who would make the testing process better,” Dr. Bernstein recalls. “Dean was really instrumental in making the testing process better.”
Civil Service will be again be offering the Detective Promotional Exam in 2016. And to perpetuate the work he started with now Pres- ident Angelo and Lodge 7, Dr. Bernstein is continuing to make sure members have the best of the best to prepare for the test. He ramped up that effort with a series of free prep seminars on Oct. 10 and 11 at Malcolm X College, and BernsteinTestPrep is already initiating a plan for candidates to get ready and pursue one of the basic testing prem- ises: those who start early tend to get the best scores.
Make no mistake, there is not enough candidates can do to prepare. Estimates are that up to 5,000 officers will take Part 1 of the test in Sep- tember or October of 2016. Of those, less than 10 percent will probably be promoted. After all, being a detective is one of the best jobs in the Department, and not just because of the increase in pay and increased contribution to pensions, or so the 1,000-plus who attended the free seminars indicated.
“Most police officers, even sergeants and lieutenants, will tell you being a detective is the best job they ever had,” notes Dr. Bernstein, a former police officer, detective and sergeant in Miami, Florida. “There’s a lot of job satisfaction from truly helping victims, closing a case, making an arrest and even helping a family get its property back. So a lot of officers feel it’s a great career opportunity.”
To get a jump on the opportunity, Dr. Bernstein recommends that
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candidates start with light reading in areas that have a high probability of appearing on the test. Based on administering the Detectives’ Exam the past 25 years, BernsteinTestPrep will be giving its students an up- to-date reading list on Dec. 1.
Additionally, BernsteinTestPrep will be publishing practice questions in futures issues of Chicago Lodge 7 Magazine and posting them in its online learning center. Students who sign up to take the Bernstein review will immediately get to take a 100-question diagnostic to determine strengths and weaknesses of their candidacy that will be used to create a study plan.
Online training will begin in January. And in early summer, students will begin taking prep classes offered in dual tracks (9 a.m.-1 p.m. and 6-10 p.m.) weekends at the new Malcolm X facility opening in January.
“Those trying to get an edge on the competition will see what they can do now to get a jump,” Dr. Bernstein asserts. “We want to get the highly motivated people in class because that’s what truly makes the difference.”
The BernsteinTestPrep classes will provide a comprehensive look at Part 1 of the exam, the written qualifier that, in the past, has included 100-150 multiple choice questions. Some of these will be recall ques- tions to simply recall the answer. The second part in the past has included “reference” questions, based on statutes candidates can look up but should know in detail because time does not allow to look up everything. The third part of the written qualifier has historically tested applied knowledge using scenarios with weighted answers that score points for their correctness.
Bernstein obtained this information through an FOI request. Those who score high enough will go on to Part 2, the Investigative Logic part that pose scenarios with open-ended questions candidates must answer by writing freestyle responses including action steps and fol- low-up plans.
Dr. Bernstein promises repeated and intense practice on the Inves- tigative Logic because he says, “Those who really refine their responses will be the next detectives.”
He also said the prep classes will also feature former Department detectives that really know what it takes to make the grade as instructors. Who knows? One of those that show up might even be Dean Angelo, Sr. d