New recruits will no longer have to pass a written exam to gain entrance in the Vermont Police Academy.
The Vermont Criminal Justice Council voted recently to do away with the exam, at least for now.
The move comes as law enforcement agencies across Vermont are struggling to find qualified recruits to fill their ranks.
But officials say they nixed the test because the format may be flawed, and it doesn’t screen for skills and abilities they’re looking for, including commitment and empathy.
“We temporarily suspended the written exam while we work to identify a defensible entrance exam,” said Windham County Sheriff Mark Anderson, a co-chair of the panel and the Vermont Sheriffs’ Association representative to the council.
The council came to a “broad consensus” that the exam was an “important piece” of the entrance process, the sheriff said.
But they also heard concerns about the “validity” of the entrance exam, he said, including that some questions had more than one correct answer.
The sheriff said the council will work on a new written examination, though he wasn’t sure how long that would take.
Vermont Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Schirling, who has a seat on the Criminal Justice Council, said his department had suggested forgoing the exam as a requirement to enter the police academy’s training program.
“We were confident the tool was not adding value to the hiring process in terms of selecting candidates for a variety of reasons,” Schirling said of the written exam.
“By way of example, we’ve known for some time there are disparate passing rates for different populations,” he said. Also, he said, “We’ve known that we’ve had people with advanced degrees take the test and be unable to pass.”
As a result, he said, “It makes you wonder: How contemporary is that exam?”
Schirling said the written exam tests general aptitude, not specific to policing, and covers subject matters such as math and reading comprehension.
He referred specific questions about what has been included in the written exam to Healther Simons, the academy’s executive director. Simons could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
Schirling said at the same time law enforcement agencies are looking for recruits with abilities not covered in the written exam, such as a person’s commitment to service and whether they can bring empathy to the work.
“This is not at all about lowering the standards for hiring. If anything it’s actually elevating the standard for hiring,” he said. “We’re focusing on the things that are most important, not whether you can pass a test of general knowledge.”
Schirling said that would put that focus on passing an oral interview process, a polygraph investigation and background check to ensure a person has the right aptitude to do the job.
Recruits, he added, will also continue to pass a physical fitness exam, at least for the time being.
Schirling said that test is something the public safety department also is calling on to be reviewed by the Criminal Justice Council.
“In the 21th century, do we care if they run a mile and a half if they are not a canine officer or in an assignment where they do something like search and rescue?” he said.
Schirling said he suggested that each agency should have its own physical fitness standards based on the expectations for its officers.
Statistics regarding the failure rate for all those who have taken the exam were not available Tuesday. However, the Vermont State Police provided the following numbers:
— In 2018, 216 applicants took the written exam and 37 failed.
— 2019: 199 applicants, 55 failed.
— 2020: 131 applicants, 11 failed.
Rutland City Police Chief Brian Kilcullen said Tuesday he agreed with the Criminal Justice Council’s action.
“I think it’s just a temporary way to address deficiencies with the current test,” Kilcullen said, adding, “It will certainly open up our ability to process candidates we previously could not process.”
When asked what percentage of applicants from his department have failed the written exam, Kilcullen said he did not have exact numbers but called it a “significant” amount.
The Rutland police chief said he would go back to some past applicants who did not pass the written exam to see if they’re interested in moving forward now.
Montpelier Police Chief Brian Peete said Tuesday that he agreed that the written test needed updating.
“There’s so much resting on getting the right people into the career,” he said. “We have to make sure we’re getting the right people.”
He said he would prefer that such testing placed greater emphasis on “emotional intelligence” and “critical thinking,” rather than general academic knowledge.
