Baltimore?s new fire chief on Tuesday validated the results of a controversial promotional exam previously condemned because of alleged cheating.
Chief Jim Clack said in an interview late Tuesday that he will look into punishing six accused cheaters, but will not discount the rest of the test results.
“It?s better to go back to the original list,” Clack said. “The test results have been validated.”
Baltimore City firefighter unions had lobbied to stop Mayor Sheila Dixon?s order that firefighters must retake promotional exams in the wake of cheating allegations.
“There exists no proof of cheating,” Stephan Fugate, president of the Baltimore City Fire Officers union told The Examiner in a previous interview about the issue.
Dixon instructed the Fire Department to readminister the promotional exams for captains and lieutenants given on June 2, after City Inspector General Hilton Green concluded that the exam?s results were compromised. Green implicated six test takers after some firefighters complained about suspected cheating on the test.
According to Green?s investigation, at least five firefighters used past exams as study guides.
“In reviewing the study material of all five top-scoring African Americans who took the examination it was revealed that they had the actual examination for 2001 in their possession, which they were using as a study guide,” Green wrote in his investigative report. “… When questioned as to how the five acquired the 2001 examination, their responses were deceptive and indirect and some bordered on being unprofessional in that they raised their voices when this question was asked.”
Clack said five of six suspected cheaters denied the allegations, but one admitted cheating.
“There never was any solid proof that pointed to cheating,” he said. “I’m reviewing the evidence against each one of them and I?ll come up with an appropriate discipline for the ones that did something wrong.”
Upon getting the job as Baltimore?s fire chief in February, Clack said he encountered the cheating controversy and decided to put an end to it.
“It was sitting here on my desk when I arrived,” he said. “Let?s get this resolved and move on.”
