Mayor Sheila Dixon refused Monday to “rush” an investigation into alleged test cheating in the Baltimore City Fire Department, despite demands from the local NAACP to release the inquiry?s results quickly.
Anthony McCarthy, Dixon?s spokesman, said that by next week the mayor will release the results of the inspector general?s investigation into whether answers for captains? and lieutenants? promotional exams were leaked.
“Mayor Dixon takes allegations of cheating very seriously,” McCarthy said. “The reputation of the fire department is on the line. The inspector general?s report is very thorough. We would rather have an accurate and slow report than a rushed and incomplete report.”
The Vulcan Blazers, representing black firefighters, and the BaltimoreCity branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Monday demanded an outcome. Both groups said the investigation is racist in its inception because the city launched it only after black firefighters received the highest exam scores. The leaders of Baltimore?s firefighter unions complained that the exams were leaked.
Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, president of the city?s NAACP, wrote in a statement: “It is clear that a climate of racism and white supremacy” exists in the fire department.
McCarthy agreed there “appeared to be racial overtones” in the calls for the investigation, but “we had a commitment to get to the truth, and we think we?ve done that.”
The NAACP also has called for a City Council investigation into alleged racism in the police department with regard to promotions.
“I agree entirely with the NAACP that every rank of our Police Department needs to look like our population,” Dixon wrote in a statement released Monday. Dixon said her new police commissioner ? Frederick Bealefeld, who is white ? has reduced crime since taking over in July.
“Likewise, I have every confidence that he will improve our police force, and make it as diverse as our population,” Dixon said.
