INVESTIGATION INTO TRAINING TEST CHEATING UNDERWAY
Harrisburg, PA—Mayor Stephen R. Reed today reported that an internal investigation is underway to determine the extent of possible cheating on police training tests involving police cadets attending the mandatory state training program at Harrisburg Area Community College.
While investigative rules normally prohibit giving information before a probe is completed, the premature and unauthorized disclosure of the investi-
gation by a city council member resulted in incorrect information being aired by one local media station.
Reed said the preliminary findings thus far include:
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Harrisburg Police received a tip in the early part of the week of Aug. 30 that some cadets, now undergoing training, may have had a disc or paper copies containing the test questions that are administered at intervals during the training course; Harrisburg began an immediate investigation and notified HACC, who then notified the Municipal Police Officers Training Commission and the Pennsylvania State Police, who oversee the state’s Municipal Police Officers’ Training Program, of the probe; both have launched their own investigations;
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A number of cadets from Harrisburg and other police agencies in the midstate had access to the disc and its information and used it in advance of testing;
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When cadets enter the police training program, they sign an Integrity Statement wherein they pledge to adhere to high standards, which include not cheating; violations result in termination;
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Testing materials may have been given to one or more of the city cadets undergoing training by an officer already in the Harrisburg Police Bureau; this officer obtained the materials from police officers from two other police agencies—one in Cumberland County and the other in Dauphin County;
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Apparently, the state-provided training program uses not only the same training format for every police academy but the same test questions year after year; Harrisburg is recommending that the state change the questions for every test to eliminate the chance of earlier police academy graduates sharing the information with future cadets;
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The tests in question are those which are given throughout the training program; it does not, in any way, involve the separate Civil Service examination given by Harrisburg and other police agencies when initially hiring officers; the statement made Sept. 7th that this case involves cheating on the Civil Service examination, to get hired as a police officer, is false; the city-administered Civil Service examination is independently prepared with new questions and test materials every time the examination is given, and the city does not even know the questions on that exam until the test is opened at the test site;
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It is not yet known how many cadets may be involved in the training test cheating; interviews and other aspects of the investigation are continuing;
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Any Harrisburg cadet or officer involved in cheating will be terminated. “Integrity is a fundamental element of professional law enforcement. It is the basis for trust and confidence by the public and by the employing city government. Cheating on a training test is flatly unacceptable and clearly violates our standards and expectations,” Reed said.
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There are nine Harrisburg cadets at the training academy; the total class is about fifty officers, with the rest assigned by other police agencies throughout the midstate.
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