10 Philadelphia Police Recruits Resign After Allegedly Planning To Cheat On Exam, Officials Say
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Another scandal is hitting the Philadelphia Police Department. What was supposed to be a simple, open-book exam led to 10 police recruits resigning from the academy.
The cadets thought they had an easy way to ace a motor vehicle exam. But they found out the hard way that cheating on it ended with them leaving the academy.
Philadelphia police are opening up a new investigation into alleged cheating at the police academy.
"On June 5, it was discovered that one of the members of that platoon had obtained the answers to the test, which by the way would have been an open-book test," Philadelphia Police Capt. Sekou Kinebrew said.
That exam, part of the motor vehicle code, was scheduled for the following day. But after another recruit witnessed the alleged cheating, he reported what he saw to superiors at the academy.
"That investigation determined that a total of 10 recruits had obtained the answers to the test. We believe the first recruit had distributed the remaining nine," Kinebrew said.
Kinebew says all 10 involved resigned from the academy at different points last week.
"Had they not resigned, they would have absolutely been rejected during probation because this violation is not only a violation of our internal cheating policy, it's a violation of our certifying agency's cheating policy," he said.
That means those 10 recruits will not be able to become police officers in the state of Pennsylvania.
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This latest investigation comes as the department is embroiled in a social media scandal. Currently, 72 officers remain on desk duty as Internal Affairs and an outside law firm determine if they made racist or violent posts on Facebook.
And while that investigation continues, Kinebrew says this one has an appropriate end.
"In many ways it had a fitting conclusion because the recruits who displayed the behavior that is inconsistent with our core values will not be police officers but the recruit who did display behavior that is consistent with our core values and reported it will become a police officer," Kinebrew said.
Kinebrew says the department is still looking into how the cadet obtained the test answers in the first place.
