The NYPD is investigating a potential cheating scandal involving sergeants who took a make-up promotion exam for lieutenant — and passed at a rate eight times higher than those who took the original test, The Post has learned.
Critics charge that some sergeants may have gamed the system by taking the make-up exam months after the same test was first given — a window that could have let the candidates get the correct answers from the original test-takers.
The controversy erupted last week, after the NYPD’s personnel arm, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, published its civil-service list of the 204 candidates who earned passing scores. Each is now eligible to be called as a future lieutenant, a rank that has a starting salary of $102,091 a year.
The Police Department is taking the allegations seriously, launching a probe to see if the testing process was corrupted, officials said.
“The NYPD is aware of certain issues that have been raised concerning the 2015 lieutenant promotional make-up exam. We have been in contact with DCAS and are reviewing these issues,” NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis told The Post on Tuesday.
Most of the sergeants who took the lieutenants’ promotional test, formally known as Lieutenant’s Promotional Exam No. 5535, took it April 18, 2015, but passed far less frequently than those who took the make-up.
There were 2,401 sergeants who took the April 18, 2015, exam when it was first offered, and 164 candidates passed, said Cathy Hanson, a DCAS spokeswoman.
That’s a passing rate of about 6 percent.
Sergeants who took the make-up test — Jewish applicants who observe the Sabbath, others who were on military leave, and sergeants injured when the test was first offered — passed at a significantly higher rate, stats show.
Hanson said 83 sergeants took the make-up promotional exam and 40 earned passing scores, a passing rate of more than 48 percent.
A source said that at least two identical make-up exams were given months after the original test, allowing those taking the later exams ample opportunity to learn the correct answers on police blogs and computer bulletin boards discussing the original exam.
A sergeant who took the original promotional exam — and failed after a year of studying — was disgusted by the idea that some candidates may have cheated.
“Part of me isn’t surprised because I’ve been hearing this has been happening for a long time. It definitely makes me angry,” the source said.
“It’s almost as if you’re fighting a battle with one hand behind your back because you know people who take the exam after you have an unfair advantage,” he said.
Louis Turco, president of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, the union that represents 1,750 NYPD lieutenants, said, “The numbers are dramatic. At the end of the day, I hope this is looked at, and I hope this doesn’t happen in the future.”