Test for LAPD Promotions Mishandled, Captains Say : Personnel: Officers ask Police Commission to throw out results and select new list of candidates for advancement.

Seventeen police captains on Tuesday protested the Civil Service Commission’s handling of a recent promotional exam, charging that the process was flawed and unfair.

The captains registered their complaints at a meeting of the Police Commission, where they asked that the results of the test be thrown out and that a new test be administered to determine a fresh list of candidates for the rank of commander.

“In all my years on the force, I have never seen anything like this,” said Capt. John E. Moran, a 24-year veteran in the LAPD’s training division. “The system (for choosing candidates) was fraught with irregularities. They violated their own rules.”

Nearly 40 captains registered to take the three-part exam, which included a written test and two oral exams and was administered by the city’s Personnel Department during the summer. The promotional list would remain valid for two years.

The written test was supposed to narrow the field to 18 candidates, who were to proceed to the second phase of the process, an oral exam. But 28 candidates passed the written test.

At first, the city agreed to allow all 28 to proceed to the next phase. However, after officials from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund complained that too many minority candidates had been eliminated in the written exam, personnel officials agreed to allow all candidates to take the oral exam, including nine who had failed the written portion.

Phil Henning, assistant general manager of the Personnel Department, said the decision to give everyone the oral test was supported by all groups, including the association representing command officers.

“I don’t mean to say we had a perfect solution,” Henning said. “People expressed their viewpoints and we reached a decision that this was the best course of action. There are always some protests.”

The Civil Service Commission is scheduled to consider the list at its Dec. 18 meeting. Its approval is needed before the list can be certified and used for promotions.

After hearing the officers’ protest, the Police Commission voted to express its concern about the handling of the test.

Police Commissioner Anthony De Los Reyes questioned the process. “It seems as if they came up with a process that they felt they had to keep tweaking in order to get it to be something,” he said.