Evaluation of the Demographic Impacts of the Chicago Police Department’s Hiring Process

Executive Summary

With over 13,000 employees, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the largest department in the City of Chicago, accounting for approximately 41% of the City’s workforce.2 The vast majority of CPD’s total employees are Police Officers (POs); they number nearly 11,000, or 83% of CPD’s total employees. “Police Officer,” as used throughout this report, is the entry-level rank of peace officers within CPD and is distinct from the supervisory ranks, including Sergeant and higher.

To become a PO, a candidate must first be hired as a Probationary Police Officer and then successfully complete an 18-month probationary period. The hiring process for POs includes numerous stages designed to evaluate a candidate’s cognitive ability, physical fitness, personal background, physical and mental health, and other predictors of job performance. The majority of candidates who apply to become a PO will be eliminated at one of these stages. The reasons for attrition are varied: candidates may fail to meet a prescribed standard on the written exam or physical fitness test; disqualifying information may be discovered in the background check, drug test, or medical exam; candidates may fail to appear for a required stage or may fail to submit required paperwork.

This report evaluates the demographic diversity of the PO candidate pool at various stages throughout CPD’s hiring process and the equity of the process itself, examining demographic patterns of candidate attrition at each stage from initial application through referral to the Department of Human Resources (DHR) for invitation to the Academy.