the test Black applicants couldn't pass in maryland

you may have heard that there is a settlement coming for poorly treated Blacks in maryland because the tests for police wrongly disqualified them.

https://marylandmatters.org/2024/10/03/state-police-agree-to-pay-2-75-million-to-settle-federal-probe-of-discriminatory-hiring/

"The Police Officer Selection Test (POST) is a written test of an applicant’s abilities in math, reading, writing and grammar. A passing grade is 70%, and would-be officers can retake the test up to four times in a year in an effort to pass. Applicants who fail are eliminated from the program."

"According to the Justice Department investigation, however, the skills assessed in those two tests were not actually essential to a trooper’s job performance. And while 91% of white applicants were ultimately able to pass the POST test, just 71% of Black applicants were able to so. "

one of my favorite twitter follows was nice enough to post the study guide given to applicants that includes samples of the kinds of skill testing questions applicants will face.

you can find the questions starting on page 9 in the link below.

https://mdsp.maryland.gov/Careers/Trooper%20and%20Cadet%20Application%20Documents/POST%20Study%20Guide_MSP.pdf

here is a sampling:

1. On Tuesday, Officer Jones worked the 3 p.m.-11 p.m. shift. At 10:55 p.m.
he was called to the scene of an accident where he remained until
1:30 a.m. How long past his regular shift did Officer Jones work?
a 55minutes
b 1 hour, 50 minutes
c 2 hours
d 2 hours, 30 minutes
e 3 hours, 5 minutes



In preparing her report on a home burglary, a police officer listed the
following stolen items and their values:
television set $400
radio $40
stereo equipment $1500
gold chain $100

2. What was the total value of the stolen goods?
a $2,000
b $2,040
c $2,400
d $2,840
e $3,ooo

3. What was the value of all the stolen goods EXCEPT the gold chain?
a $440
b $ 540
c $1,900
d $1,940
e $2,640

A police officer is called to an accident scene across town from
his present location. If he has to tr'avel two miles on Grant Road,
three miles on route 47, and 12 miles on interstate 70, how many
miles does he have to travel to get to the accident scene?
a 17miles
b 19 miles
c 52miles
d 59miles
e 82miles

14. Mr. Smith always kept his cooking utensils in good working condition.
All the kitchen ___ were very sharp
a knife
b knives
c knifes
and the pots and pans were scrubbed clean.

15. During __ existence from 1964-66, the courthouse
a its
b it's
c its'
received 450,000 calls of complaint. Each complaint was acted upon.


16. The officer ___ working overtime last night.
a was
b were

17. Driving an automobile while under the influance of alcohol or drugs is
prohibited by law.
Which word in the sentence above is misspelled?
a automobile
b influance
c alcohol
d prohibited
e None of the above


careful with this one - it's tricky!

18 The clerk at the motor vehicles office confirmed Wedesday, that
William Gray resides at 1301 Oak Avenue, Anytown, Georgia.
Which word in the sentence above is misspelled?
a vehicles
b confirmed
c Wedesday
d resides
e None of the above



So you can see how unfair this test is to the poor noble Blacks who had a 29% failure rate.

i fully support repairing this clear injustice.