The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-05-06
The Police Law and the Commits

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Rule XIII of the code prepared by the Po-
lice Commission and approved by the Alder
men reads as follows:
Successful candidates will be divided into two
grades, according their relative standing and no
candidate be certified for appointment from the
second grade, until the first grade has been exhaust
cd within two.
Under this rule 1t will be seen that there
Is no distinction among candidates in the
same grade, except such as may exist in the
minds of the commissioners. If there are
twenty-five candidates in the first grade the
commission can select from among them any
three 1t sees fit for certifcation to the may
or in case of vacancy on the police force.
Every one'stands on precisely the same foot
Ing as far as the public record of the examin-
atoms is concerned. Now il is entirely i'm
probable chat each one of those twenty
hve stood the tests applied by the COM
mission equally well. On the contrary it is
pretty certain that some of them have
acquitted themselves much better than 9TH
erS, and, therefore, are entitled to precedence
in case of vacancy on the force. But by
the commissions rule everyone of the TWEEN
ty-five is placed precisely on the same foot
ing.
It does not seem to US that this is sub
stantial compliance with the law as enacted
by the legislature. That law evidently con-
templates competitive examination, in
which each candidate is to be ranked indi-
vldually according to the degree of success
with which he bears the examination of the
commission. The law says the commission
In making their reports ''shall state in said
reports which candidates have successfully
passed such examination; and the relGtiue
standing Of such successful candidates." 1t
seems quite clear from this that the law
contemplates finer division of the success
full candidates than that provided for In the
commissions rule. Something akin to the
marking system in vogue in the public
schools, where every pupil is ranked as
closely as may be according to his individual
performance, seems to have been intended
by the legislature. Under the commissions
rule the competitive feature of the examina-
ton which certainly the friends of the law
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very large degree obscured. Suppose the
perfect mark is 100 and all who fall below
fifty are thrown out as unsuccessful, all be-
tween 90 and Is placed In the second grade
of successful candidates, and all between Is
and 100 placed in the first grade. Then
when the mayor calls upon the commission
to certify to him list of three candidates it
can select from the first grade of successful
candidates, say twenty-five in number, any
three 1t sees fit without regard to their rela-
tive standing to the other twenty-five.
Thus candidate who, had the persons ex-
amined been ranked individually, would
have been entitled to a ninety mark, can be
passed over, and candidate who has barely
escaped falling into the second grade Sc
lected.
The commissioners were evidently aware
that this rule was not in accordance with
the spirit of the law and sought to justify
the departure on the ground that If each snc-
cessful candidate were ranked the mayor
would be compelled TO appoint one from the
three highest, no matter if subsequent to the
N@A0SA0h ~ WOlO acCCIt dtuCu 0C4On0 q
doubt that all three of them were unfit for
police service. That is, if the three men
who attained the highest rank at the exam
ination should subsequently turn out to be
incorporate or disreputable in other ways
the commission could not reverse their judg-
ment inside OF two years, aud If vacancy
occurred in the force within that time the
mayor would be compelled to appoint one of
these three men. But there does not ap-
pear to be anything in the act to prevent the
board from revising its work as often as
there is occasion for doing SO. We cannot
see that it would conflict with the law for
commission with approval of the mayor and
aldermen to make rule that whenever facts
OF importance are brought to the attention
of the commission that were not known at
the time of the examination the candidate
may be recalled and further inquiry made,
and his rank altered If the result of the sup
Elemental inquiry demands 1t. And even if
this could not be done and the mayor should