[color="Blue"]More Blacks mean more corruption

Dixon orders probe into fire officers' exams

By Annie Linskey -- Sun reporter -- Originally published July 12, 2007

Mayor Sheila Dixon asked the city's inspector general yesterday to investigate allegations that members of the Fire Department cheated on recent captains' and lieutenants' promotion exams. …

Leaders from both of the city's fire unions have called for an investigation of the cheating allegations and quickly applauded the mayor's decision.

The allegations of cheating, first reported in The Sun, have been the subject of conversations at firehouses since the test results were announced last week. They arose after two lieutenants, who are apparently related, scored unusually high on the captains' promotion test, according to Fugate. In addition, the person who scored at the top of the lieutenants' promotion test had previously failed that exam, Fugate said. …

But the discussion of possible cheating has raised questions of race in the department. The top two scorers on the captains' exam are African-Americans, and the top scorer on the lieutenants' exam is also African-American, leading the president of the city's black firefighters organization to dismiss the accusations as racially motivated. …

Henry Burris, the president of the Vulcan Blazers, the black firefighters organization, repeated concerns yesterday that the accusations against the test-takers are racially motivated. …
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