Philly police: 10 recruits resigned after trying to cheat on open-book test

A police spokesperson said 10 recruits confessed to accepting an answer key for an exam — even though they were allowed to use other approved materials to look up the answers. “If you didn’t study,” the spokesperson said, "it’d just take you longer to find them.”

FILE – In this Feb. 27, 2013, file photo, a car drives past the Philadelphia Police Department’s headquarters building, which opened in 1963 and is known as the Roundhouse, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)Read moreAP

by Chris Palmer

Published June 24, 2019, 4:05 p.m. ET

Ten Philadelphia police recruits resigned last week after they admitted to trying to cheat on an open-book test, a department spokesperson said Monday.

Capt. Sekou Kinebrew said that in early June, the day before a test on vehicle-code law, one member of a platoon of recruits discovered another trying to distribute some type of answer key to his classmates. Kinebrew did not identify any of the aspiring cops, but said the recruit who noticed the activity reported it to a supervisor.

An investigation was launched, Kinebrew said, and 10 platoon members confessed to accepting the illicit help. Each resigned last week, Kinebrew said.

The captain added that recruits during the test — one of many administered during a nine-month training period at the Police Academy in Northeast Philadelphia — were allowed to use certain approved materials to look up the answers.

“If you didn’t study,” Kinebrew said, "it’d just take you longer to find them.”

Before the recruits resigned, he said, the academy class had 53 members scheduled to graduate at the end of September.

Last week, the Police Department benched 72 officers while investigating scores of racist or offensive Facebook posts allegedly made by cops.