Palatine police hope online testing leads to more diverse field of recruits

The Palatine Police Department might offer its next written entrance test online, rather than in person, a move made by a few other suburban departments.

Palatine Police Chief Dave Daigle said the department is excited at the prospect of online testing, which would allow more people to take the test with no geographical limitations.

"This flexibility will allow the Palatine Police Department to reach a greater diversity of potential recruits," he said

The village board gave its OK earlier this month to online testing, and the board of fire and police commissioners will make a final decision.

Palatine has met with two vendors and is "strongly considering" using National Testing Network (NTN), Daigle said. "Their police officer test has been built to legally defensible standards, including an interactive, video-based scenario module to test a candidate's human relations and judgment skills," he said.

NTN didn't return a request for comment. The company is used by police departments in Aurora, Elgin, Lisle, Schaumburg and South Elgin, according to its website.

Elgin police has done online testing for a few years, Cmdr. Eric Echevarria said. "It's been working great. It cast a wider net."

Lisle police started online testing last year, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We couldn't be happier," Deputy Chief Kevin Licko said.

The biggest advantage is not having to compete for applicants when other police departments offer the test on the same day, Licko said. "Obviously we want a bigger pool as much as possible."

The online test is behavioral-based, Licko said. "We are wanting to see how people are responding and reacting from a behavior standpoint, rather than reciting answers they learned," he said. "We want to test their decision-making ability."

Schaumburg police used NTN for the first time with its most recent round of applications, due today. Already, there are more candidates than for the last test, and the hope also was to have more a more diverse pool, Sgt. Karen McCartney said.

"We won't have a good idea on the success of NTN until after the testing process is complete and we can see the full results," she said.

The last written test in Palatine was in August at a cost of about $2,300 for 175 booklets. The cost of online testing will be based on the number of applicants, and the village will save on time spent processing applications and running the test, Daigle said.

There is an added cost for applicants, however: taking the test in person is free, but NTN charges $40 for the online test. Some police departments also charge an application fee.

And what about the risk of cheating during an online test?

"Cheating is always a concern no matter how testing is administered," Daigle said, "but NTN has created a robust system of accountability and technology to eliminate opportunities to cheat."

Licko agreed. "How do we know there's not a police officer sitting right next to them (when they take the online test)? That is a concern but the testing company has assured us that they have designed the test so it's impossible to cheat. They can't outsmart the tests. The same question is asked different ways in another spot."