Chicago Police union boss troubled over talk of relaxing hiring standards

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Fraternal Order of Police President Dean Angelo on Friday expressed serious reservations about the push to relax police hiring standards to attract more black and Hispanic officers.

At a time when police officers across the nation have “never been this scrutinized,” Angelo said the Chicago Police Department should be looking at raising standards — not lowering them.

Instead, Angelo said momentum is building to move in what he called the “wrong direction” — either by eliminating or minimizing the impact of a candidate’s credit history or by allowing candidates with minor drug and criminal offenses to become Chicago Police officers.

“When a police officer walks into a drug house with a search warrant and there’s mass amounts of currency there, that’s a situation where your moral and ethical compass has got to be pointed in the right direction. You have to ensure you’re not tempted by that. Same thing with drug use,” Angelo said.

“What if you’re involved in a domestic violence circumstance with your spouse? Do you want that person coming to your daughter’s house when she’s being abused or struck by her spouse or significant other? You have someone involved on the wrong side of the equation coming in to adjudicate that event. These are things we’re held to a standard of professionalism on, and it looks like they’re turning a blind eye to those qualifiers we have.”

Angelo portrayed the campaign that began with a recommendation from President Barack Obama’s Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement Initiative as part of a dangerous decline in standards that includes other elements of the criminal justice system.

You'll want to read the entire article. A police department does have to have higher standards than most jobs.