Walk-In Exams for City Jobs Including Police; Center Will Provide Immediate Scores To Candidates

By REUVEN BLAU

The city's testing department has quietly launched a pilot walk-in testing program to allow individuals to take exams leading to civil service jobs at their leisure.

For the entire month of January, candidates can take an exam leading to Police Officer jobs at 10 a.m. each weekday at the center, located at 2 Lafayette St. in lower Manhattan. No other tests are currently being offered.

'A Big Step Forward'

"This is going to be a big advancement in terms of people being able to take exams," said Mark Daly, the chief spokesman for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.

The city has been working for more than four years to establish the Computerized Testing Center, which was originally scheduled to open in the spring of 2006. DCAS hopes the new center will encourage more individuals to apply for hard-to-fill law-enforcement positions and other jobs.

DCAS started with the Police Officer title because there is already an established bank of questions, Mr. Daly said.

The NYPD is also eager to boost its struggling recruitment efforts, which have been hurt by the low starting salary rate of $25,100 for officers during their first six months of training. Other police forces throughout the country have also had a difficult time garnering new officers, due in large part to the loss of many likely candidates to the military as battles in the Middle East rage on.

The center expedites the exam process by offering a more user-friendly format and walk-in service on a daily basis. It is similar to walk-in testing centers used by other municipalities throughout the nation.

Instant Results

Under the new system, the exams are timed automatically and at the conclusion of the test, candidates can print out their unofficial results.

Currently, DCAS holds three Police Officer exams each year. Those regularly scheduled tests will still be held, Mr. Daly said. Test-takers at the computer center will be placed on a separate list.

Traditionally, it takes the city six months to fully process candidates, meaning individuals taking the Police Officer exam over the next two months who rank near the top of the eligible list will likely be hired for the upcoming Police Academy class scheduled to begin this summer.

A DCAS spokesman told this newspaper in 2004 that the center would be equipped with 50 touch-screen test terminals and that staff would include one Examiner-in-Charge, two Assistant Examiners and one Computer Specialist.

The Bloomberg administration is preparing to formally launch the center located in a city-owned building. DCAS plans to expand the number of tests it offers at the facility, but must first create a test bank of questions for each of those positions, in order to prevent cheating.

Making It Simpler

Individuals seeking to take the Police Officer exam may attend only one test session at the center. They are not permitted to enter the test site with cell phones, beepers, pagers, or other electronic devices. Calculators are permitted, but they must be hand-held, battery- or solar-powered, numeric only.

The computer facility is DCAS's latest attempt to make it easier for people to take tests leading to city jobs. DCAS recently launched its on-line job application system, which allows individuals to apply and pay filing fees via the agency's Web site.

That new Web application will also eventually automatically grade evaluations based on education and experience, Mr. Daly said. The program is expected to reduce the department's reliance on paper records and will free up several application evaluators.