Companies that Botched the NYPD Exam Were Paid $5+ Million
Plus, a student uses button camera, computer in the shoe to cheat in Turkey. Plus, class notes.
Issue 301
Subscribe below to join 3,873 other smart people who get “The Cheat Sheet.” New Issues every Tuesday and Thursday.
If you enjoy “The Cheat Sheet,” please consider joining the 18 amazing people who are chipping in a few bucks via Patreon. Or joining the 39 outstanding citizens who are now paid subscribers. Paid subscriptions start at $8 a month. Thank you!
Companies That Botched the NYPD Sergeant’s Exam Were Paid $5+ Million
In the last Issue, we looked at how mismanagement of an NYPD promotion exam led to cheating. I quoted news coverage that:
The 2022 test was technically overseen by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which hired two private companies to develop and run the exam — Morris and McDaniel Inc. and PSI Services LLC
The news did not report the size of the contracts for those two companies. So, I filed an information request with the City for the contracts.
They show that, if my math is right, the two firms were paid north of $5 million to administer the exam. Morris and McDaniel, it seems, had a range of exams on which it was contributing. The line item for law enforcement shows $540,000:
The City also shows that the contract with Morris and McDaniel was renewed in 2021, at these rates, for three added years.
Meanwhile, the PSI contract calls for payment of $4.5 million for the administration of the police sergeant’s exam only:
To be clear, neither PSI nor Morris and McDaniel wrote the exam. Their charge was registration, delivery, security, and scoring — of which they clearly blew at least one.
I’m not sure what it means that the City paid more than $5 million for an exam that was run so poorly. The test was very big and nothing in NYC is easy. But I do think that, were I paying millions for a test to be delivered competently, and it was not, I’d have some questions.
Student in Turkey Jailed for Cheating With Button Cam and AI
According to reporting, with video, a student who was taking Turkey’s college admissions and placement exam was caught cheating with:
AI software, a camera disguised as a button, and a hidden router
The router was in the student’s shoe.
The coverage also says:
A police officer in the video scans a question to show how the system works, with the AI software generating the correct answer, which is recited through an earpiece.
Yup, AI can read text and process an answer, delivered by audio.
I am not one iota surprised.
Though I will mention that this seems to be a considerable effort to cheat — camera, router in the shoe, earpiece. And that our suspect was caught because an in-person exam monitor noticed him behaving oddly.
Then — as you no doubt expected — I will ask, had this student not been caught and scored well, what do we think he would do in college?
Easy bet.
Class Notes
The Cheat Sheet has a new paid subscriber. Thank you.
With their subscriber notice, A wrote:
Our daughter is a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin. Her concerns about academia's irresponsible response to cheating while in graduate school at University of Michigan led me to your Substack. I support your work because you are fighting for academic integrity.
Thank you, A. I absolutely understand their daughter’s concerns. And this is a good example, good evidence, that ignoring cheating deeply impacts the students who do the actual work.
Also, as you may have noted, I did not put out The Cheat Sheet on Tuesday, or on the previous Thursday. I’m finding it difficult to keep up the schedule and have been investing considerable time in my new venture. I keep trying. And I thank you for your ongoing readership.