By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

More than three-fourths of Cincinnati police officers seeking to become sergeants failed a new city test, the step necessary to become a supervisor.

When the results were posted Thursday, just 12 officers were listed as passing. The other 37 who took the newly written exam did not score the 75 necessary to pass.

Veterans, who remember when such tests drew hundreds, said this was the weakest turnout and number of officers who passed in years. Ninety-four had originally applied, but 45 didn't show up for the March 3 exam.

"It was a tough test," said Spc. Jim Perkins, who scored second with an 88.93. "You had to read the material and understand it.''

He said the 154 questions were considerably different than those on the test he took a year ago. He said they were more complicated and required more interpretation. The questions were multiple choice, but officers had to choose the "most correct'' answer for how they would handle various scenarios.

The city gave each officer who signed up to take the test a suggested reading list that included textbooks on police management, on New York City's computerized crime analysis system and on use of force. Officers were also encouraged to know the police union and police civilian employees' contracts, the department's procedure manual and all training bulletins disseminated from 2000 through 2003.

Rodney Prince, the city's human resources director and secretary to the Civil Service Commission, which gave the test, and his assistant director, Carole Callahan, did not return calls for comment about the few passers. Neither did Tom Amann, the department's personnel director nor Dan Radford, director of the civil service commission.

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E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com