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Michael Newman wasn’t fit to fight fires in
Springfield. When he applied to the Springfield Fire Department, he scored
well on the written test and passed the physical and psychological tests
with no problems. However, Newman — the highest-ranked
African-American on the 2005 firefighter-eligibility list — was
disqualified by a background check. City officials refused to tell Newman
what adverse information they had found, but Newman insisted that his
history was clean, citing the fact that he had passed similar checks
performed by previous employers, including the Illinois Department of
Corrections, Wells Fargo Bank, and the Urban League.
Not only has Newman passed another background check,
but he’s also graduated from the Chicago Police Department’s
training academy, where he was named Outstanding Recruit. He was sworn in as an officer of
the suburban Harvey Police Department and reported for duty Dec. 26. “I love it. It’s wonderful. It’s
something different every day. You get to deal with the community.
I’m very happy,” Newman says. Sandra Alvarado, assistant to the chief at the HPD,
says the department found nothing in Newman’s background to
disqualify him from being a peace officer. “We feel very fortunate to have Officer Newman
working for us,” she says. Newman says he applied to the HPD in January 2006 at
the urging of his aunt, who lives in Harvey and told him that the
department was hiring. He was well into academy by the time he learned that
the HPD has a checkered history of its own. “I didn’t know when
I applied that they had that much heat,” he says. “There are
certain guys you might shy away from, but so far I haven’t seen very
many of those.”
Harvey also has one of the highest crime rates among
the Chicago suburbs; Newman assisted in a homicide investigation his first
day on the job. “I see myself learning how to police very well
in this department,” he says.
Contact Dusty Rhodes at drhodes@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jan 4-10, 2007.
