One day last year Pat Hill missed a day of work because she had a headache. A throbbing migraine, to be exact. That might not upset most employers, but Hill is a Chicago police officer, and the department has some rather rigid rules regarding medical leave. Anyway, one thing led to another, and Hill was eventually suspended for six months for disobeying an order to undergo a psychological examination.
Hill defies all Chicago-cop stereotypes. She’s a 43-year-old mother of three who wears her hair in a short natural and favors African jewelry and hats. A star sprinter at Harlan High, she later taught gym and coached girls’ basketball at several public high schools on the north, northwest, and west sides. By the time she joined the force in 1986 she was 35 and not nearly as impressionable as many of her classmates at the academy. “Many of the recruits were ready to believe whatever they were told. The instructors wanted us to be all alike. They wanted us to believe that from now on policemen would be the only people we could trust.”
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But Hill has an independent mind, and she’s not afraid to show it. “I think there’s a negative view of me by supervisors based on my hats, my jewelry, and my hair, as well as my politics. I try to be polite and respectful to everyone I meet. But some people feel threatened by a black person who shows ethnic pride.” She joined the force, she says, to combat its “history of racism,” and she rebels against the notion that a cop should be judged by the number of people he or she arrests. “I’m more the social-worker type. I’m out to resolve things, not to just make arrests.”
Hill says she never had anything that remotely resembled such a condition. Moreover, she points out, Carter never asked if she did. Instead, he quickly directed her to Jay Bransfield, chief surgeon for the Police Department. Bransfield told her that because she’d told Carter she had anxiety she had to undergo a psychological examination.
Later Bransfield said he’d ordered Hill to take the MMPI to protect the public safety. “Police officers have to be held to higher standards because they carry [guns],” he said. “Anything that might impinge on their emotional judgment has to be examined.”
That same month Hill returned to work. But on July 22 police superintendent Matt Rodriguez suspended her without pay for six months for disobeying the first order to take the test.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jon Randolph.
