In a situation in which Sergeants who took a make-up promotion exam for Lieutenant passed at an inexplicably higher rate than those who took the original test, and nine Sergeants have filed a lawsuit claiming that cheating explains the discrepancy, were a bit puzzled by Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullinss claim that Police Commissioner Bill Bratton showed he has lost his mind by putting a freeze on promotions from the list based on the test results.

Rather, Mr. Bratton has taken the only sane course. Should he be going ahead and passing only those who scored well on the first exam when one or more of them may be the bright souls who were responsible for posting the answer key that some of those taking the make-up clearly used? Should he be promoting from the top of the list, which could be where those who had the extra edge are clumped?

In the end, its possible that all the test results will have to be thrown out. And this is not necessarily a bad thing.

The fact that only 6 percent of the test-takers passed the initial exam seems to suggest that it was too difficult. And the stunning 48-percent pass-rate among the much-smaller group that took the make-up test looks particularly hard to reconcile: the exam didnt go from extremely hard to surprisingly easy on the merits.

Its a mystery to us why any Sergeant who took the first test would be dumb enough to put up the answer key to help those against whom he or she would be competing for prized promotions. But its also strange that the Department of Citywide Administrative Services would leave the door open for cheating by giving the same test to both groups rather than changing at least some of the questions or varying the sequence of answers for each one.

And those proven to have facilitated the impropriety or taken part in it should be considered for demotion rather than having a shot to move up in the ranks.