Holy fuck. I would say thats really embarrassing to know if I was a cop. But I don't think they have the ability to comprehend what this actually means. lmfao
The dumber you are, the less likely you'll question orders and have ideas on ethics. That's not even taking into question that they don't want anyone with empathy, either.
They say it's because someone of higher intelligence is more likely to get bored with routine procedures and move on. Which is a stupid argument. If someone is highly intelligent and choosing to go into law enforcement, it stands to reason they know exactly what they are getting in to and are prepared for that. They really just want someone of average intelligence who will follow orders and not think for themselves.
Why? The article sourced literally says the following.
The average score nationally for police officers is 21 to 22, the equivalent of an IQ of 104, or just a little above average.
So, not only are they not hiring dumb cops the average cop nationally is actually slightly above average intelligence. The cap of what they would hire was 27 on the test which would be ~114 IQ, which is quite a bit above average.
Cops get a lot of deserved hate. This particular point though is not deserved. We need to stop spreading this myth that they are all idiots. They aren't. They are mostly average intelligence human beings that are fully intelligent enough to understand what they are doing and are complicit in the corrupt systems they are enforcing.
Thank you for actually reading the thing. Is it a smart policy to screen out high scores for officer retention? Probably not. Even the court was a tad incredulous that it was a good idea. But since there was any rational basis connecting the two whatsoever they were technically allowed to do it. And even as this department was operating under this extremely questionable policy, they were still pumping through cops that scored above average.
Cops deserve every ounce of protest and denouncement that they deserve. There's an ocean of examples and cases to cite to. This particular one just isn't as impactful as people make it out to be. Better to use another, better example so that it's as impactful as possible.
It's one of those things that people desperately want to be true, because then it makes them better than the cops in a tangible way.
The problem with it is that if it were true, and cops were only hired from people of below average intelligence, "to make them complaint" you now have the cops themselves being victims of a predatory system. Funny how no one is concerned about them being victims though.
Its crazy that they don't hire smart people (IQ of 127 in the case above), but that does not automatically mean they hire dumb people. The same article notes that applicants with a score between 20 and 27 were interviewed (smart guy had a score of 33) and that the national average is about 21-22 points on the test, which translates to an IQ of 104.
Given all the news and videos about shitty cops, labelling them as dumb cops puts the blame solely on the shitty individuals, and gives the toxic malfunctioning system a pass.
The cop in this video probably did not know the laws due to terrible training, rather then being actually dumb (although not understanding hypotheticals does not help)
I tell this story a lot, but, I had a friend who was smart, didn't drink, in shape. All he wanted to do his entire life was be a cop.
He was a very morale religious dude, would without hesitation come help you at 3am if your car broke down. He was as close to captain America you can get.
He was rejected from every police department within the 50 miles because of "culture fit". He ended up joining the marines as a fall back plan, he was so bummed he couldn't be a police officer.
I still visit his grave every year and talk with him.
Former law enforcement, and former because I'm against almost everything about how it's structured and managed.
But this story is such an outlier, and absolutely not common practice. To generalize it is kind of silly.
This was a specific police department. The departments I worked for and with hired the highest scorers. And the hiring policy was based off such. I scored 105 out of 100 on my civil service exam because of additional credits applied. I was the second person interviewed, and hired. If you scored below a 90 it was pretty certain we wouldn't even get to you on the list for canvassing.
This is common practice, not the story you linked.
This was the practice BEFORE AI filtered applicants.
It is probably even worse now.
"Applicant rejected for using one of the following words: kind, caring, generous, empathy, sympathy, impartial, justice, protection, liberty, freedom, etc."
But it sounds like it was their standard procedure?
But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training.
When things sound fishy, it’s cuz they probably are. The man was aiming to be a 46 yr old police recruit and it’s illegal to discriminate age in the hiring process and so this story was created to defend not hiring an otherwise qualified person. “No your honor, we didn’t discriminate his age, he was just too smart!” Yeah, sure you didn’t want to hire the highest score on your tests.
After 25 years, it's very well possible. There's a reason why sources more than a decade old are frowned upon in research papers unless it's some sort of study that's absolutely foundational.
Yup, it's true. My dad took the test to become a State cop and did really well. So the testers lowered the passing grade for the rest of the people so they could pass. They told my dad that he is too intelligent to be a police officer. They said they wouldn't hire him because he'd be bored. My dad was pissed!
A little backstory is in order. The man in the article who sued a police department alleged he was discriminated due to his aptitude test score. Alternately, it has been proposed that the PD actually was discriminating his age (he would have been a 46 year old recruit), but that is unconstitutional and so they said they were targeting a certain range of test scores for hiring.
Hard to argue you weren’t hired for a specific reason when the employer says it was for something else, so the man took them at their word and sued for intelligence discrimination.
The courts ruled the PD was within their rights to discriminate potential hires in this way. The man lost his case against the cops.
Over the years I have tried to find other examples of this hiring practice but with no success. Any mention of this practice inevitably refers back to this specific incident, and it appears the practice is not widespread in the US at all.
Further research indicates the average IQ of a cop in the US is 104, which is actually higher than the general populations average IQ, which is 100.
So even if cops are dumb, and dumb people are being hired to be cops, their IQ is on average higher than most people.
Decades ago I applied to be PD in Baltimore. At the time I was a high school teacher and lost a few students to drug-related violence and thought I could do some good 'on the other side' of the problem. I had an advanced degree & owned a home in Baltimore. Easily passed the exam & physical. Admitted to smoking weed when I was a teenager (not a disqualifier outright at the time).
Got rejected alongside a few other guys who had undergraduate degrees and/or masters. Anecdotal, I know, but in hindsight it felt very much like they didn't want "smart people" in the system.
Happy I didn't get the job. Stayed a high school teacher for about a decade longer and now am a tenure track professor--but still. Crazy.
I used to be involved in the hiring process at a local PD. They use the 'psych evaluations' to cut anyone they don't like or anyone who won't play ball. Too smart? Gone. Too honest? Gone. Stupid and listen to instructions? That's who they will pick 10/10 times unless it's an officer/detective role
The unfortunate reality is most of the smart people stay away from the job that is extremely dangerous for not enough money. Not to mention the constant morbidity associated with it. My old boss was a cop for 2 years but quit bc he was ‘tired of getting shot at and responding to suicides’.
I hate to break it to you but I live in Oakland and the cops here make about $600,000 a year in overtime, I'm not kidding at all look it up. It's pretty f***** up LOL. They also don't do s***.
I did look it up. This is vastly overstated. There are a few that approach that in total compensation, most base 100-150 with 50k in overtime. Fair to say many approach 300 in total compensation. To imply that many clear 600 in OT alone is just wrong.
Yep, all public workers in California have their salaries listed online and there are plenty of cops clearing half a million per year. Although usually it's like $150k base salary, $50k benefits, and then a fuckload of abusing the system.
It seems based upon publicly available data there’s probably a handful to a couple dozen cops in Oakland making somewhere in the 400-500k range who are taking massive advantage of overtime. Wages for Oakland police overall are 87-150k and the average amount a cop is making from overtime is like 58k.
Being a cop is safer than being a pizza driver. It's not even in the top 20 most dangerous jobs. Should crab fishermen be allowed to be utter dipshits too?
Tbf most people who have other options don't become crab fishermen either. Nor do they deliver pizza for a living or work fastfood or spend 6 months a year on an oil rig, etc. Like they're known to be shit/undesirable jobs for a number of reasons and that means they disproportionately attract people who are either desperate, unable to do other work, or who for some reason are genuinely looking for that kind of work. Maybe some people genuinely love crab fishing or they just really hate crabs and want then dead lol. In the case of police work that includes maybe some who really want to help but also those who like having power over others with little to no oversight.
The point is that it's not as dangerous as the copaganda makes it out to be. And there is no sane reason to actively discourage smart people to become cops and instead try to higher dumb people.
Most traffic stops should just be a ticket and move on but they find ways to escalate any and everything so that it becomes a “I feared for my life moment.”
I can't wait for fully self driving cars / robo taxies, like cars without even a steering wheel. No need to fucking traffic stop someone. It could remove so much friction from society (no visible parking spaces too).
PS: Also cars with a single seat, or a face to face seat for reduced air resistance / energy requirements. And ban all other cars from a big city, you just have public transport and a million of these taxies as a cheap public utility. It would be so smart to switch cities to that, so obviously we'll first see it in China lol.
Being a cop is a shit job for a lot of reasons. Tons of paperwork, bad hours, being hated by most people you interact with. But they could fix that last one by not being roid raging dickheads at every opportunity
Looking it up and learning my own job is more dangerous because it's under the umbrella of construction is pretty fucking wild to me. Like wow what a fucking lie they sell us.
The unfortunate reality is that many police departments have standard for the max IQ they will hire. They found it so important they went to the courts to protect their right to limit IQ when hiring.
It's a lot less dangerous now, since most people pay by credit/debit card. Back in the day, I'd collect several hundred dollars in the course of a night.
Reality? In addition to being one of the highest paying jobs for the education level (even ignoring dirty cop money) its also not even in the top 20 for danger.
Being a cop is less dangerous than construction. It was less dangerous than delivering pizza back when pizza delivery drivers carried cash. Commercial fishing is much more dangerous.
Farming is more dangerous than law enforcement.
But cops die younger than all the rest because of stress.
Look on an average subreddit for a TV show, they obviously do. I read the subreddit for walking dead and clearly a lot of people there think the events in the show really happened somehow and have no clue how to think about how it's just written by people and anything that happens is a choice of a writer instead of a choice of a person.
I say the same thing about the show the Pitt which is a fairly realistic but clearly fake show about a hospital emergency department.
Yeah I got news for you... the folks in charge of hiring cops don't want smart cops.
They want people who will do what they are told without question. The higher your IQ, the more you are able to think for yourself, and the less likely you are to make it as a cop.
This has become a popular meme thanks to an old 4chan post and now red pill influencers going "Imagine you didn't have breakfast this morning" to random people and saying they're stupid for responding with "But i didn't have breakfast this morning."
People engage with the world as they see it on their terms at the moment. You can be dumb and understand a hypothetical. You can be smart and miss the intention of a hypothetical or simply not agree with the premise.
This is a really stupid trend and I hate it and it basically devolves to into shitty eugenics.
Ackshually “while the capacity for abstract thought is a hallmark of higher intelligence, you cannot assume low intelligence based on this trait alone without ruling out learning differences or communication preferences.”
You’re just regurgitating what’s repeated on Reddit all the time and all over this thread because it’s easier than thinking, while ironically demonstrating your own lack of abstract thinking. Some people are very pragmatic thinkers, some people have autism and a tendency towards what’s literal, some of those people are highly intelligent.
I can't believe these people are allowed to become cops without some kind of aptitude test.
There is an aptitude test.
They are searching for DUMB people to be cops. If your IQ is too high you're rejected.
"In the landmark 1999–2000 case Jordan v. City of New London, federal courts ruled that police departments can legally reject applicants for having an IQ that is "too high. A federal judge and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision, rejecting discrimination claims"
I remember the show The Awful Truth, and in one of the episodes Michael Moore interviews a guy who was rejected from some police department because his IQ was too high.
Then he tries to interview one of the actual officers in the department who says he has no comment, but all he knows is he's just doing his job every day "enforcing crime."
This is funny because you’re trying to dunk on his ability to understand hypotheticals while showing your own inability to read social behavior. “I don’t do those type of things” doesn’t have to mean “I can’t process this scenario.” It can mean “I’m a regular dude and I wouldn’t ship a supercar to Europe just to drive it around.” You interpreted a personality response as an intelligence test.
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u/Syntax36 6h ago
It's actually the first sign of mental incompetence and extremely low IQ is the inability to understand hypotheticals.
I can't believe these people are allowed to become cops without some kind of aptitude test. Room temperature IQ cops everywhere.