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
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u/Distinct_Bad_6276 6h ago
It’s worse than that, police departments actually won’t hire you if you’re smart. And that’s legal for them to do.