Police departments are not looking for smart cops...

[TreasonousBastard]

OK, that sounds a little too glib, but I remember a story years ago about a NJ town eliminating any recruits who scored too high on intelligence tests-- seems they would get bored on the job, among other problems.

Looking around, I found this, among other recent stories saying it's not just Joisey:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836

N E W L O N D O N, Conn., Sept. 8, 2000 -- A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.

<...>

[PTWB]

1. Do you have any data that suggests this is widespread?

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Not really. This is not the sort of thing that gets reported or studied a lot.

[Alacritous Crier]

2. When I was in high school...

I approached a family friend who was involved in police work. I asked him if he could give me any pointers on getting into the field. He told me my IQ was too high and that I would probably be rejected because most city police departments had a maximum IQ level. He suggested that, if I was really interested in law enforcement, to pursue the FBI or other federal agency. I am thankful that I decided to follow other interests.

[Lulu KC]

4. I have never heard of this in any other field

Have you?

[Disaffected]

5. Not specifically for IQ but

hiring overqualified folks is often not a good idea for similar reasons eg. hiring an engineer for a technicians' job: They get bored, start looking for something better paid and more in line with their qualifications. They sometimes simply view the job as a stop-gap. This is a particularly important consideration where a significant training & time investment is made for new recruits.

High(er) IQ individuals are also more prone to asking troublesome questions (which I guess could be especially irksome for some police depts).

[ProfessorGAC]

8. I Agree

Hiring a chemist for QC, on shift, is likely to turn out short term.
People don't spend 4 years in school working in a tough discipline to work 4 12 hour midnight shifts, then days, the 3 nights, then days...
As soon as they find a daytime test lab, or a gig in R&D, it's arrivederci.
I've seen it. Company had the bright idea to ONLY higher lab techs with a 4 year technical degree. No associates, no degrees in other subjects, no technical short course grads. Place was a revolving door.
5 people on shift, and at least 2 were always in training.
They started allowing folks with those credentials I mentioned and they started losing 1 per year, but a third of the time, it was an internal, upward move.

[Blue_true]

14. I have seen highly competent foreign born technical people

working as production employees. It was mind blowing. There was a recent story about a guy that had a degree in Chemical Engineering from a US college working as an order filler in an Amazon warehouse in Southern California, he contracted COVID-19 and died. He got his degree while working in low wage jobs and while helping to raise a family.

There was another case where a woman was admitted into Medical School in India before her and her husband immigrated here. She had to start over here and eventually gave up because she was just re-tracking with no assurance that the US training would pay off. She worked on a production floor.

What I have seen about such technical people is that they are well trained in a classical way in their field, but can translate that into real innovation. Also, they are not maneuvering to get into management like a lot of US born engineers, so they seem better if one has an obscure R&D project that don't get people in the limelight. I had one work with me to solve a difficult problem once and I asked him why he didn't apply for other jobs, he had and had gotten turned down, he like me was a trained engineer, though in a different engineering discipline (that is considered to be as hard on students academically as the one that I am trained in).

[Buckeye_Democrat]

15. It happens. I have a degree in mathematics...

... and received a full academic scholarship to get a Master's.

My IQ was measured at 148 on the CTMM exam (proctored by Mensa), which was easily in the top 1%.

Solved some problems in the Putnam Competition as a junior undergrad student, when over half of the test-takers score a zero.

My mistake was getting married before completing the Master's program. The woman proved to have addiction problems, and I got stuck with the credit card bills that she had secretly racked up with ATM withdrawals.

I divorced her, and dropped out of school to work full-time. I was only working part-time for the school as a research assistant, and it wasn't enough money for all of the bills. It was the most satisfying job in my life, however, working with a math professor and doctors/students at the medical school for statistical analysis.

I've only had blue-collar jobs ever since. Employers often stereotype based on previous jobs, of course, and I'm now like the actor who chose to perform in a B-movie at the start of his career.

The main problem for me has been the stupidity of coworkers and managers, NOT the actual work. I can always find ways to make a job more interesting.

And the math skills have been handy a few times, calculating measurements of parts with simple trigonometry when it was impossible to measure them by hand (at least with the tools available). Calculating the length of a roll of material based on the core radius and overall radius, and the thickness of material. That sort of stuff. Managers would often come to me for my "math tricks", then back to my regular job I'd go.

Not having enough common ground with coworkers has truly been the hardest part for me.

[Lulu KC]

16. I should have been more clear in my question

Yes, totally agree about the overqualified--been there, done that, on both ends.
But I thought IQ tests were illegal. So I did a little Google research and it's a fine line. Slightly interesting.

[Baclava]

6. I read somewhere the average starting salary for cops and school teachers were about the same

Dont know how much that means, but there it is

[backscatter712]

7. There was a court case a number of years back

A man sued the NYPD because they rejected his application - his IQ was too high.

Of course, everyone knows that the NYPD consists of every guy that graduated last in his class from his high school.

[malaise]

9. They're probably grooming them in the schools

You go into the police - you go into juvi - of course I own shares in the prison industrial complex at all levels and slave labor is great.

That is the thinking. They are being paid by taxpayers to defend the corporate owners. It is a mess everywhere.

[totodeinhere]

10. This is interesting.

About one third (30.2 percent) of police officers in the United States have a four-year college degree. A little more than half (51.8 percent) have a two-year degree, while 5.4 percent have a graduate degree.

https://www.policefoundation.org/study-examines-higher-education-in-policing/

I think that one key to attracting better police officers is to pay them more. And that's why I am skeptical about the movement to cut police funding. I would rather prioritize funding in a better direction including increasing salaries. And we also need better screening including better psychological screening. And that screening must continue once they are hired and placed on the force.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. The NYPD does encourage its officer to go to school. There are special programs at...

City University for them. Friend of mine got his BA and Masters that way.

Of course, they don't major in pre-Med or sociology.

[applegrove]

12. Does the right want knee jerk reactors as police rather than people who can

think on their feet? The better to keep the police in the fold of the right as they lower wages and crash relations with the people in more poverty who see more crime. Is it "skinny policing" that serves to make everything not upper middle class - shitty?

[roamer65]

13. The police have been militarized.

Shoot first, ask later mentality.

Fascism at work, folks.

[Solomon]

17. Proof of your post right here:

https://www.facebook.com/170395640562343/posts/416015072667064/

[GusFring]

19. This actor just talked about a similar experience he had trying to become a cop

https://m.