One way of improving the quality of police officers: [View all]

[Cal33]

Stories of police brutality seem to be popping up all over the country of late. I remember
having read not long ago that police departments have the practice of hiring as police officers
applicants whose IQs are 102 to 104. They do not hire applicants with higher IQs because
these tend to get bored with the job, and too many of them quit before long. It takes a lot
of money to train police officers, and their quitting early becomes too expensive.

An IQ of 100 is smack in the middle, or 50 percentile. So 102 to 104 is very slightly above
average. Could this be one of the reasons for the wave of police over-reactions in situations
that require good judgment?

We all know that police officers have to use good judgment in dealing with people, and quite
often life-and-death situations are involved in their work. Intelligent people tend to have
better judgment than less intelligent ones. But police departments don't hire those with
higher intelligence because of the reason described above.

Perhaps if they hired as policemen only those with an IQ of at least 110, the number of police-
connected deaths might come down? If more intelligent applicants are given to understand
that the chances of promotion for doing a good job are excellent, as well as other incentives
(such as being allowed to do other more interesting jobs, in addition to working their beat)
they would be more willing to stay.

I think we should have as police officers those who are more intelligent and have better
judgment than average. Plain average is simply not enough.

Which is more important, money or human lives?