I heard that both cops and taxi drivers aren't suited for creative and theoretical thinkers. Mainly because it's a lot of waiting. They will get bored and quit.
Can Someone Be Too Smart to Be a Cop?
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Re: Can Someone Be Too Smart to Be a Cop?
#12meaning that at least according to the test, it requires more intelligence to sell insurance than to solve crimes.) Police do not solve crimes. Police enforce laws. Detectives solve crimes. I would expect that detectives and police officers would be held to different standards.
The pool of detectives is typically pulled from line police, isn't it? By restricting the IQ of those enforcing the laws, you're creating a poor candidate pool for detectives.
In France, detectives and police officers have to go the university to study the law and other subjects. I thought it was the same in most countries, isn't it?
Re: Can Someone Be Too Smart to Be a Cop?
#13I heard that both cops and taxi drivers aren't suited for creative and theoretical thinkers. Mainly because it's a lot of waiting. They will get bored and quit.
Of course 'smart' means a lot of things. But thinking outside the box is probably not going to make a great cop - there's process and policy to observe scrupulously.
Re: Can Someone Be Too Smart to Be a Cop?
#14It looks like the servers are getting brought down by the HN traffic.
Re: Can Someone Be Too Smart to Be a Cop?
#15I heard that both cops and taxi drivers aren't suited for creative and theoretical thinkers. Mainly because it's a lot of waiting. They will get bored and quit.
Boredom. There is perception that police work is exciting and fast-paced, presumably from television, movies, and books.
I've heard more than once that police spend a huge fraction of their time waiting, filling out paperwork, and sitting in court.
Re: Can Someone Be Too Smart to Be a Cop?
#16[deleted]
Re: Can Someone Be Too Smart to Be a Cop?
#17"However, the courts sided with the lower police department. In its ruling, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the city did not discriminate against Jordan because the same standards were applied to everyone who took the test. In other words, no one who was deemed “too smart” for the job after taking the intelligence test was hired."
You can apply that logic to race too: "We tested ALL applicants for blackness, not ONLY the black applicants".
You are still sorting people out for something they cannot control...
Re: Can Someone Be Too Smart to Be a Cop?
#18meaning that at least according to the test, it requires more intelligence to sell insurance than to solve crimes.) Police do not solve crimes. Police enforce laws. Detectives solve crimes. I would expect that detectives and police officers would be held to different standards.
Exactly, police departments do want to hire smart people, just not too many and they have to be the right kind of smart.
My brother is a cop and an inspector (detective for you in the US). He's smart but not at all bookish. So he's got the right "cop" personality and the fact that he was smart was a good thing.
Now that he's hiring cops, he's careful to only hire "smart" cops if he has a sergeant position opening up in a few years or if he's ok with them moving on to a new department in 3-5 years.
My uncle was a "dumb" cop for 25 years. He was quite happy writing tickets and arresting people for the bulk of his career. He only took a sergeant's job when street work got to hard on him physically.
Re: Can Someone Be Too Smart to Be a Cop?
#19meaning that at least according to the test, it requires more intelligence to sell insurance than to solve crimes.) Police do not solve crimes. Police enforce laws. Detectives solve crimes. I would expect that detectives and police officers would be held to different standards.
I think you are describing something similar to the US Military where there are to "paths" into it: officers and enlisted.
In the US, there is one for police: police academy and then work your way up the ranks to detective, etc.
Re: Can Someone Be Too Smart to Be a Cop?
#20meaning that at least according to the test, it requires more intelligence to sell insurance than to solve crimes.) Police do not solve crimes. Police enforce laws. Detectives solve crimes. I would expect that detectives and police officers would be held to different standards.
That's the problem - in the USA, detective and police are not two different occupations. You can only become a detective by being promoted from the ranks of policemen.
i.e. if the maximum IQ for a beat cop is 110, naturally the maximum IQ for a detective will also be 110.
The police union is mostly responsible for this, because they don't want people coming in from outside and skipping the grind to become detectives.