• agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I just saw a post about someone rejected for the police force for being too smart. I often wonder if we would catch a lot more criminals if cities hired much smarter people as detectives versus promoting from within the ranks.

      • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        They successfully argued that the drudgery of police work isn’t suited to people with high intelligence.

        • KombatWombat@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          IIRC, the hiring people said they worried candidates scoring too much higher than average would be more likely to show turnover from finding more prestigious jobs later or would not fit in well with their colleagues. Whether or not you agree with the decision, those are reasonable concerns to have when hiring and were applied to everyone, so he lost the discrimination suit.

      • lath@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I’ve read the story a few times over the years and it’s kinda a myth, so feel free to be skeptical.

        Apparently there was a program going some 40-50 years ago. Train the best and brightest, deck them with the best equipment available and send them out there as the elite. It failed horribly leading to the highest death count the police force had seen. With what little money was left, the opposite was done afterwards. Send in the dumbest hicks around and give them free reign.

        It worked brilliantly. Crime rates were down, death count for the police force was down, costs were down and the bosses were happy.

        Everyone else suffered, but who gave a fuck? And so, the modern police force was born.

        • Globeparasite@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          yes, that is a very beautiful pile of bullshit. First who was running this program what is the “police force” because that doesn’t exist in the US. there is a different police force for every county or city