Court rules that barring high IQs for cops is not unconstitutional (2000)

Re:Court rules that barring high IQs for cops is not unconst... by jeffbee on Sunday May 31, 2020 @02:31PM (#23371513)

I don't think it needs to take all that long. The Camden, NJ police were disbanded and reorganized less than a decade ago and are now recognized as a model force. All that's necessary is the political will to use the tactics that can destroy toxic police officers' unions: establish a new law enforcement bureau under all-new leadership and slowly reassign duties away from the old police force. There's no need for armed police to enforce parking meters and bus fares, so start there. Do not permit, as a rule, lateral transfers from the old police department to the new one. Make everyone come in through the front door like any candidate. Require public disclosure of disciplinary record as a condition of hiring. Require local residency for the first ten years of service. Have a written and enforced use-of-force policy. Don't patrol city centers in cars.

These aren't deep mysteries; police reform advocates have written volumes on these topics for decades.

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Re:Court rules that barring high IQs for cops is not unconst... by 8ytecoder on Sunday May 31, 2020 @03:46PM (#23372099)

In my state in my home country, the police force is divided into traffic, patrol, crime, detective work and so on. Different roles require different qualifications and as such attract different people. Bribery is common. Detective work is the least lucrative and is a form of punishment for upstanding officers. The consequence of that is it’s the least corrupt of all the branches, it’s genuinely interesting work and the morale is high. Traffic is the most corrupt but it has the least consequence anyway.

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Re:Court rules that barring high IQs for cops is not unconst... by jbullock35 on Sunday May 31, 2020 @04:06PM (#23372263)

> Require local residency for the first ten years of service.

This is a popular idea, but it seems like a bad one. It limits the pool of highly qualified applicants, which we badly need to expand. I've seen arguments in favor of this rule that take the form of "why would you privilege nonresidents in the hiring process?", but that is a non sequitur: not requiring residency isn't a way of privileging nonresidents.

In addition, police officers sometimes point to the difficulty of policing in the places that they live. This seems to me like a secondary consideration, but perhaps one that also merits attention.

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Re:Court rules that barring high IQs for cops is not unconst... by olegious on Sunday May 31, 2020 @03:53PM (#23372163)

"With a crime rate of 47 per one thousand residents, Camden has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities." [1]

Seems to have worked out very well...

[1]https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/nj/camden/crime

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Re:Court rules that barring high IQs for cops is not unconst... by jeffbee on Sunday May 31, 2020 @05:47PM (#23373077)

Luckily we have the FBI uniform crime report to inform us. In 2018, Camden had 16 violent crimes per 1000 residents. Ten years earlier, it had 23 per 1000. Murders fell from 54 to 23.

In adjacent Philadelphia, violent crime fell from 14 to 9 per 1000, the same ratio as Camden enjoyed. Therefore it stands to reason that Camden's violent, corrupt police force was not necessary to reduce crime. This is consistent with other evidence that aggressive, violent police tactics are not associated with lower crime.

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Re:Court rules that barring high IQs for cops is not unconst... by bryanrasmussen on Sunday May 31, 2020 @04:06PM (#23372255)

so I guess this is the lies, damned lies, and statistics part of the thread.

Because the question should have been what it was like before, hey

https://www.tapinto.net/towns/camden/sections/law-and-justic...

you're right! It looks like it did work our rather well.

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Re:Court rules that barring high IQs for cops is not unconst... by graeme on Sunday May 31, 2020 @04:02PM (#23372227)

To make an actual comparison, you’d need a before/after of crime rates there and also a comparison to rate of change in similar towns which didn’t reorganize their force.

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Re:Court rules that barring high IQs for cops is not unconst... by olegious on Sunday May 31, 2020 @07:04PM (#23373773)

Lazy post on my part, saw the current terrible numbers and didn't bother looking at the past.

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