The fact that a cop can't have an I.Q. over 125 is a bit troublesome to me.

Even people with high IQs must do something. In my experience, most can make any job difficult. And yes, how do you create a strong pool for promotion?

I took an IQ type test for employment once and scored so high that they had me retake the test with an observer. They did not recommend me for any jobs while the person next to me was offered a job making $17.50 an hour. He scored more than 50 points less than I did in 5 out of 7 areas.

The employment office said that I was over-qualified and would get bored if I took any of the jobs they offered. They said that I should be a doctor or a lawyer. The only problem.. I didn't even have a high school diploma. If I would work making $17.50 an hour (30 years ago) I could actually go to school and perhaps become a doctor or lawyer.

Instead, test results clutched in my hand, I went back to the employer who had asked me to take the test to make sure that I had an aptitude for math. We circumvented the employment office (even though they scolded me for showing my results to my employer.) Finally, I got the job for $6 per hour!

I enjoyed that job, but eventually quit, went back to school, and entered a field that is notorious for attracting people with mediocre IQs - teaching. I must say that it seems almost impossibly difficult to me. I definitely use my entire brain, lots of creativity, and often push my body to the limit.

It seems like police work would be a great fit for someone highly intelligent - always looking for patterns, inconsistencies, and deception. Most crimes are unsolved. How great would it be to have a brilliant person pondering the solutions during lulls in calls?

I'd certainly rather deal with a smart cop than a not-so-smart cop. And as Jen said, don't we want smart cops to be looking into unsolved crimes? Maybe I read too many "cop stories" but most of the detectives in these stories come across as being pretty damn smart. Seems there's a shortage of them in the real world...

Well, we wouldn't want any cops to be Sherlock Holmes, right? No use of extraordinary powers of deduction and/or observation (high IQ correlates with increased observation of detail).

Your standard cop doesn't do much of anything intellectually taxing. Sitting behind a radar trap. Getting called out because Mo is beating on Martha again. Walking a street at night, downtown, just to intimidate potential troublemakers. Sure, there are exceptions, but most high-IQ types will get bored pretty quickly.

As an employer you are always playing the odds, because you don't really know what someone is like until they are already working for you. If experience shows that people with high IQs usually get bored and quit, then you stop hiring them in the first place.

If they have high turnover, that costs more. It's taxpayer money. I certainly hope they are doing their best to spend less of it without sacrificing too much quality.

Some studies have indicated that many American's feel safer around white people and trust them more...so if a police department started measuring the reflectance of skin (basically the color) and used that to not hire darker skinned individuals that would not be discrimination because they had a rational way to increase the feeling if safety of people around the officers?

If they have high turnover, that costs more. It's taxpayer money.

That's a good point.

So sign the applicant to a three year (or however long) contract so that training costs can be recouped. And if the person signing the contract leaves early, put them (or their new employer) on the hook for the remaining training costs.

Most criminals are not even close to being criminal masterminds. Most are probably pretty dumb, and mix that with poor impulse control. Many criminals are caught just because someone drops the dime on them, not because of brilliant deduction and stellar forensics.

Also, think of all the arrests made and citations given for "malum prohibitum" (the act is prohibited by the law of the state) offenses. The "malum in se" (wrong or evil in itself) crimes are far fewer.

Sherlock Holmes could never stand to be a member of the police force because he would be bored out of his mind every day. Can you see him making any effort to hand out jaywalking tickets, or to arrest hookers?

This article is 13 years old.

It said jan 1212 when i checked but either wat Monica wins the iq test

So, the court is saying we can have objective, equally applied standards for say, married or single people? I need an employee who won't be having family life interfere with the job on a regular basis.

Why should I hire a young gal, just about to get married and train her when she just might quit in a year after getting knocked up?

And Gregg and I have a friend who's the head of an important unit in the LAPD who formerly taught behavioral science for 20 years. He's an extremely smart guy, probably has a high IQ

As the 2nd Circuit Court said, the policy might be unwise but just because there are some very intelligent people who don't get bored with police work doesn't mean that the "general rule" (or theory) -- those who are very intelligent get bored (or could get bored) with police work -- is wrong.