Thursday, August 07, 2008

You may leave now, Holmes

The "Northern Muckraker" has alerted me to yet another embarassing episode from New London, Connecticut, home of the "Kelo" case and ensuing eminent domain debacle (costing the taxpayers millions, but no new jobs). Evidently, their police department has some of the same high standards as their "urban redevelopment" department, and actually prohibits the police department from even interviewing individuals who score too well on an intelligence test.

Worse yet, a court upheld these bizaare hiring standards, claiming that a set of standards designed to discriminate against the intelligent did not in fact discriminate. Apparently the hiring standards for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are (amazing coincidence) identical to those of the New London Police Department.

How all of this benefits the taxpayer is beyond me. Apparently in the minds of this department, it's actually a liability to have the problem solving ability of a "Sherlock Holmes". Or maybe, more realistically, highly intelligent officers have the nasty habit of figuring out that higher-ups really don't have a clue about the job they claim to be doing.

2 comments:

Gino said...

not surprising.
cops are supposed to soldiers.
just follow the orders, that is all.

Bike Bubba said...

Well, that's at least what police chiefs seem to think too often, but given that we're failing to solve something like a third to half of murders, I'd kinda like to have the oracle of Scotland Yard on hand from time to time, too.

Maybe hiring people who are a bit more intelligent might upgrade the mood a bit so people of intelligence would be willing to work there for a longer period of time.

Might have to "nudge" the chief, though.