Too Smart to be a Cop?

According to the NY Times a man attempting to join the New London, CT police force was denied employment because he scored too high on the intelligence test. A judge decided this wasn't discrimination because they deny anyone scoring that high a job. I'm not really clear on how that makes sense, in my opinion that's kind of like saying "well they deny everyone who's black a job, so it's not discrimination." Sadly police officers tend to get a reputation for being not-incredibly-smart bullies; this doesn't help that. Now, I understand that there is very likely a minimum allowed score for the test as well. Someone does need to be smart enough to perform the job properly; it just seems kind of stupid to say that someone is too smart to be a police officer.

I have a theory as to why people don't like police very much. When is the only time most people ever interact with a police officer? When they get pulled over. So the majority of people's experiences with officers is when they are getting in trouble. That's not going to produce good feelings. I think Provo could help improve the relationship between the police officers and the public by creating a couple of foot patrols. Have a pair of officers that walk up and down Center Street (where there seems to always be at least 2 patrol cars). They can speak to people and be friendly, improving the public opinion of the officers. Have one or two officers that walk the neighborhoods around campus saying, "Hi" to students walking to/from class. Let people know that the police are good, friendly people (I hope they actually are).

Just some random thoughts.