WHERE TO FIND INTELLIGENT POLICEMEN? (2)

21 October [Ed . . . . I don't think we're heading into a police state -- as in less developed countries -- but police forces, like the armed services, the civil service, the trade unions, the established church and others, are all nation-state institutions (or byproducts) into which the more intelligent of the young decline to be recruited these days. Even MI5 and MI6, which used to recruit only the brightest via secret establishment grapevines are now scraping the barrel by having to advertise in the press and from websites!]

>>>>

Barry Stennet, Atlanta, Georgia, replies:

Keith, it's worse than that. I have worked for US police departments before, as a consultant developing qualifications tests. One psychologist I know has told me that the police departments should be rejecting 80% of their applicants for lack of maturity and emotional problems. But they can't do that because of the political ramifications and because they'd never be able to find enough recruits. So, although relatively low intelligence is problematic, the bigger problem is the emotional/maturity one.