"On average, state basic police training is 622 hours with no required apprenticeship. Of course there is some time with a Field Training Officer — which is not mandated in most states and is fully subjective to the employing department.
"Conversely, the basic training requirements for cosmetologists is 1,570 hours, with an average of 1,080 mandated apprenticeship hours with a total of 2,650 required hours — and that's just the average. Additional research shows that there is little to no requirement of continued education for police officers. Those states that do mandate continued education it is usually in the ballpark of 40 hours per year."
In 1999, a Federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by an applicant to the New London, Connecticut police department who was barred from being hired after successfully taking the intelligence portion of the police examinations. The disqualification came because he had scored “too high” on the test. The New London Police Department made it clear that they did not want the “bottom of the barrel” when it came to intelligence, but they also didn’t want anyone who was “too smart” either.
This little-known ruling was made public back in September of the same year. Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States District Court in New Haven, Connecticut confirmed that the plaintiff, Robert Jordan, 48, who holds a bachelor’s degree in literature, had been denied an opportunity to even interview for a job with the department, for no reason other than his high test scores.
Judge Dorsey ruled in favor of the department, saying that Mr. Jordan was offered no protection under the law in this case. There is no legal protection given to intelligent people from discriminatory hiring practices by individual police departments, Dorsey explained. The judge continued, explaining that police departments held all applicants to this same standard and thus they rejected all applicants who scored high. As a result, this could not be held as discriminatory in nature.
The next time you cross paths with a law enforcement officer and wonder how anyone so stupid managed to get hired by their department, now you know that this stupidity might in fact be the very thing that qualified them for the job..
Originally posted by finnegan [quote]"On average, state basic police training is 622 hours with no required apprenticeship. Of course there is some time with a Field Training Officer — which is not mandated in most states and is fully subjective to the employing department.
"Conversely, the basic training requirements for cosmetologists is 1,570 hours, with an average of 1,080 mandat ...[text shortened]... cosmetologists-america-article-1.2727221
Well at least America takes its cosmetics seriously.
Assuming eight hour days and five day weeks that figure of 622 hours comes to about 15 weeks. I'm wondering how that figure compares internationally. Clearly a comparison with Britain is complicated as the British police do not regularly carry firearms. But other comparable countries would be Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the richer EU members.
Originally posted by DeepThought Assuming eight hour days and five day weeks that figure of 622 hours comes to about 15 weeks. I'm wondering how that figure compares internationally. Clearly a comparison with Britain is complicated as the British police do not regularly carry firearms. But other comparable countries would be Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the richer EU members.
In Idaho, for instance, the state only requires a police officer to complete 400 hours of training. That's 10 weeks of training. A cosmetologist, on the other hand, is required to complete 2,000 hours of training (that's 50 weeks), and a 4,000-hour apprenticeship (that's 100 weeks). This astounding difference in training requirements is not unique to Idaho.
Alabama only requires 480 hours of training for its officers. That's a 12-week training program. However, they require a combined 4,500 hours of training and apprenticeship for cosmetologists. In other words, it takes just about 10% of the training of a cosmetologist to become a police officer in Alabama.
In fact, almost every state in America requires more training to do hair and nails than it does to enforce law and order.
Whittingham discovered police officers in Nordic countries are required to receive at least two full years of nonstop, university-style classroom training before they become officers. In California, police are required to complete 833 hours (that's 21 weeks) of training. That's on the longer side for most states in America, but wouldn't even equal a single semester of the 104 weeks required in Norway.
if police departments already have bad practices in place, and officers are learning more on the job than they are in the classroom, what they learn from their colleagues will reign supreme.
Originally posted by finnegan http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/04/police-officially-refuse-to-hire-applicants-with-high-iq-scores/
In 1999, a Federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by an applicant to the New London, Connecticut police department who was barred from being hired after successfully taking the intelligence portion of the police examinations. The disqualification ca ...[text shortened]... w that this stupidity might in fact be the very thing that qualified them for the job..
That was one policy in one department. Hardly indicative of any sort of trend.
Originally posted by finnegan http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/04/police-officially-refuse-to-hire-applicants-with-high-iq-scores/
In 1999, a Federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by an applicant to the New London, Connecticut police department who was barred from being hired after successfully taking the intelligence portion of the police examinations. The disqualification ca ...[text shortened]... w that this stupidity might in fact be the very thing that qualified them for the job..
Do you suppose that many, if not most jurisdictions don't want officers who are acting as SCOTUS justices on the job? They don't even want them to be armchair barristers.
Originally posted by normbenign Do you suppose that many, if not most jurisdictions don't want officers who are acting as SCOTUS justices on the job? They don't even want them to be armchair barristers.
Absolutey right. They don't even want them to question the political status quo or the ideologically driven nature of the way they are organsied and the unbalanced laws they selectively enforce.
Originally posted by finnegan Absolutey right. They don't even want them to question the political status quo or the ideologically driven nature of the way they are organsied and the unbalanced laws they selectively enforce.
If you are talking about police officers in their capacity as police officers (as opposed to as citizens) no sane person would.
The idea of complaining that they are both unquestioning and yet at the same time selecting which laws to enforce is worthy of Doublethink.
Originally posted by Rank outsider If you are talking about police officers in their capacity as police officers (as opposed to as citizens) no sane person would.
The idea of complaining that they are both unquestioning and yet at the same time selecting which laws to enforce is worthy of Doublethink.
So you don't consider ethics / professional ethics an issue there? For example, you don't think the police need to discriminate between legitimate and illegitimate / even illegal instruction, directions or orders?
Even the military in combat are expected to know some military law and refuse to follow illegal orders.
It helps too if public servants actually understand what is going on around them.
US Police Traning
27 Jul '16 08:27
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