----- Original Message -----
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2000 3:38 PM
Subject: Re: education & pay
> Michael Perelman says:
>
> >Carrol, take heart. 60 minutes had a piece a few months ago about a
> >police department that refused to hire people that were too smart.
>
> ***** _NYT_ September 19, 1999
>
> Help Wanted: The Not-Too-High-Q Standard
>
> By MIKE ALLEN
>
> NEW LONDON, Conn. -- Wanted: a few not-so-bright cops.
>
> That is the official hiring policy in this former whaling village,
> where Police Department officials refused to grant Robert J. Jordan a
> job interview because they considered him to be too smart, then waged
> a three-year court fight to protect their right to favor mediocre
> applicants.
>
> And won.
>
> The City of New London contends that applicants who score too high on
> a pre-employment test are likely to become bored in patrol jobs, and
> leave the force soon after the city has paid to train them. Similar
> cutoffs, it turns out, are frequently used by employers when they are
> looking for workers who must follow rigid procedures, including bank
> tellers, customer service representatives and security guards.
>
> In 1996 Mr. Jordan scored 33 out of 50 on the exam, which is used by
> 40,000 employers across the country, including National Football
> League teams for potential draft choices. That was 6 points too high
> to qualify for an interview with the New London police.
>
> When Mr. Jordan heard about other people being hired even though he
> hadn't been called, he went to the Police Department to protest that
> he felt sure he must have passed. He says he was curtly informed that
> he did not "fit the profile," which litigation revealed was a score
> of 20 to 27.
>
> "Bob Jordan is exactly the type of guy we would want to screen out,"
> said William C. Gavitt, the deputy police chief, who interviews
> candidates.
>
> "Police work is kind of mundane. We don't deal in gunfights every
> night. There's a personality that can take that."
>
> This month, a Federal judge in New Haven has ruled that the practice
> was constitutional since the city treats all smart would-be officers
> the same, and thus did not discriminate against Mr. Jordan.
> "Plaintiff may have been disqualified unwisely but he was not denied
> equal protection," Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States
> District Court wrote.
>
> Mr. Jordan, 48, is a life-insurance salesman who had dreamed of a
> second career protecting and serving, with an eye on the pension. He
> said he was astounded that he could be shut out on the basis of brain
> power, but not gender, sexual orientation or race.
>
> "Being reasonably intelligent does not make you part of a protected
> class," he said, chuckling at his new command of legalese. For a
> certified wise man, Mr. Jordan is remarkably modest about his
> academic achievements, volunteering that it took him 26 years to get
> a bachelor's degree in literature from Charter Oak State College in
> New Britain, Conn. "I'm eminently trainable," he said. "I'm not up
> there with Mozart."
>
> At first the decision was greeted as a great punch line in New
> London, a city of 27,000.
>
> But as the news sunk in, many people said the rule was insulting to
> their police force, and nonsensical at a time when law-enforcement
> officers must deal with complicated social problems.
>
> "Your average dunderhead is not the person you want to try to solve a
> fight between a man and his wife at 2 A.M.," said Nick Checker, 35, a
> local playwright. "I'd rather have them hire the right man or woman
> for the job and keep replacing them than have the same moron for 20
> years."
>
> Millie McLaughlin, 82, the lunch lady at Harbor Elementary School,
> worries that pupils will think that "if they study too hard, they
> won't get a job."
>
> And Gilbert G. Gallegos, the national president of the Fraternal
> Order of Police, said that besides reinforcing keystone kop
> stereotypes, the city's stance was self-defeating. "The better the
> caliber of the police officer, the fewer problems you have in the
> community."
>
> Mr. Jordan had run afoul of turnover rates, which have been the
> subject of decades of study by management theorists. The publisher of
> the test, Wonderlic Inc. of Libertyville, Ill., has a section in its
> "User's Manual" warning clients about the cost of replacing workers
> who quit because they become dissatisfied with repetitive work.
> "Simply hiring the highest scoring employee can be self-defeating,"
> the manual says.
>
> Wonderlic's president, Charles F. Wonderlic Jr., said variations of
> the 12-minute test used in New London have been given to 125 million
> people since his grandfather founded the company in 1937. Mr.
> Wonderlic said hundreds of employers have used his suggested maximum
> scores to exclude overly qualified applicants for positions where
> creativity could be a detriment.
>
> "You can't decide not to read someone their Miranda rights because
> you felt it would be more efficient, or you thought they knew them
> already," Mr. Wonderlic said.
>
> On the other hand, an expert witness for Mr. Jordan was paid $350 an
> hour for his conclusion that patrol work is "cognitively complex and
> intellectually demanding." The expert, Frank J. Landy, a psychologist
> in Walnut Creek, Calif., pointed to the demands of such modern
> practices as community-oriented policing as an indication of "the
> range and challenge of tasks performed by a typical patrol officer."
>
> Mr. Jordan said he would appeal the ruling if his lawyers are willing
> to continue the case now that he has used up his savings. In the
> meantime, he is supplementing his insurance business by working for
> $26,000 a year -- $15,000 less than he would make as a New London
> patrolman -- as a state prison guard.
>
> "In those dormitories, there's 110 inmates and one of you," he said.
> "Your mouth better be connected to your brain."
>
> While those with badges and guns are called New York's finest, they
> will continue to be New London's fair to middling: New London
> officials say they plan to keep using the test to fend off
> smarty-pants. *****
>
> Yoshie
>
