Some police officers are ‘barely literate because entry standards are so low’

Maybe it is time to actually get a working definition of what racism actually means, given it has become the RPG of words. For me, the racism of lower expectations pretty much defines racism. Treating a person differently and cruelly because they are of another group or treating them like a toy poodle are equally racist although certainly the latter might be preferable to the former, at least in the short run.

From The Daily Mail:

 

By Chris Greenwood

Last updated at 9:07 PM on 13th September 2011

 

Some police officers are ‘barely literate’ because the educational standards required to join the service are so low, it was claimed last night.

Tom Winsor, the lawyer reviewing police conditions, said reading, writing and mathematical skills have fallen ‘significantly’ since the 1930s.

He suggested that the public could be at risk if poor academic skills damage the effectiveness of potentially vital evidence.

Criticism: Some police officers are 'barely literate' because the standard to join the police has become so low, a top lawyer claims (file picture)Criticism: Some police officers are ‘barely literate’ because the standard to join the police has become so low, a top lawyer claims (file picture)

Mr Winsor said criminal barristers sometimes ‘speak in contemptuous terms’ of the ‘barely literate’ quality of police evidence.

While checking and rewriting poor quality paperwork was increasing the cost and bureaucracy of policing.

And in an extraordinary aside, he added that two senior officers told him standards were lowered to help black and ethnic minority recruits.

He said the claim was ‘astonishing’ and an ‘insult’ to anyone from such a background who wanted a career in policing.

Speaking to an audience of superintendents in Warwickshire, Mr Winsor said it was unfair to expect overworked prosecutors to correct documents.

Mr Winsor said: ‘Why is the entrance test for a police constable now so low? The educational requirements, why are they so low?

Lawyer: Tom Winsor said police standards had fallen since the 1930sLawyer: Tom Winsor said police standards had fallen since the 1930s

‘We looked at the basic questions, one of which is, ‘You find a purse in the street, it contains a £5 note, four 20p pieces and five two pence pieces, how much is in the purse?’

‘That’s the standard.

‘We’ve looked at the educational standards for the police from 1930 and 1946 and I can tell you they are very very significantly harder.

‘It seems to me that public safety is critical and we want the most all-round effective police officers. So I ask again, should it be higher, the entrance standard?’

Mr Winsor has already inflamed tensions between himself and the police in his review of their conditions, recruitment and training.

Home Secretary Theresa May has asked him to look at entry requirements for the police in order to widen the pool of talent for top officers.

This could include allowing leaders from other areas of the public sector or industry to directly enter the top ranks.

Police training could also be opened up to universities, colleges and specialist companies in the private sector.

Mr Winsor admitted that many people who are ‘entirely unsuitable to be police officers’ could pass academic test.

He said: ‘It takes more than a clever person to be a cop, I get that. It takes maturity, judgment, bravery, the ability to deal with people.

‘Now those are things that need to be tested in other ways. But you also need to be bright – bright enough, because you are part of a criminal justice system.’

Mr Winsor said he was told by a former Met Commissioner and serving national Police Federation officer that standards were lowered to get more diverse applicants.

He said: ‘I find that astonishing because if I was of that background I’d be insulted. Is it true, this assumption? It can’t be so.’

Asked if police officers have poor standards of literacy, Mrs May replied: ‘That is not what I have found. I have found officers committed and dedicated to getting on with their job.

‘But it is still right for Tom Winsor to look at entry requirements and the possibility of senior entry at higher ranks.’

 

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

6 Replies to “Some police officers are ‘barely literate because entry standards are so low’”

  1. Maybe it is time to return to the idea that one law and standard fits all people and stop making special laws and standards for certain people.

  2. the way to rule the people is:
    to keep them stupid, keep them entertained, keep them frightened and keep them poor.
    so: screw the education system , dumb it down.
    soap operas, crime shows, cheap booze and football do the entertaining.
    environmental crisis, religious conflict and crime do the frightening.
    tax and globalization keep them poor.

    for these you need; compliant media, liberal leftist teachers and training colleges, an inefficient,bureaucratized politically correct police and just to top it off, a trickle up economy with all that goes with it.

    guess which ones we have.

  3. I dont think A Clockwork Orange was ever meant to be a documentary, but that seems to be the direction we’re headed in. Except in this case the criminal “protagonists” of the story are a lot less sophisticated and interesting. Life imitating art, perhapse?

  4. Please do not believe everything so easily. Apply for an application package from the UK police and see if this is true.

  5. How about that Anthony Burgess who wrote the book published in 1962 had a clearer vision of the future then most people. I have often thought that most of the 1950s and 1960s SF authors came real close to modern society with their predictions.

    Bilbo when they stop the kids from learning the facts of history they stop us from repeating the mistakes of history, including trusting the left.