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Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks wants the Oakland Police Department to lower written exam requirements in order to open the door to greater diversity among officers.

Brooks is specifically pushing for more black officers in the Oakland PD.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Brooks chairs the Public Safety Committee and says she wants “a Police Department that’s reflective of the community they serve.” Brooks points out that the city’s black population is 28 percent but only 20 percent of officers are black. She wants to see this change.

Brooks established the “Department of Race and Equality” and succeeded in securing “$617,000 in the city budget” that will be used “to hold other city departments accountable for racial disparities in their services.” And after learning that black candidates for the police department “fail the written exam more often than they fail the physical abilities test” Brooks asked “if the department could consider eliminating the exam and allow applicants to take a course in its place.”

The Oakland PD written exam is already “scored on a curve” and counts any score of 45 or above as passing. The Oakland PD said holding 45 as the lowest passing score provides assurances that applicants “are somewhat above minimally qualified and thus more prepared to succeed in the academy, field training and as a police officer.”

Brooks asked the Oakland PD if they might consider lowering the passing score to 42.

State commission consultant Alex Blaylock responded to the push for lower written exam requirements by warning that the Oakland PD will risk hiring officers who cannot fill out an incident report or understand the very laws they are supposed to enforce if they lower standards further. Blaylock said he “[doesn’t] think race should have anything to do with [PD] standards.”

The Oakland PD written exam is already “scored on a curve” and counts any score of 45 or above as passing. The Oakland PD said holding 45 as the lowest passing score provides assurances that applicants “are somewhat above minimally qualified and thus more prepared to succeed in the academy, field training and as a police officer.”

Brooks asked the Oakland PD if they might consider lowering the passing score to 42.

A few months ago, I heard about a similar incident from India, where 50% of all the seats in educational institutions and jobs are reserved for lower caste people. Some of the professors were requesting the government to give medical degrees for these lower caste students, although none of them had managed to pass the exams. The reasoning was that, they were "studying" for 15 to 20 years, unsuccessfully appearing for exams year after year. Any further delay to grant them the medical degrees might affect their "confidence".  ;D

I always heard that the cops gave you an IQ test when you applied and if you scored too high you got rejected. The truth about policing is its mostly boring and a lot of routine procedure. an intelligent cop will get bored and start stealing.

They don't reject intelligent cops because they will get bored...

They reject intelligent cops because they might challenge the laws they are told to enforce...

If a smart cop disagrees with arresting someone for marijuana... he might not do it... can't have that... can't have cops thinking for themselves...

Stupid people tend to do what they are told, and not ask questions

I agree with that statement. Intelligent cops may argue if the rules don't make any sense to them or the rules have to be changed.

however; cops also have to have intelligence, so they will not only use their power, but also need intelligence to work. I mean perhaps the criminals will fool the cops don't have high IQ. IMO

Evidently the good councilwoman considers black people to be inferior because she doesn't believe they can acheive the same standards as everyone else

this women must have had evil mind or she is totally racist.. every human being can acheive everything if they desire to do it decisively.. so race doesnt matter if you want to be succesful for sure..