ARE police officers getting dumber as well as younger? Scotland Yard research suggests that they may be.

A new report shows that the number of Metropolitan Police recruits who score top or good marks in a national -*test*-('") has slumped over the past three years while the number scraping through has soared.

The -*test*-('") examines the ability to spell and construct sentences correctly, check information quickly and correctly, solve numerical problems and reason logically when given facts about events.

The national pass mark is 230. Between 1999 and 2002 the average pass mark for new intakes for the Metropolitan Police dropped by 29 points from 277 to 248.

The report found that the number of recruits passing in the highest band had fallen to almost nil. In 1999 the top candidates scored 350 but last year the best score was 330.

The la-*test*-('") figures are so bad that the average score for the top recruits in 2002 does not even reach the lowest score in the second best group in 1999.

At the other end of the scale, the number scoring between 230 and 260 has almost doubled. The number of those who fail or are borderline has more than trebled.

The report by senior officers at Scotland Yard’s training centre was drawn up to examine links between how recruits scored in a police initial recruitment -*test*-('") and performance in training. The report found that there were indeed links between a poor result in the -*test*-('") and training.

Last year they ran a pilot scheme to see whether recruits who failed the -*test*-('") by ten marks or fewer would still get through the training course. Sixty per cent of recruits who had to retake the 18-week training course at the centre in Hendon, North London, had failed the national -*test*-('").

Researchers found that 64 per cent of 235 recruits who resigned from the courses in the first six months of 2002 had also scored poorly. Each resignation cost £10,000 in wasted training time and pay.

The report was drawn up for the Metropolitan Police Authority. Tony Arbour, a Conservative member of the authority’s human resources committee, said that the figures were causing concern. He said that general standards could decline because so many officers with poor potential were being recruited and “in a few years we may find it difficult to produce home-grown senior officers”.

Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of recruiting, denied that standards had been reduced and said that all recruits had passed the -*test*-('"). He said: “It is not the only measure of an individual’s competence to be a police officer. The Police Service has a unique opportunity to -*test*-('") recruits over a six-month period of residential training. There has been a change in the profile of the performance of candidates for the Police Service who have sat the -*test*-('") over the past two years as numbers have increased.”

In 1999-2000 there were 994 recruits and by 2002-2003 the figure had risen to 3,500. The assistant commissioner said the -*test*-('") itself had also changed, making comparisons more difficult.

Rachel Whittaker, who chairs the committee, said the basic standard had not changed but in September all police forces would adopt a new -*test*-('") with a higher pass mark. It was still not clear whether the -*test*-('") was a good indicator of whether a recruit would make a good officer.


From Times Online Website

wots tha all about , i cudnt be boffa'd to reed it

It's easier to get in now to when I joined, the pass mark has dropped along with the physical side of things.

Yeah it used to be 9.6 on the bleep didn't it ?? its now something like 5.6

Mind they can put it back up after i have got in

All the "students" (Recuits) are up from the training centre for their work placement and assement not any dumber to me was talking to one yesterday nice kid very eager but not only are they not dumber but there a few very attractive young ladies in the uniform now

ATTRACTIVE LADIES!!!!!!!!!!!! (Waking up !!!)

Yea theres a few little crackers going around with their blue trainee eppeluattes lol spot them a mile off that and they have not belt kit

any spaces for transferees

Sure there is Jon. Imagine the cahos wed cause if we all worked togther lmao

*In the voice of Mr Burns* EXCELLENT!

NO BELTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't mind sharing!

Not officers yet so no gear other than uniform.

In the main recruits are getting fika.

The job has put out a request to new recruits to see if they think they are fika than wot the recruits used to be.


How that works I dunno!!!!!