« CIPD | Interpersonal skills | Main | Living on borrowed time »

Police | Uncool bulgaria

October 9, 2007

News has reached Guru from his Eastern European contact - the one he meets on a bench in Hyde Park reading a day old copy of the Times and wearing a mac and bowler hat - that towns in north-west Bulgaria are suffering a policeman shortage.

Guru briefly considered catching a Ryanair flight to Sofia to go on the loot, but realised that hordes of Englishmen had probably already done that in the name of a stag do. So instead Yours Truly enquired as to what had caused this drought of law enforcers.

Was it fear of tackling drunk Cockneys after the pubs shut? A wave of migration away from the towns to their new EU sister countries? Sharp increases in the price of doughnuts? Apparently none of the above.

Apparently, the problem is not a shortage of applicants but the fact that only 10% of applicants are passing the force's standard IQ test - said to be aimed at the level of primary-school children.

Regional police chief Svetli Petkov revealed that many prospective policemen had failed even to spell simple words like ‘happiness’ or ‘curb’ correctly. He added that, in a recent round of IQ tests, only three candidates out of 150 had passed the test.

The poor pass rate has been put down to the vast majority of applicants coming from poorly-educated, local Gypsy communities.

Petkov said: "In order to get to the IQ test, candidates first have to pass a physical test, but about 50 per cent fail it. That leaves us with well-built and muscular boys who, unfortunately, can't spell."

Perhaps the UK police force could consider an exchange programme. From Guru's experience, the set-up over here is pretty much the opposite.

Share |
Posted for your edification by Guru on October 9, 2007 8:21 AM |

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

About

This page contains a single entry from Guru's blog posted on October 9, 2007 8:21 AM.

The previous offering of wisdom from Guru was CIPD | Interpersonal skills.

The next post in this blog is Living on borrowed time.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

PersonnelToday.com homepage

About Guru

Guru is Personnel Today's notorious HR commentator. He's been working in HR for far too long and observes every passing management fad with a mixture of anger and amusement. His blog is the one thing saving his long-suffering wife, Mrs Guru, from having to endure too much of his ranting about the big HR stories of the day.

Guru's Tweets

Guru's blogroll