Police Officer Exam Tutorial [pdf]

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/careers/po-exam-tutorial-2021-04-14.pdf

by ipnon • 4 years ago

122 147 4 years ago

www1.nyc.gov

metadat• 4 years ago

Sorry, what is the goal here? This doesn't seem interesting but I'm keen to understand the OPs mentality and motivation for submitting.

quantified• 4 years ago

It's a peek at required training, mildly interesting to me from that angle.

ajay-d• 4 years ago

#4 solve for X came out of left field

balderdash• 4 years ago

You if they get that right, you disqualify them…

https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st...

noisy_boy• 4 years ago

Very interesting - so could the modus operandi be: make a few mistakes but not too many, get recruited, now you are the 1% IQ-wise, take more exams and rise through the ranks to get off the street asap and retire with great benefits?

drstewart3• 4 years ago

Can you explain what a New London, CT hiring practice has to do with a question on the NYPD exam?

discordance• 4 years ago

Gotta know your order of operations on the beat.

WatchDog• 4 years ago

Implicit multiplication too.

Hamuko• 4 years ago

It's under "Burglary", so I'm guessing victims of burglary like to give estimates of their property using algebra.

michaelmior• 4 years ago

Especially when there's no "solving" involved.

ceejayoz5• 4 years ago

Question eight baffles me. Are there characters not used in license plates or something?

aarestad• 4 years ago

Guessing it’s the one that has the most people agreeing what the particular characters are.

gurchik• 4 years ago

So the answer is D: 351JRZ?

runnerup2• 4 years ago

The four answers are the four responses from the witnesses. Using best-out-of-4 logic for each character the answer is probably (D)

ceejayoz5• 4 years ago

I mean, it seems like the real answer is "take 30 seconds to run all four plate numbers", and then ask the witnesses what color and type of car they saw.

palencharizard• 4 years ago

I was thinking the same thing, and imagine there’s many standardizations for license plates that the public is probably unaware of.

Nyc taxi's always start with a T and end with a C, for example.

mtlynch• 4 years ago

On January 1st, 2018 at 8:00 P.M., John Daly reported a hit and run to the police. Four witnesses were interviewed by the police. They all gave different accounts of the license plate of the vehicle involved in the hit and run. Which of the following plate numbers is most likely to be correct? (A) 381JRZ (B) 358JRZ (C) 351JTZ (D) 351JRZ

I think for a lot of these questions of "four witnesses gave varying accounts" questions, you're supposed to assume that the person who's correct has details most consistent with the majority.

So if you go character by character, everyone agrees the plate started with a 3, 75% agree the second character is 5, etc.

D is the answer that's always consistent with the majority opinion of each character.

hyperhopper• 4 years ago

This is reasonable, but the question is then wrong. It should state that the options given all represent plate numbers that were testified to

onion2k• 4 years ago

Alternatively the police could look up all 4 plates to see which are actually registered, which are on cars that reasonably match other details from the witnesses and forensic evidence from the scene, and talk to the owners of any of the cars that haven't been elimanted. If that fails they could expand the search to other logic permutations of plates. They could even call this process "police work".

frisbm• 4 years ago

I think its testing to see if someone can piece together some information based on a majority's reporting, in this case in the individual characters of the license plate. l'm pretty sure the correct choice is D.

Ichthypresbyter2• 4 years ago

I think the idea here is that each of the four witnesses gave one of the numbers in the question.

They all agree that it is 3*J*Z.

3 witnesses (all except A) agree that the second digit was 5.

3 witnesses (all except B) agree that the third digit was 1.

3 witnesses (all except C) agree that the second letter was an R.

Every letter/number that D gives is corroborated by two other witnesses (though a different two each time), so D is most likely to be correct.

iudqnolq• 4 years ago

I think you're right about the intention. However, I think a fairer deduction to draw from this is it proves any individual is quite likely to be wrong so you can't derive anything meaningful.

djbusby• 4 years ago

Also, standard issue plates go in allowed sets, eg A123BCD is possible but A1Z3BC0 wouldn't exist.

godelski5• 4 years ago

351JRZ. Look at the frequency columnwise.

RcouF1uZ4gsC• 4 years ago

The man was walking northbound on West Street when an Asian guy who was about 6’10”, wearing a black shirt, green hat, and blue jeans, came up to him and punched him in the mouth.

I am calling BS on that, right there.

bitwize• 4 years ago

Yao Ming could've been having a bad year and gotten desperate.

selimthegrim• 4 years ago

They must have been filming the sequel to Fletch.

Forbo• 4 years ago

The typeface on that page changes multiple times, looks like they may have done some editing.

kevdragon6• 4 years ago

Question 33 is strange? Square feet? That question/answer should not be in square feet..

juunpp3• 4 years ago

Certainly the wall must have a non-zero thickness, but the question should have said 'length' instead.

asxd• 4 years ago

I guess all walls are 1ft high in that diagram.

You're right though, pretty sure it's a typo.

bagels• 4 years ago

At least two typos, or one complete lack of understanding of dimensions.

godelski5• 4 years ago

What's crazier is that A is also a possible answer, if the wall is 2' tall. But C and D aren't possible unless the wall is {4,5} + 16/21' tall. The fraction is 9.143" in case anyone is wondering. But the answer is completely ambiguous. What balcony wall is 1-2' tall?! That's a safety violation!

sgentle• 4 years ago

The length of the bottom wall is 20 feet and the sum of the lengths of the top walls is 17.5 feet, meaning there is an additional 2.5 feet of wall width across the two walls of the balcony. Assuming the wall is uniform thickness, that gives us dimensions of 1.25 x 10.5 feet, or 13.125 square feet.

Sadly, not one of the allowed options.

everfree• 4 years ago

That's the question they use to weed people out who are too smart for the job. If you bring the deliberate typo to their attention, they disqualify you.

giantg27• 4 years ago

Remove your "/s". That's literally how it works.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st...

juunpp3• 4 years ago

"The officers observe a bald headed man, about 50 years old lying face up in his living room. The man is lying in a pool of blood. The officers tape off the crime scene, make all necessary notifications, and begin to interview five neighbors to find out if they saw or heard anything related to the death of Mr. Cain."

Stay awhile and listen, for this is how Cain dies in Diablo 3.

jonah2• 4 years ago

Didn't check for a pulse. Didn't administer CPR until medics or someone else arrived to relieve him.

Maybe he was able to conclusively determine that he was gone. Not enough information is given I suppose. I didn't know beat cops in NYC were coroners or medics...

zdragnar• 4 years ago

It is pretty common for police to have first responder training, as they are often literally the first to respond to medical emergencies by dint of already being in the area.

OTOH, if you are responding to a scene where someone's head is bashed in, there's really not much point in attempting CPR...

closewith• 4 years ago

I don't know the situation in NYC, but in many places, any medical intervention can be contraindicated by certain signs of death (injury incompatible with life, rigor, hypostasis, etc).

bryanrasmussen• 4 years ago

It's actually like a badly written logic/IQ problem; it starts off with a man who isn't named and then suddenly three sentences in he has a name.

vogt• 4 years ago

I am guessing that at least partially, it is designed to replicate what is likely a common scenario with police officers in which they are questioning someone who has either just been a victim or is potentially being deceptive/closed off/whatever. I wouldn't be surprised if very often when questioning someone after, say, a mugging, the actual details and faces to names doesn't happen until a few sentences in.

"My brother was standing next to me and the guy came up and stole my backpack."

"Ok, and you were standing over there? Over by the stop sign?"

"Yeah, and he was on the right side of me."

"Jose." "Ok, and that's your brother's name?"

Just for one example off the top of my head

giantg27• 4 years ago

That's basically what it is.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st...

pcurve• 4 years ago

Anybody else read the first passage way too carefully like you're taking SAT II English and bracing for trick questions?

phnofive• 4 years ago

Yep, scrolled down to the answer key looking for a twist.

morpheuskafka• 4 years ago

Unless its some kind of trick question, shouldn't the first question be asking which is the most detailed, not the must accurate? If all of them are completely in accordance with the given true information, then they are all equally and perfectly accurate, even if one just says "the sky was blue."

defrost• 4 years ago

> shouldn't the first question be asking which is the most detailed, not the must accurate?

The first question askes which witness is the LEAST accurate.

One statement is at odds with others in many ways, ergo:

* that statement is least accurate, OR

* the victim and two witnesses are colluding on a false narrative to cover the actual events because ... ??? ( poss. known assailant, fear of retailation, witnesses are part of gang pressuring victim, etc. )

godelski5• 4 years ago

Yeah I was a bit confused by it. The only way you can judge accuracy here is either from the base source, Jose, or the between inter-witness congruity. But accuracy is bad terminology for this. Given another prompt:

Officers Joe Schmoe and Tits McGee arrive at the scene where Josb has a bloody face and says that the sky suddenly turned red and there are dolphins flying around. There are three witnesses. Witness 1 says there are pink and green dolphins flying around and attacked the man. Witness 2 says the sky turned green and two green dolphins attacked the man. Witness 3 says the sky turned pink and two pink dolphins attacked the man. No witness mentions the bag of mushrooms on the ground. Which account is the least accurate.

According to the information above, what is Josb's brother's name?

This reminds me of the DMV test when I moved to Oregon. The question was "You see a motorcycle coming towards you and its left blinker is on. Should you assume a) it is turning left, b) it is turning right, c) it is not turning, or d) none of the above." The correct answer was c with the explanation that motorcycle turn signals frequently don't automatically turn off. Despite this being literally the most dangerous answer.

seoaeu• 4 years ago

If a vehicle is approaching you head on, isn’t it much safer to assume they aren’t turning? You’ll usually be wrong, but if you are right it could avoid a head on collision

cmroanirgo• 4 years ago

Witness 2 gives detailed information, but it's completely unlike the information given by both the victim and the other 2 witnesses. The victim, Witness 1 and 3 present the same story, although Witness 3's is very sparse on details (ie least detailed, according to your metric).

You may also scroll down to the end of the PDF to check the answer. Witness 2 is the least accurate.

Ardren• 4 years ago

I get it. But without knowing what actually happened it's impossible to know who was the least accurate, there's nothing stopping Jose, W1, and W3 being mistaken.

I feel it really should say "likely to be the least accurate".

CPLX• 4 years ago

“To a cop, the explanation is never that complicated. It's always simple. There's no mystery on the street, no arch-criminal behind it all. If you got a dead guy and you think his brother did it, you're going to find out you're right.”

giantg27• 4 years ago

You're the type of person it's trying to weed out - you're too smart.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st...

throwaway0asd2• 4 years ago

Analysis paralysis is not an indication of smart.

windows_sucks• 4 years ago

why do you keep posting this over and over again in this thread? The department applied this rule to attempt to reduce turnover, not because they literally want dumb cops.

thisGuyFlicks• 4 years ago

No, Witness 2 has known details wrong. We can assume the officers are standing on West Street with the victim. Unless Witness 2 says that the victim moved from West street to Canal St, Witness 2 is the least accurate. Accuracy has nothing to do with the description of the assailant, as that can't be held to any level of accuracy.

_tom_• 4 years ago

Writing good tests hard. Really hard. Unfortunately most people think "Bill knows about XYZ, he can write the test."

The results are frequently not good.

swader999• 4 years ago

After reading this I think we're a long ways off from Robocop.

anonu• 4 years ago

400*20%, come on... We should have a higher bar than this...

photon12• 4 years ago

Do you want municipalities to be able to hire cops? This is already a tall order for a lot of people.

ravel-bar-foo• 4 years ago

No? I want municipalities to hire competent and ethical cops (at market salaries), rather than giving firearms to train warm bodies and attempting to teach them to enforce the law.

diordiderot• 4 years ago

Do you want angry people with room temperature IQs armed and in charge?

KingMob• 4 years ago

No. I want fewer police, and more mental health, parks, and educational services.

And even if I did, the standard for getting a gun should be higher than this.

staticassertion2• 4 years ago

No I do not lol

Spooky234• 4 years ago

We did.

Civil Service exams are intended to assess merit and fitness for a job. This has been subject to litigation since the 90s by various parties who felt that minorities and others were underrepresented.

In New York, the courts found in the 90s that many exams were partially IQ tests, which put the plaintiffs at a disadvantage. So they dumbed down civil service exams to be a combination of grammar, random factoids, and basic math.

xkcd19632• 4 years ago

It's bunkels to use IQ tests for merit

excalibur2• 4 years ago

5. Police Officer Darious arrives to the scene of a suspected overdose where the victim is not responding. He administers Naloxone from his department provided kit. The victim is still not responding, but has a pulse. How long should Officer Darious wait to administer another dose of Naloxone if the victim does not respond after CPR?
(A) Three to five minutes
(B) Six to eight minutes
(C) Three to five seconds
(D) Ten to fifteen minutes

If the victim has a pulse, why is Officer Darious giving them CPR? He needs to follow directions better.

bombcar• 4 years ago

Based on my understanding of how questions are written and nothing else, I will guess the correct answer is A.

excalibur2• 4 years ago

Yep that's clearly the answer they're looking for, but it's still a shit question.

jonah2• 4 years ago

If the victim has a pulse, why is Officer Darious giving them CPR?

If the victim has a pulse but is not breathing, CPR is indicated.

nohuck13• 4 years ago

As I understand it, rescue breathing is indicated.

siva72• 4 years ago

The bar for this exam is so absurdly low, i passed it and i have no clue of police things. Compare this with police officer exams in other countries like germany where it’s a real college education.

actually_a_dog• 4 years ago

You have to be careful not to score too high, or you might get rejected.

https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/robert-jordan-too-smart-...

siva72• 4 years ago

“A judge agreed that there was a reasonable expectation that cops not be too intelligent.”

Well, it explains a few things..

itronitron• 4 years ago

Only now do I realize that in every cop show where they are pointing out some officer who 'aced' the academy exam they are actually making a sly joke.

warbeforepeace• 4 years ago

Come to seattle and make 400k as a police officer. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/374-seatt...

missedthecue• 4 years ago

And they still can't get enough applicants, despite sky high pay.

UK-AL• 4 years ago

Isn't this just the entry exam to be educated. Not the final exam?

natas• 4 years ago

My 9 years old son passed it very easily, with no prior knowledge of police things, although he watched the first season of Paw Patrol.

mrinterweb• 4 years ago

Is the real exam more involved than this exam? This is too simple. This seems like a test most middle schoolers should be able to pass without studying for.

masklinn3• 4 years ago

US police departments are not exactly known for trying to hire rocket surgeons.

drstewart3• 4 years ago

Which police departments around the world have hiring criteria equivalent to "rocket surgeons"?

giantg27• 4 years ago

In fact, they reject people who are too smart.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st...

JackFr2• 4 years ago

It’s not a matter of passing or failing. More people apply to become cops than they have slots in the academy. The role of the exam is basically to sort the list of applicants to the police academy (along with veteran status, residency status, language abilities and anything else mandated by the civil service law.)

Yes, the test is easy. Scoring a 70% will leave you eligible for the academy (assuming all other requirements to be a cop are met.) But the point is to try to give some kind of reasonable score that allows them to objectively sort applicants.

giantg27• 4 years ago

Is this really true today? It seems many departments are struggling to find recruits.

charlieyu1• 4 years ago

I think being too smart is the easiest way to fail any police exams. They want people who follow orders, they don’t want people who are smart enough to think it is bullshit.

willcipriano• 4 years ago

Similar thing with leetcode style interviews really. Memorize a bunch of solutions to contrived problems to prove you are a good little coder, don't question the hiring manager about where you'll be using this on the job. Then get hired and move that header two pixels to the right, over and over again, forever.

wilhil• 4 years ago

Question 19...

... Burst through the window/28, enter 16a isn't an answer :(

Just skim read - interesting, thanks for sharing!

staticassertion2• 4 years ago

Reminds me of the questions we got when we were going into 5th grade and had to get placed.

quickthrower2• 4 years ago

Makes me think of The Strokes song New York City Cops.

mwexler• 4 years ago

(This comment refers to the text questions, not the picture one where it clearly gives instructions to memorize)

Are we to assume that the real test doesn't allow the taker to go back to the passage? Many passage-based questions are directly answered in the text, so is this test administered in a timed way where passages are shown then removed, to test recollection of detail?

Or is it really testing just ability to extract the detail from the passage based on the question, with full "open book" access to the passage?

(Edit: corrected typo, added clarification)

netr0ute2• 4 years ago

Maybe it's to rule out those who can't read, because that would show with the "obvious" questions.

orthoxerox2• 4 years ago

NYPD police academy must look like SNL Celebrity Jeopardy if it's an open book exam.

cptcobalt• 4 years ago

Anecdotally, we're selecting the wrong people in society to be police officers. I have seen three people from my high school who bullied me or others relentlessly (homophobia, racism, etc.) who are now in the police profession. It horrifies me.

sfe223• 4 years ago

You don’t get to choose the police officers, where you got that from? They are selected by the government to serve and protect them. Government pays them, gives them power status and protection. The second objective may be to appear helpful to the general population so they can justify their existence as ‘helping the community’. While they may help the community when idle to support their second objective, they will always protect the government first. Just pray you don't end up on the other end.

8organicbits2• 4 years ago

In democracies it's common to suggest that "we the people" control the Government (via voting) so if there is a problem with the Government then we are able to fix it by voting. Voting for a candidate proposing police reform is a good example, there's just an extra layer of indirection.

Police Officer Exam Tutorial [pdf]

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