Colorblind Policeman
- Posted by Daniel Flück on July 11th, 2007 filed in Professions
When reading through Police Officer – Does Color Blindness Matter?, you could think that it is impossible to be a policeman when you are suffering from a color vision deficiency. But I was contacted by K., who told me a different story.
My life long dream has always been to work in law enforcement and about a year ago my life long dream was shot down when I found out that I was colorblind and couldn’t pass a color test. After doing some research on the net I found www.colormax.org and gave them a call. At first I spoke with one of their technicians who was able to give me a lot who was very helpful, I started to get very excited.
Could it really be possible to correct his color vision in a way to pass the required color blindness test? After a 20min phone call with the eye specialist he got really excited, because it looked like that there is a chance to get his dream job police officer.
About 2 months later I traveled to Baltimore. They got me the prefect lens for me to pass the color test. I had never worn contact lenses before, as my regular vision is perfect. Several weeks later I retook the color test, passed and was on my way in to law enforcement. My dream come true!
This story really sounds like a dream. But is it allowed to wear corrective contacts for a color vision test?
Before I went in for the test I put the contact lenses in my eyes. “Didn’t ask, Didn’t tell,” and I dont recall every seeing anything that said I couldn’t wear glasses or contacts for the test.
K. is now an unofficial colorblind police officer. I asked him a few more question which I would like to recapitulate in the following interesting points:
- He can distinguish colors, but couldn’t pass the Ishihara test,
- he is not wearing the color corrective contacts on his daily job,
- and he doesn’t feel like his color blindness affects his job in any way.
Should law enforcement recruitment centers reconsider their viewpoint on colorblind police officers? Should everybody try to cheat on color blindness tests in a recruitment process? Or should you be upright and accept, that color blindness is most often a killer criterion to be a policeman?
July 11th, 2007 at 22:02
I think the strict criteria on colour blindness tests in these professions are there for the safety and benefit of both the professionals and the public.
The advancements in lenses that help the colour blind distinguish between colours is great news for all of us and the mind boggles at what the future might hold. However, I strongly feel that anyone using a visual aid to pass a colour test in these kind of scenarios owe it to themselves, their colleagues and the public to continue using the aid daily in their careers. Ideally the use of such an aid should also be made known to their employers.
The fact that he doesn’t feel his blindness doesn’t (or rather hasn’t so far) affect his job in anyway is fine until the day that it does.
Then there’s also the question of the morality of any employee (especially so in public service) who hides anything from his employer to advance in their career.
July 13th, 2007 at 15:16
I share Mike’s apprehensions too.
Not so much as to the fact that colour-blindness might affect his job — indeed I’m sure there are not too many situations where it should affect it and if known about those few could be avoided — but the fact that he could be use deceipt to obtain the job. Is such a person one who OUGHT to be a policeman. His colour-blindness is [excuse pun] a red herring.
October 4th, 2007 at 11:20
Deception??? I don’t think this is an issue of black and white, right & wrong but shades of gray. These color blindness tests prove nothing. There is no correlation of CB tests and real world performance as a police officer.
I would rather have an eager police officer who is color blind than what I see everyday here in CA; A large amount of overweight slugs and women. I have nothing against either of these 2 groups but I would rather have the police protecting me be able to run the suspect down and arrest him (over weight people are not athletic and women are lacking on physical strength)
Bottom line is that this individual attained his dream through ingenuity and science despite his genetic short comings.
And DON’T even try and bring the morality card into this discussion, so please get off your high horse.
These rules for becoming police officer need to change to and there needs to be a better test that is more life like. For example, identifying people and vehicles because that is what he will be doing.
October 31st, 2007 at 17:36
Well i have just recently finished a BA in Criminology and a MA in Gender and Sexuality (from a criminological perspective) and am trying to find out how bad my colour-blindness is.
I feel that there are certain duties that a Policeman will have to perform that will be affected by being colour-blind. For example joining a chase with a ‘dark blue’ car or trying to find a suspect who is wearing a ‘maroon’ jumper.
Its all relative but at the same time a right pain in the neck for someon who has spent 4 years at university studying a topic that is of most use in the police force.