Testing for police

[psych844]

Anybody have experience with this?
What sort of psychological testing goes into hiring officers? Is it any good at picking up potential traits that would not be conducive to being a police officer?

Seems a pretty important thread based on what is going on in America, but let's stay away from the politics.

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[smalltownpsych]

One of my professors conducted screening evals for a large city's police academy. He relied heavily on the MMPI-2 for that purpose. I don't remember too much more than that other than he looked just like Kevin Spacey and when he was giving us sample responses to Rorschach cards, his deadpan delivery of the bizarre or incongruous responses had me and a colleague struggling to not laugh.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

There's a circumscribed research literature devoted to public safety hiring evaluations. As smalltownpsych mentioned, the MMPI-2 seems to be frequently used, in addition to a variety of other measures (some more well-known, and some perhaps home-grown by practices offering these services).

My advisor worked for a practice that conducted large numbers of these, although he generally didn't perform them. They had developed their own internal database and normative set, I believe.

 

[BuckeyeLove]

I've done a handful this year. As AA said, there is solid literature base to draw and inform yourself from. In terms of face validity, some of your redflags should be picked up on in a solid clinical interview. Expect high(er) L. Watch out for that pd4.

 

[WisNeuro]

Certain jurisdictions have a set battery to be used, while some leave it up to the discretion of the examiner.

 

[psych844]

Any clues as to why there are such a high number of cops out there that seem to be committing crimes despite going through the testing?

 

[WisNeuro]

Because many police departments don't have all that high of a bar to clear, and there is shockingly little in the way of mental health training. Also, historically, de-escalation techniques have not been rigorously taught. Although some of these things have been changing recently. There will be more job opportunities for psychologists working with law enforcement in the future as public tensions mount and hopefully spur change.

 

[Justanothergrad]

There is a great deal of movement within police evals towards the MMPI-2-RF over the MMPI-2 from those that I know doing these sorts of evals.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Any clues as to why there are such a high number of cops out there that seem to be committing crimes despite going through the testing?

I am not a forensic psychologist so don't know specifically, but I think that our measures don't have a high degree of predictive validity. The I/O literature is pretty clear that the best predictor of work performance is a work sample so to really assess a cops ability to deal with a stressful situation involving the public is to witness that behavior. That is one reason why I prefer cognitive assessments over personality assessments. The tests measure the actual ability being assessed.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I am not a forensic psychologist so don't know specifically, but I think that our measures don't have a high degree of predictive validity. The I/O literature is pretty clear that the best predictor of work performance is a work sample so to really assess a cops ability to deal with a stressful situation involving the public is to witness that behavior. That is one reason why I prefer cognitive assessments over personality assessments. The tests measure the actual ability being assessed.

Likewise, I'd imagine the availability heuristic comes into play as well. When a police officer commits a crime and/or violates professional ethics, it's typically pretty memorable, and it receives a large amount of media coverage; however, I don't know if the rate of illegal behavior is actually higher in cops than in the general population.

 

[WisNeuro]

Likewise, I'd imagine the availability heuristic comes into play as well. When a police officer commits a crime and/or violates professional ethics, it's typically pretty memorable, and it receives a large amount of media coverage; however, I don't know if the rate of illegal behavior is actually higher in cops than in the general population.

Mayhaps, but I believe the issue is that it should be far less than the general population if adequate selection criteria are in play. Especially considering the power differential in play.

 

[psych844]

What kind of Psychologists get to do this sort of testing? and what are some schools/programs that would give you such experience?

 

[AcronymAllergy]

What kind of Psychologists get to do this sort of testing? and what are some schools/programs that would give you such experience?

Basically, anyone with appropriate training in it; it's not really a well-defined and delineated area of specialty practice ala forensics or neuropsych, at least to my knowledge. It's probably the type of thing most folks would get exposure to by working in an advisor's private practice rather than at a university clinic, although state/federal government practicum sites might also provide some exposure.

 

[Justanothergrad]

The folks that I know who do police evals are both clinical and counseling psychologists with no real trend towards one over the other. All have specific training in forensics however.

 

[BuckeyeLove]

I would imagine most programs affiliated with legitimate universities would provide you with the basic foundational and adequate tenets of Psychometrics and assessment that could lead to doing these sorts of evals on the side. I have never heard of anyone specializing in this practice area.

 

[hopeful8]

I've seen the PAI used in police candidate evals. Law enforcement norms are available (an add-on package to the scoring software, I believe) in order to compare the client's scores to those of sworn LE officers as well as public safety applicants.