{"id":682,"date":"2015-09-14T07:26:41","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T11:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=682"},"modified":"2016-02-10T11:40:54","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T16:40:54","slug":"police-psychology-fit-to-be-a-cop-how-much-testing-is-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=682","title":{"rendered":"Police Psychology | Fit To Be A Cop? How Much Testing is Enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

POLICE PSYCHOLOGY | FIT TO BE A COP?\u00a0 HOW MUCH PSYCH TESTING IS ENOUGH?<\/span><\/h1>\n
Laurence Miller, PhD<\/span><\/p>\n
BALTIMORE (Associated Press) \u2014 \u201cA psychological firm paid to evaluate troubled Baltimore police, including a lieutenant charged in the killing of Freddie Gray, is under investigation by the city and has been put on probation by the state police for cutting corners in its mental health screenings of officers. An investigation showed that the company\u2019s psychologists were completing evaluations of officers\u2019 mental stability in 15 minutes instead of the 45 minutes required by the state contract. Experts say 15 minutes is far too short to adequately conduct psychological assessments, either for police applicants or officers seeking to return to active duty<\/em>.\u201d<\/span> (http:\/\/www.aol.com\/article\/2015\/08\/06\/psych-firm-that-screens-baltimore-cops-under-review\/21219038\/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl2%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D-297775251.)<\/p>\n
Reports from my police psychologist colleagues and communications from police officer applicants who feel like they\u2019ve been unfairly bumped from consideration for law enforcement positions suggest that the above story is not an isolated incident. Accordingly, it\u2019s important to appreciate the proper role of psych screenings in the law enforcement hiring process.<\/span><\/p>\n
Why do a psych screening?<\/h2>\n
Law enforcement is a high-stress, people-intensive profession. Before a department invests the time and resources in hiring, training, and fielding an officer, it wants to be reasonably sure that officer will be able to perform his or her job, will not pose a risk or danger to the public, and won\u2019t create a liability for the department.<\/span><\/p>\n
What are they looking for?<\/h2>\n
Not paragons of mental health, just candidates that are reasonably stable, mature, and responsible. The law enforcement pre-employment psych screening is actually a rather course net designed to catch significant mental disturbance or personality disorder that would be incompatible with the role of a police officer. It is unlikely that an officer candidate with a severe psychotic, mood, personality, or substance abuse disorder would get through this net, but smaller psychological fish, such as erratic mood swings, narcissistic entitlement, under-the-radar alcohol misuse, or extreme prejudicial beliefs, just might wriggle through the meshwork. One common mistake of officer candidates is pretending to be too perfect and then getting bounced for dishonest exaggeration.<\/span><\/p>\n
What does the exam consist of?<\/h2>\n
The exact content and procedure of pre-employment screenings can vary widely from agency to agency, but ideally, a competent pre-employment psych screen should contain at least two main elements: (1) a clinical interview; and (2) one or more standardized psychological tests. During the clinical interview, the psychologist asks a range of questions about the candidate\u2019s background, work history, current lifestyle, any symptoms or problems she may be experiencing, and what his expectations are about the job.<\/span><\/p>\n
A properly conducted law enforcement psychological interview should not feel like an interrogation; in fact, it shouldn\u2019t be any more adversarial than other type of job<\/span><\/p>\n
interview. The number of psychological tests employed may range from one to a dozen, but typically, between two and four well-standardized measures will be administered. In fact, the typical candidate spends more time hunched over a set of bubble tests with a number-2 pencil in his hand than he spends face-to-face with the psychologist. Another reason for answering questions honestly is that many of these tests have built-in measures for detecting inconsistency and exaggeration.<\/span><\/p>\n
How are the results determined?<\/h2>\n
Usually, the examiner will weigh three things: (1) impressions from the clinical interview, (2) the psychometric test results, and (3) the material obtained from a review of the applicant\u2019s past medical, employment, and other records. These factors are then placed into a kind of formula that yields one of several determinations, often expressed in terms of low, medium, or high risk of projected future performance problems on the job. The rationale for these conclusions is provided in the text of a written report that is then sent to the law enforcement agency\u2019s hiring committee for them to consider along with all the other data they use to make the final hiring decision.<\/span><\/p>\n
Who does these evaluations?<\/h2>\n
And that\u2019s the crux of the problem. The quality of these assessments is only as good as the training, expertise, and experience of the evaluators. And as the title story indicates, contracts for these services are typically awarded to multi-staffed psychological \u201cassessment centers\u201d (which often do evals for firefighters, paramedics, and other public safety personnel as well as police departments) on a low-bid basis, who then recruit<\/span><\/p>\n
psychological examiners to work on an independent-contract basis who, in turn, are willing to work on a high-volume, low-fee basis. So now you have the pleasure of knowing that the evaluator who\u2019s making a determinative decision about your entire career got his or her job, not necessarily because of any special credentials or qualifications, but because he or she was the cheapest deal on the block.<\/span><\/p>\n
Having said that, I know a number of very competent, very professional psychologists who do pre-employment screenings, and usually other types of police psychological work as well. But these are typically independent practitioners, not test-mill employees, and I guarantee they\u2019re not doing their evals in 15 minutes \u2013 or even 45 minutes. Realistically, it\u2019s going to take at least a couple of hours to conduct a valid pre-employment psychological screening for any high-level profession, including clinical interview, psych testing, and preparing the report.<\/span><\/p>\n
Evaluators who cannot competently and ethically offer these services should not be doing this work, and law enforcement agencies who will not pay for valid screenings should not be hiring. The repercussions of sloppy assessments for clinicians is an erosion of trust in the field of psychology on the part of law enforcement personnel. The impact on police agencies may be felt in poorer quality of policing, increased citizen complaints, and higher liability to the department in negligent hiring and retention lawsuits, just one of which can erase the \u201csavings\u201d from retaining a low-bid assessment center many times over. The public expects police to be professionals; police agencies should expect no less from the psychologists who evaluate their personnel.<\/span><\/p>\n
Laurence Miller, PhD is a clinical, forensic, and police psychologist based in Boca Raton, Florida. He can be reached at docmilphd@aol.com. This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide specific clinical or legal advice.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
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Come back regularly for more updated blogs on police psychology<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POLICE PSYCHOLOGY | FIT TO BE A COP?\u00a0 HOW MUCH PSYCH TESTING IS ENOUGH? Laurence Miller, PhD BALTIMORE (Associated Press) \u2014 \u201cA psychological firm paid to evaluate troubled Baltimore police, including a lieutenant charged in the killing of Freddie Gray, is under investigation by the city and has been put on probation by the state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17168877],"tags":[17168797,17168831,17168844],"class_list":["post-682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tests","tag-police-psychology","tag-police-stress","tag-testing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6557,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=6557","url_meta":{"origin":682,"position":0},"title":"Pre-employment Psychological Screening for Cops","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"October 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Pre-employment Psychological Screening for Cops by Ellen Kirschman, Ph.D. I've been a police psychologist for thirty years;\u00a0counseling, teaching, giving workshops, and writing books, both\u00a0fiction and non-fiction. \u00a0In\u00a0my first book, Burying Ben,\u00a0my fictional alter-ego,\u00a0Dr. Dot Meyerhoff, deals with a rookie Ben Gomez who kills himself and leaves a note blaming her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tests"","block_context":{"text":"Tests","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168877"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":386,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=386","url_meta":{"origin":682,"position":1},"title":"Police Psychology | The Police Candidate Interpretive Report","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"June 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Police Candidate Interpretive Report \u00a0 I had one of the first cell phones for public consumption.\u00a0 It fit in a bag.\u00a0 The battery lasted minutes not hours, and it was essentially a car phone that could be moved around.\u00a0 But visions of Dick Tracy\u2019s watch and Agent 86\u2019s shoe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tests"","block_context":{"text":"Tests","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168877"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5851,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=5851","url_meta":{"origin":682,"position":2},"title":"Police Psychology | Master Police Coaches: \u201cBuilding A Better Cop\u201d","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"May 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | Master Police Coaches: \u201cBuilding A Better Cop\u201d Marla Friedman, Police Psychologist \u00a0 Born out of the academy, the Probationer is a blank slate. 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Thompson & Associates Guest Blogger I received a telephone call from a Deputy Chief recently regarding the attempted suicide of an Officer that I had evaluated for Fitness for Duty over a year ago. The Officer had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tests"","block_context":{"text":"Tests","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168877"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":684,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=684","url_meta":{"origin":682,"position":5},"title":"Police Psychology | The War on Police: “Officer-Directed Violence”","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"September 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | The War on Police: \u201cOfficer-Directed Violence\u201d Ron Martinelli, Ph.D., CMI-V, BCFT, CFA Let\u2019s see a show of hands. Every one of you who recognize these names raise em up. Michael Brown? Freddie Grey? OK. Now how about Darren Goforth, Steven Vincent, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu? 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