Police Psychological Screening

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Recommended: Implication and usage of psychological testin in recruitment processes

The topic under examination is the psychological screening of police candidates. Because police work is challenging work, the psychological screening of candidates is seen to be a crucial tool for predicting future officer success. Police work is a very demanding and dangerous field that demands lots of work and contact with people; thus, the assessments’ of an implications interpersonal skills are important in the screening process. Psychological testing for police screening was not first used until the 1930s, and it has remained popular present day. Most recent data reveals that the majority of police agencies serving populations 25,000 and greater use some form of psychological screening along with aptitude and personality inventory …show more content…

Fast forward to 2005 and the screening of police officers and other law enforcement personnel has become recognized and desirable by police agencies. By about the 1970s, large police departments, such as the Los Angeles Police Department, begun using a psychologist for screening and other practices such as police consultation and fitness-for-duty evaluations. Police chiefs were encouraged to hire psychologists with police-orientation and knowledge in police psychology. Now that psychological pre-employment screening was becoming embedded in police departments, the issue arose of what protocols to use to ensure validity and …show more content…

Currently, in the field, there is a lack of consistency for what police psychologists administer in their pre-screening evaluations. However, there is a consensus that the pre-screening protocols should include at least one intelligence/cognitive battery and at least one personality/emotional battery. Regardless of who is administering the pre-employment screening, police psychologists or general clinical psychologists, it is recommended that the same protocols be developed and used to assess all future employees under the same standards. There should be a consistent set of rules that determine what is essential for conducting appropriate pre-employment screening for potential

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