January 9th, 2024, Lecture 2
Policing Selection Process
Policing is a complex, demanding, and stressful occupation — things the general public
cannot or does not want to deal with
Requires intelligence, patience (dealing with the public), creativity, and ethicality (high
position of power an authority must follow laws and rules)
Police agencies need process to select police officers
o Screen out individuals with undesirable qualities (ex: psychopathologies)
o Select those with desirable qualities
o Must consider physical fitness (must be in good shape to get into program),
cognitive abilities, personality, etc.
Brief History
Selection procedures used since the early 1900s
o 1917: intelligence tests, France decided to screen individuals to then test them
based on how they do
o 1950s: personality tests
o 1950s/60s: Psychological/psychiatric screening becomes standard
Good personality characteristics that would make a good police officer
Selection procedures used today:
o Background checks, medical exams, personality assessments, cognitive ability
tests, selection interview, agency-specific requirements (ex: polygraph to be
screened in/out)
Job Analysis Process
Goal is to define what KSAs make a good police officer
o Knowledge, skills, abilities that they should have, including for a specific police
force
What are the skills and abilities police officers should have to be good officers?
Often done with assistance of an organizational psychologist
Can conduct a job analysis using survey methods, observational techniques, interviews
with staff
Job Analysis: Problems
Conducting a job analysis is a complex task:
o Importance of KSAs not stable over time: depending on period of time, who is in
charge, concerns, etc. are constantly changing
o Different KSAs for different jobs
o Disagreement over important KSAs:
Core KSAs that are commonly agreed upon:
o Honesty
o Reliability
o Sensitivity to others (emotions, needs, personalities, of others)
o Communication skills: negotiations, preventing escalation, understanding truth of
situation, taking in people’s concerns
o Problem-solving skills
o Motivation
o Team player: working with other officers and the public who vary in terms of
personality and behaviour
Construction and Validation: Process
The goal of the second stage is to:
o Develop an instrument to measure KSAs (construction)
o Ensure it relates to measures of performance (validation)
Most important measure in this context is predictive validity: do instrument scores predict
on-job performance?
Calculatrice validity coefficients:
o +1.00 strong positive relationships
o 0.00 no relationship
o -1.00 strong negative relationships: as knowledge and skill goes up, complaints
decrease
Many options for measuring performance:
o Punctuality
o Complaints
o Commendations
o Academy performance
Different performance measures provide different results
o Ex: peer vs superior ratings often contradict
There are no clear answers on the best measures to use
Selection Interviews
One of the most common ways of choosing police officers
Most common are semi-structures interviews:
o Preset list of questions asked to all interviewees: specific experiences, opinions,
critical analysis, thinking, decision making, ethics
o Goal is to determine if the application possesses relevant KSAs
o **there can be more bias, as it is up to the interviewer to determine whether an
answer to a question is relevant — they must conduct interviews in the most
unbiased manner as possible
Research examining predictive validity is mixed
o Highly structured interviews lead to better prediction
o More research on the validity of selection interviews is needed
Is it getting at the truth of the individual or are they just giving appealing
answers because they were able to practice it in advance
Psychological Tests: Cognitive Ability
Cognitive ability tests are used to assess:
o Verbal
o Mathematical memory
o Reasoning abilities
Some support for predictive validity of cognitive tests
oHigher relationship for training than for job performance
RCMP Cognitive Ability Test:
o Section 1: work style preference
o Section 2: language comprehension
o Section 3: numerical skills
o Section 4: spatial skills
o Section 5 memory quotient — involve reading a passage on screen and answering
questions based on your memory, not really focused on comprehension
o Section 6: business reasoning — involves comprehension and providing the best
solution/answer
Personality Tests: Personality
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): most common personality test
used for selection, originally for identifying psych pathological problems (depression,
paranoia, schizophrenia)
o Involves true or false questions
o Has significant but low predictive validity scores
Effective at predicting future problematic behaviours
May be useful for screening out unsuitable police candidates
Inward Personality Inventory (IPI): developed specifically for police selection
o Measures personality traits and behaviour patterns relevant to policing: stress
reactions, interpersonal interactions, alcohol use, etc.
o There is a short form (202 questions) and long form (310)
o Is slightly more predictive than the MMPI
Assessment centers: a facility where the behaviour of applicants is observed by experts
o Primary selection instrument used is the situational test: real-world simulations of
policing tasks to evaluate if they are demonstrating the KSAs, followed by an
evaluation of results
How well you will succeed as a police officer
o Significant, but low to moderate validity scores
Police Discretion: Definition and Importance
Must be able to differentiate between situations in which law needs to be enforced vs
when there can be more leeway
o If there was no discretion the justice system would be overwhelmed due to limited
resources
o There are some laws that are not meant to be enforced every single time
Discretion is required in a wide range of police tasks
o Ex: ticketing, use of force, arrest decisions
Police discretion is required because:
o Some laws are vague and were not intended to be fully enforced
o Many law violations are minor in nature
Government can make too much revenue if every single thing is charged
o Full enforcement would alienate the public
o Full enforcement would overwhelm the justice system
o Full enforcement would deplete limited police resources
What are some examples of when you think discretion would be warranted?
Unwarranted?
o Someone who is on illegal drugs and is evidently unwell; rather than charging for
possession/use, the individual should be medically treated
Officer experience influences their level of discretion
Officers are bound by legal requirements as well
Problems with Police Discretion
Society must deal with consequences of allowing discretion
o Where is the line between discretion and abuse of power?
Racial profiling is inappropriate use of police discretion — using race rather than
evidence of wrongdoing to initiate action
o Ex: largely Indigenous people in low income areas are carded for no reason, and
often conflict is initiated
o Ex: over policing in BIPOC or low SES communities
Areas where it is used:
o Youth crime: divert youth away from charges and into programs or sentencing
options
o Domestic violence: can be good or bad
o Individuals with mental illness
o Use of force situations
Policing is influenced by biases, which can have lots of negative effects mainly on
disadvantaged or marginalized communities
o Many officers view situations like carding as necessary in reducing crime and
maintaining peace, however the public recognizes the harm
Can you think of situations where police discretion could promote social justice?
