Police Officer Selection Research Articles

Physical Job Demands in Police Officer Selection and Training: Normative Data and Predictive Validity—A Research Note

Physical Job Demands in Police Officer Selection and Training: Normative Data and Predictive Validity—A Research Note

Exploring the Feasibility of Assessing Cultural Competence in Police Officers

Pathology, personality, and integrity-related construct assessments have been widely used in the selection of police officers. However, the incidence of police brutality and misconduct is still concerning. The present study explored the feasibility of the assessment of cultural competence in police officers. We explored the extent to which the change to the agency’s first ever Black CEO would affect cultural competence of the officers as well as incidence of misconduct. Results showed that scores on a cultural competence factor of an in-basket simulation used for promotional assessments at a state highway patrol agency were not predictive of either supervisor-rated performance or incidence of misconduct. Whereas results showed that misconduct was not predicted by the agency’s first Black CEO, cultural competence of the officers did increase after the change in command. Practical implications for law enforcement agencies and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The Semantic Content of the Values of Police Officers with Different Levels of Personal and Professional Fulfilment

The article presents a brief overview of theoretical developments in the field of values of police officers in domestic and foreign studies. It is stated that in the field of psychology, personal values are often the object of research and usually have a variety of interpretations. Attention is focused on the fact that in the context of this work, values are understood as deeply rooted motives that form the semantic content of attitudes and standards of personal behaviour, which in the professional sense improves the specialist’s awareness of not only the importance of her/his professional activity but also the significance of her/his own contribution to its qualitative performance. The values of police officers play an important role in their effective psychological functioning and guide their further development. The aim of the article was to establish the semantic content of values and spheres of life in police officers with different levels of personal and professional fulfilment (PPF). To form the groups in the empirical study, the cluster analysis was applied by the k-means using data obtained with the help of the questionnaire of personal fulfilment (PF) by O. Shtepa and the questionnaire of professional self-fulfilment (PS) by O. Kokun. The data obtained in the study of PPF allowed dividing the total selection of police officers, which included 203 people, into three groups: the first group (low level of PPF) included 68 persons, the second group (high level of PPF) – 92 respondents, the third group (medium level of PPF) – 42 surveyed. It has been empirically established, that police officers who have a low level of PPF stand out by their striving for financial stability, and they need to have time for hobbies, which allows them to replenish resources. Police officers who obtain a high level of PPF take care of their image, they can creatively solve complex problems, they care about social development issues and strive for success in the profession. Professional and family life are important for police officers with a low level of PPF. Spheres of professional, family, and social life, the combination of which is optimal for qualified law enforcement officers, have become dominant within police officers with the high level of PPF. Police officers with the high level of PPF prefer to fully realize themselves in the profession, they want to be valued within it, to have a positive image, while devoting time to family and study

Police selection in Zürich and in certain Swiss cantons

Aim: The selection of police officers is a widely researched topic, which was differently analysed by several areas of science. The international studies therein the foreign practices were barely examined by the Hungarian researchers. The analysation of selection systems of different Swiss police units can provide a specific knowledge for the Hungarian Law Enforcement Science. Previously, this topic was not addressed in Hungary, therefore it can be considered as knowledge-expanding and suppletory.Methodology: The research was performed through collecting and analysing the English and German open sources and the relevant literature.Findings: The conclusion of the article is that the structure of police officers’ selection in the examined Swiss territories are based on similar principles, while the territorial particularities depending on different needs (e.g. duties and hiring) are taken into account.Value: The findings of this paper could provide knowledge for those specialists in Hungary who are responsible for this area. On the other hand, it can be used as a basis for deeper examinations. The findings can be compared with other countries’ practices, as well.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PSYCHOGRAPHS OF POLICE OFFICERS BY MAIN TYPES OF OFFICIAL ACTIVITY IN THE NATIONAL POLICE OF UKRAINE

The National Police of Ukraine is in a state of reform and needs to significantly improve its work towards optimizing the system of psychological training of employees and psychological support of their service activities. The presented article is devoted to the results of comparative analysis of psychographs of police professions (operative criminal investigation, pre-trial investigation body, district police officer, patrol police officer, security police officer), developed in the process of large-scale experimental research. Psychograms were created on the basis of a systematic approach based on the use of an optimal set of psychodiagnostic techniques, which made it possible to study the basic individual and personal characteristics of employees of the National Police of Ukraine. It is emphasized that psychological features determine the level of professional suitability of employees for activities according to the criteria of general abilities (verbal and nonverbal intelligence, creativity), personal characteristics (personal characteristics, leading personal tendencies, personal accentuations of character, temperamental features, types of interpersonal relationships) and motivational orientation (features of motivational orientation, self-actualization). The article presents common features that are common to all types of policing, as well as the main differences in the basic criteria and indicators of professional suitability of the individual to work, draws conclusions on improving the psychological selection of police officers and their appointment. It is argued that policing is characterized by a number of invariant features, which are due not only to the specifics of the professional activity, but also their variability depending on the specific type of service. The presented results of the comparative analysis of psychograms of police officers by main types of activity prove the differences in the studied criteria and indicators of professional suitability of the police officer's personality to official activity. This will be useful in the appointment of persons to positions and thus help to increase the effectiveness of the forecast of further success of the police.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION OF PRECINCT OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL POLICE OF UKRAINE

The article highlights the results of the study of psychological features of interpersonal interaction of district officers of the National Police of Ukraine. A district police officer, like every police officer, in the process of professional activity performs important law enforcement functions to ensure security, respect for rights and freedoms, on the basis of partnership and police care, so close contact with citizens and colleagues, so his communicative potential depends on the success of official tasks. The ability to communicate with people, establish psychological contact, overcome barriers to communication, listen, listen and hear, answer questions, influence, provide and obtain the necessary information, etc., determine not only the quality of work of a police officer in general, but also efficiency activities of the National Police of Ukraine in general. The presented study of interpersonal communication of police officers is based on the use of two recognized psychodiagnostic methods, namely the interrogation questionnaire for interpersonal interaction T. Leary and the abbreviated version of the questionnaire of the Big Five in the adaptation of O. John, L. Naumann, S. Soto. In general, the selected questionnaires allowed to determine the professional features of communication of district police officers in the vectors of extroversion and introversion, friendliness and aggression, dominance and dependence. The profile of a district police officer has been found to combine wall and hyposthenic characteristics, allowing them to combine stern, masculine traits and patterns of behavior in interpersonal relationships with milder, emotionally benevolent manifestations. Personal characteristics such as honesty, extroversion, moderate flexibility, openness to new experiences, low levels of neuroticism indicate that district police officers tend to have a mixed type of response in the process of interpersonal interaction. It has been proven that the use of questionnaires provides an objective and comprehensive description of the style of interpersonal behavior of police officers, which will improve the quality of professional selection of police officers, increase the efficiency of teamwork and increase public confidence in the police.

Entre la improvisación y la carrera laboral. Las reformas policiales en el Territorio Nacional de La Pampa (Argentina, 1920-1933)

Entre 1920 y 1933, la policía en el Territorio Nacional de La Pampa (Argentina) implementó distintas reformas que procuraron cimentar una carrera laboral a partir de la profesionalización y regulación del reclutamiento, la instrucción y la creación de un escalafón. En el marco de una racionalización de la administración pública nacional, la institución se propuso depurar sus elementos ineficaces y eliminar la informalidad como los favoritismos en los canales de acceso. Este artículo examina y caracteriza las repercusiones como limitaciones de estos intentos desde una perspectiva institucional y social. Dicho panorama permite reparar, en primer lugar, el parcial resultado de los objetivos de rigurosidad en la selección, mantenimiento y saneamiento de los uniformados. En segundo lugar, advierte un proceso de heterogeneidad en las trayectorias laborales que paulatinamente dejaron de concebir el trabajo policial como una ocupación circunstancial. Los legajos de personal constituyen la principal fuente documental de este trabajo.

Policing by social skills: the importance of empathy and appropriate emotional expressions in the recruitment, selection and education of Danish police officers

ABSTRACT Motivated politically by an interest in a friendlier, more service-minded police force, the Danish police have changed profoundly in recent decades. With a relatively low crime rate, strong democratic traditions, and exceptionally high levels of trust in the police, Denmark offers an interesting case for examining how a service-minded police force is created. The ideal, professional Danish police officer is supposed to engage in equal dialogue with citizens. When recruiting and educating police officers, considerable emphasis is placed on assessing and developing social skills, empathy in particular. Analysing interviews, fieldwork and documents, focussing on recruitment, selection, education and the assessment of Danish police recruits, the article explores how the shift towards service-mindedness is sought achieved, as well as some of the challenges and tensions involved in pursuing this ideal. Theoretically, the analysis draws on Hochschild’s concepts of feeling rules and emotional labour together with Illouz’s perspectives on the demands for communicative and emotional skills in modern working life. These let us understand modern policing as regulated and performed through emotional and embodied practices.

Topical Issues of Improving the Activities of Police Commissions of the National Police of Ukraine

The author has studied the current state of the regulatory base on the activities of police commissions, including the provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On the National Police", the Procedure for organizing the selection (competition) and promotion of police officers, as well as the Model procedure for holding a competition for police service and/or occupying a vacant positions.
 It is proved that the basis for the formation of the general structure of police commissions should be the functional and territorial principle for building a police system. It is offered to create police commissions in territorial police units at the level of both the Main Police Directorate in the region and police departments. The emphasis was placed on the need to amend the Law of Ukraine on the National Police in terms of the fact that police commissions may not include MPs of Ukraine, their assistants; Mps of Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, oblast, district, city councils in cities, their assistants; chairmen of oblast, district councils in cities, their assistants and advisers; city, village, settlement mayors, their deputies, assistants and advisers.
 Based on the analysis of the basic law regulating the activities of the National Police of Ukraine, as well as the regulatory acts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, propositions were formulated aimed at improving the procedure for the activities of police commissions, in particular regarding: optimization of the system of police commissions, determining the procedure and grounds for creating several commissions in territorial police agencies; improving the procedure for nominating candidates to police commissions from the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Head of the National Police and the Commissioner for Human Rights of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine; depoliticizing the staff of police commissions; establishing a clear algorithm for the activities of police commissions to determine the priorities of police activities; improving the procedure for conducting interviews with candidates for positions and the procedure for assessing such interviews; establishing administrative responsibility for interfering with the work of police commissions.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE OF POLICE DRIVERS WORKING IN SECURITY POLICE

The article examines psychological aspects of security police drivers’ professional work in the context of the implementation of their professional tasks. By theoretical analysis and generalization of scientific and methodological literature, observation, used questionnaires, performed psychological examination and mathematical statistics, we considered theoretical foundations of research on security police drivers’ professional work and requirements for their general and professional abilities. The performed extensive experimental study that involved about 300 police officers from different regions of the country allowed us to develop the psychological profile of a police driver’s profession. This psychological profile includes a set of characteristics that describe qualitatively and quantitatively drivers’ personality for further psychological examination. The psychological profile reveals a qualitative characteristic, the list and quantitative ranges for examined parameters characterizing a successful specialist, a professional in a particular field of professional work; such profile includes a person’s major psychological characteristics and is used in legal psychology to predict possible human actions and behavior. Security police drivers’ professional work is associated with a number of important tasks and imposes high demands on police officers’ individual psychological characteristics, as well as on their knowledge, skills and competencies. The article highlights the main professional requirements to police drivers’ general and special abilities, presents the requirements for their sensory-perceptual sphere, cognitive processes, communicative features and the most important individual psychological characteristics (character, temperament, etc.). Police drivers must have a high speed of simple reactions and reactions to a moving object; high accuracy and coordination of movements, the time of their sensorimotor reactions is important their work. The structure of police drivers’ motivation to professional work is revealed, as well as the results of expert evaluation of their most important professional qualities. The generalized psychogram of a police driver is presented in the form of the expanded table. The research results revealed the list of professionally important qualities that a security police driver must possess, as well as psychological contraindications to this profession. The obtained data can be used at professional psychological selection of police officers and their appointment to the positions of security police drivers.

Avaliação de atitudes de supervisores sobre o ensino superior para praças policiais militares

The study aimed to understand the attitudes of police supervisors of the Federal District Military Police, in relation to higher education for low rank police officers. 44 supervisors participated in the research and an instrument was used for measuring attitudes regarding to higher education as a promoter of professional opportunities, as a tool for improving military police work and as a relevant item for the selection of new police officers, as well as to the development of low rank officers. The study used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to analyze the collected data. The supervisors' positive attitude towards higher education for low rank officers was evidenced, seen as a mechanism for the effective improvement of work by these professionals to society, and as an instrument for improving institutional relations with communities, as well as for identifying and solving crime and disorder problems that may be affecting them. Higher education is positively perceived as an adequate requirement for entry in the police corporation.

Key attributes of an effective human source handler: Implications for handler selection and training

Despite the importance of human source intelligence very little has been written about the selection of police officers to undertake the specialist role of handler, and approaches to training in this specialist area. This research examined the nature of handling and the core attributes of effective human source handlers as perceived by 22 experienced handlers. Participants described handling as characterised by relationship alliance, task alliance and technique. Participants also identified attributes associated with the effective handling of human sources. Findings have important implications for the selection and training of officers for the role of human source handler.

Shades of Blue: A review of the hiring, recruitment, and selection of female and minority police officers

Diversity of police personnel, especially regarding representation of female and racial/ethnic minority officers, is an important step in improving positive police-community relations. Historically, both female and minority applicants have faced challenges in recruitment, hiring, and selection. By systematically reviewing literature available from 2000 to present, this paper identifies persistent challenges and programs aimed at overcoming such deficits in the United States. The studies use samples ranging from potential applicants in college settings to large police agencies, and use primarily quantitative approaches. This review identified four areas that affect hiring of minority and female officers: (1) organizational and external predictors, (2) motivations and attitudes, (3) effective recruitment strategies, and (4) screening process barriers. Recent research has only topically addressed these concerns, while simultaneously revealing significant limitations regarding sample sizes, research design, and implementation in the field. Directions for future research and implications for policy are discussed.

美 · 日 경찰 체력검사 제도의 고찰 및 시사점

Starting from 2019, the system will be first implemented for male and female applicants for the National Police University and the National Police Agency, and it is expected that a combined selection of new police officers will also take place. Therefore, the study wanted to see the status of the U.S. police system, which applies the criteria for gender-unified physical fitness tests in most states, and the Japanese police`s physical fitness test system, which limits the number of female and female police officers, and dual standards for physical fitness tests. Unlike Korea and Japan, which restricts the number of women who hire police officers, in the United States, no policy has been implemented since the 1960s and 1970s to limit the number of female employees. Since it is very difficult to prove whether a Bona Fide Occurational Qualification (BFOQ) in the performance of police duties, the government has abolished the gender limit policy. If the number of female police officers is not limited by the abolition of gender separation, it is important to see whether the standard of employment, especially the standard of physical fitness test, will be equal. The claim that the standard of one-sided physical fitness test will adversely affect women`s acceptance rate has been used as a basis for the recruitment of gender separation. The United Kingdom and Australia, including more than 70 percent of the U.S. National Police Agency, apply the fitness test standards independently of gender. If the government abolishes the policy on limiting the number of female employees, it will apply the one-size-fits-all standard because controversy over reverse discrimination in the physical fitness test standards is growing. JAPPA, a Japanese police official`s physical fitness test system, does not have a standard for each age group of police officers and applies the same standard for all male and female police officers.

Psychological and legal aspects of improving the effectiveness of professional selection to the National Police of Ukraine

The article is devoted to the problems of searching for psychological and legal opportunities to optimize the professional selection of personnel of the National Police of Ukraine. The foreign and domestic experience of psychological selection of police officers is analyzed, the typical psychodiagnostic tools, which are used in this regard are considered. It is concluded that the existing state regulatory framework for the selection of police officers requires improvement – developing a set of psychodiagnostic methods, determining the psychological requirements of a profession for a policeman’s personality, establishing indicators of psychological suitability to police activities. The expediency of introducing a three-component system of psychological selection of police officers are substantiated, an optimal set of psychodiagnostic methods for determining professional suitability is offered.

ПСИХОЛОГО-ПРАВОВІ ЗАСАДИ ВДОСКОНАЛЕННЯ ПРОФЕСІЙНОГО ВІДБОРУ ПЕРСОНАЛУ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ ПОЛІЦІЇ УКРАЇНИ

The article is devoted to the problems of searching for psychological and legal opportunities to optimize the implementation of the professional selection of personnel of the National Police of Ukraine. The authors analyze the foreign and domestic experience of psychological selection of police officers, consider the typical psychodiagnostic tools, which are used in this regard as well as the connection of the scales of the main psychodiagnostic methods with the success of the police professional activity. It is concluded that the existing regulatory framework for the selection and appointment of police officers in the state requires improvement in the direction of optimizing its psychological component - developing a scientifically based set of psychodiagnostic methods, determining the psychological requirements of a profession for a policeman, establishing indicators of psychological fitness for a police law enforcement officer’s activities. Based on a systems approach, the theory of traits and the theory of leading trends, the article substantiates the expediency of introducing a three-component system of psychological selection of police officers, which provides psychodiagnostics of direction, abilities and characterological sphere of candidates for police officers, offers an optimal set of psychodiagnostic methods for determining professional suitability. On the basis of a wide experimental study of the characteristics of professional activities of patrol police officers and district police officers from twenty-five regions of the state, the article provides qualitative and quantitative psychological indicators of the police professional qualifications for service, i.e. the psychogram of police profession. The psychogram includes a complete description of the actual psychological characteristics and professionally important personal qualities of a specialist, determines the qualitative and quantitative psychological and psychophysiological indicators recommended for professional activity, as well as psychological and psychophysiological contraindications to mastering the professional activities of a policeman. It is concluded that it is advisable to build a conceptual scheme of psychological diagnostics and prediction of professional suitability on the basis of the concept of leading trends; the optimal set of psychodiagnostic methods for the selection of policemen is complementary and includes tests for determining the orientation of the personality; subjective characterological questionnaires, as well as tests to study the general abilities of candidates for posts.

신임 경찰 남녀 통합 선발을 위한 체력검사 제도의 개선 방안

The purpose of this study is to provide a basis for improving the physical fitness test standards for the selection of the new male and female police officers. Therefore, we reviewed literature data such as the new police officer selection physical fitness test statute, and presented the problems of the current physical fitness test system. In addition, we analyzed the physical fitness test system of foreign police who are performing the male and female integration selection, and proposed the improvement plan for us. The problems with the new police officer’s physical fitness test are as follows. First, it is necessary to readjust the standard value of female police officers’ physical fitness test. Second, it is necessary to establish a physical fitness test system suitable for the work. Police officers overpower and arrest the offenders, and additional implementation of physical fitness test events including coordination to prepare for unexpected situations such as the use of weapons on the work is necessary. Third, it is necessary to raise the standard value of police officer’s physical fitness test. Fourth, it is necessary to develop a fair physical fitness test system regardless of gender. In order to eliminate concerns about the recruitment of police officers regardless of gender, for gender equality recruitment in order to develop a reasonable physical fitness test system that is sympathetic to both internally and externally, the physical fitness test system should be established so that it does not have an advantage or disadvantage depending on gender by referring to the foreign police fitness test system of recruitment, which integrates gender.

“Drawn from Alice in Wonderland”: Expert and public debates over merit, race, and testing in Massachusetts police officer selection, 1967–1979

This study explores the use of tests to select police officers in Massachusetts from 1967-1979. I show how a range of actors understood the construction of merit within the context of police selection in Boston during the Civil Rights movement and how these debates raised larger questions about objectivity in the social sciences and the law. I argue that when experts exposed the way seemingly objective "intelligence" tests perpetuated racial inequality, the public rejected their expertise, instead reaffirming their trust in tests as the best way to evaluate merit and by instead challenging the law's objectivity. This paper puts histories of merit in conversation with scholarship on affirmative action and employment discrimination to provide a fuller understanding of how intelligence tests are constructed and how nonexpert actors interpreted debates about testing, defining and redefining merit in ways that reflected their beliefs about race, opportunity, and employment.

Audiological analysis in military police officers with exposure to occupational noise in motorized patrol activity

The aim of this article is to present the results of audiological findings from a selection of military police officers with exposure to occupational noise, in the motorized patrol activity, in João Pessoa city. The data collected from the motorcycle police sample were compared with the ISO 1999: 2013 Standard. The research was performed in 46 police officers, whose mean age was 32.7 years old and a mean service time of 10.5 years. For the subjects’ selection and inclusion in the study, interviews were conducted, in addition to questionnaires, ontological examination, audiometric tests and the respective noise level measurements performed by a personal dosimeter, according to ISO 9612:2009 Standard recommendations. Findings from questionnaires showed that 51% of the police officers reported to have some type of hearing complaints; through audiometric tests, 36.1% of the cases suggested hearing loss. The most significant hearing threshold change occur in the range from 3000Hz and 4000Hz. Hearing thresholds shifts suggest the occurrence of some Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) level in motorcycle police officers who are over 30 years and 10 years of service. Besides, compared with the data from ISO 1999:2013 standard, there is a decrease in the auditory level of these professionals after three years on service, and a noise exposure of Lex, 8h = 96.9 dB(A).

Theorectical principles of psycho-prophylactic selection of police officers

The article deals with theoretical aspects psycho-prophylactic selection, because it is necessary to carefully consider the theoretical aspects of psycho-prophylactic selection, selecting the necessary components for the organization of practical and effective system that meets the requirements of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, especially units with operational and investigative function of activity and taking into account the objective possibilities of its implementation in modern conditions