Police Selection

Question 1

What were 5 members of the Toronto police department charged with in 2004?

Answer 1

Obstruction of justice, theft, assault, perjury, and conspiracy.

Question 2

What were 3 Calgary police service members charged with in 2016?

Answer 2

Breach of trust, bribery, and unauthorized use of a computer system

Question 3

How many incidents of police corruption were found within the National Police force between 1995 and 2005?

Answer 3

322

Question 4

What was the most common type of corrupt behaviour found in the RCMP study?

Answer 4

Improperly giving out police information (followed by fraud, misuse of police officer status, theft, and interference with the judicial process.

Question 5

What types of corruption were found in the police force between 2008-2012?

Answer 5

• 5 cases of assault, sexual assault, and harassment.
• 30 officers impaired on the job or while driving
• 29 mounties who gave false or misleading statements
• 16 unauthorized uses of CPIC
• 2 cases of child pornography

Question 6

What is police selection?

Answer 6

The process by which police agencies select police officers

Question 7

What are applicants to the police force assessed for?

Answer 7

Physical fitness, cognitive abilities, personality, job related abilities, criminal record, medical health

Question 8

What are the 7 essential competencies assessed on the RCMP police aptitude test?

Answer 8

1) Composition (spelling, grammar, vocab)
2) Comprehension (both written and verbal)
3) Memory
4) Judgement
5) Observation
6) logic
7) computation

Question 9

How high is the predictive ability on the police aptitude test?

Answer 9

Moderate

Question 10

What 2 measures are used to assess personality in the police force?

Answer 10

MMPI for aspects of psychopathology, and the Inwald Personality Inventory which was developed specifically for the police force (antisocial behaviour and psychopathology, better predictive ability)

Question 11

What are the six factor personality’s?

Answer 11

Agreealeness, independence, methodicalness, extraversion, industriousness, openness (low scores indicate bias)

Question 12

How are personality tests used in police assessments?

Answer 12

1/3 of departments weigh psychological assessment scores with other considerations, 2/3 use it as a pass/fail hurdle for further consideration

Question 13

What percentage of applicants are rejected based on psychological assessment?

Answer 13

29%

Question 14

How do police departments assess for job-related abilities?

Answer 14

Situational tests which involve real world policing tasks like clues tests and foot patrols. Behaviour is evaluated by trained observers.

Question 15

How does job-related abilities compare to personality tests in determining job performance?

Answer 15

Is essentially equivalent.

Question 16

How is a criminal record assessed?

Answer 16

Using a background check and a polygraph test to check for questionable activities (RCMP and CPS)

Question 17

What are some of the questions used when looking at a polygraph test?

Answer 17

• What is the worst thing anyone is going to say you have done to them?
• Do you associate with anyone who uses illegal drugs?

Question 18

Who typically makes it through the police selection process?

Answer 18

People with right-wing authoritarianism- conventionalism, authoritarian submission and authoritarian aggression.

Question 19

Why is it a good reason to consider authoritarianism?

Answer 19

Due to the nature of law enforcement itself and Milgram’s work with obediance.

Question 20

What is authoritarian aggression?

Answer 20

Belief that aggression is okay in condoned situations.

Question 21

What was the study done by Lavine et al in 2005 on right wing authoritarianism?

Answer 21

Measured RWA attitudes and used the highest and lowest 1/3. Half of each group was exposed to a mortality salience induction to see which death penalty op-ed they would choose- pro-attitudinal, counter attitudinal, and balanced. Belief is that terror management will attract us to safety.

Question 22

What were the results of this study?

Answer 22

High RWA: introducing a threat was found to induce more attitude consistent choices vs no threat. Same thing found with low RWA but with less frequency.

Question 23

What is the problem with authoritarian police officers?

Answer 23

They respond to threats by having their authoritarian traits activated and are especially likely to seek out attitude consistent information.