Introduction
Police recruitment process is a vigorous applicant assessment process; this is so because a police officer is involved in a work that is more complex in nature. This makes the law enforcement agencies to subject-potential recruits to various selection criteria; this is meant to ascertain the suitability of the selected candidates for the job. The last few years of police recruitment have given birth to a renaissance in the law enforcement agencies’ recruitment process (Ployhart et al, 2006). The criteria in this process include investigations of the recruit’s background, psychological testing, taking of physical agility exams, and civil service exam among other complex methods of assessment (Janik, 1994). When these methods of assessment used today are compared to those used several years back, the ones used today are more sophisticated. This paper will criticise the police recruitment process and the criteria used in the selection of police officers, particularly the use of background investigation to determine a participant’s integrity and personality testing using psychological tests, then give recommendations on the criteria to be used in the selection of a police officer.
Literature review
In 1973, the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee suggested that the police recruitment process should include screening systems, which include, oral interview of potential recruits, physical examination, investigating their background, testing of cognitive ability, personality, integrity, and psychological (Inwald, 2008). All these changes are made to make sure that the selected members are fit for the job; however, other people claimed that the process allowed favoritism (Ployhart et al, 2006). These claims further triggered a change in the screening process, and today the process includes psychological and medical examinations; centers; investigations of background information; physical agility tests; situational tests; civil service examination and polygraph examinations (Janik, 1994).
Despite the level of sophistication applied in the selection criteria, some people still doubt the effectiveness of these criteria. Some claim that the selected individuals are not always fit for the job while others feel that the best candidates are dropped before reaching the advanced stage of the process; may be this is evident in the way the selected candidates perform at work (Inwald, 2008). Others claim that some of the criteria used are meant to discriminate applicants in terms of gender, ethnicity and education level (Schmitt et al, 1996).
Background investigations
The assessment process always begins with a background checkup; this process is carried out by officials who are trained in background investigation. At this stage of the process, verification of participant’s credentials is done where his or her past criminal record is reviewed (Ployhart et al, 2006). The officials also conduct interviews with the people close to the participants such as family members, neighbors, past and present employers, and personal references given by the participant. This process takes close to three weeks.
During the background check, in the first two weeks, the participants are interviewed by the chief police; this interview is meant to clarify the recruitment process. The second interview is applied to those who have required credentials; at this stage, they are subjected non-discriminatory procedures where they are asked questions concerning the submitted background information. This is meant to scrutinize their past and judge their moral character. The history of the participant’s drug abuse is recorded at this stage, and the tendency of the participant to continue using illegal drugs (Ployhart et al, 2006). The results of this assessment depend on the way the participant responds to questions asked by the interviewing panel.
According to those who embrace this criterion, the investigation of the recruit’s background is used to determine the suitability of the recruit’s history to the police profession. The information gathered is used in ensuring that only the qualified applicants are taken in as police officers (Decker & Huckabee, 1999). The recruitment officials ask questions concerning their education level, past employment, drug use, area of residence as well as alcohol use. The recruits are asked to verify this information with the police department for use in the determination of their integrity. Those opposing this criterion argue that this information is meant to discriminate the recruits in terms of their academic level. According to them, the success of an individual in the field does not depend on the academic qualifications; some people have excellent academic paper but when it comes to fieldwork, they do not excel quite well (Decker & Huckabee, 1999). On the other hand, some individuals do not excel well in academics but do excellent in the field. Others claim that investigating one’s background reveal one’s identity in terms of ethnicity; this can lead to discrimination, even if the participant has the required academic qualifications together with the other requirement (Schmitt et al, 1996). Recruiting official or one of them can have a negative perception towards a certain group of people; this can make official to deny the participant a chance to advance to another stage in the process.
Some begin background investigation after the applicant has passed through other tests such Physical Agility Exam, and since all other tests are independent, a participant who has passed all the other tests can be disqualified just because of a small element in his or her background information. This puts off many individuals who can perform better as a police officer. The use of background information to determine an individual’s integrity has been questioned by many people (Ployhart et al, 2006). According to them, this criterion cannot apply to all people; some people engage in drug abuse because of the conditions which existed in their past or have criminal records earlier in their lives. This might have occurred once, and the individuals change entirely to be better people; this people should not be denied the chance to work as police officers. There are cases of police officers being involved with drug syndicates and criminal gangs, and yet their background information shows no record of criminal or drug abuse record. This shows that background information cannot always determine the future behavior of an individual.
When using background information to predict one’s behavior, the recruiters do not keep in mind that participants can fabricate this information to suit the requirements (Decker & Huckabee, 1999). For instance, some people are deep into crime and yet none of their friends and family members knows about it. During the background investigation, the investigators rely on information from friends and family members regarding the recruit, and if the recruit is secretive to these people, there is a possibility of the using wrong information on the recruit, although such cases are rare.
There are also cases of individuals finding their way into the police, without going through the stage of background investigation. These cases are always caused by the recruit officials who want to help individuals who are close to them; in most cases, these individuals do not meet the requirement (Decker & Huckabee, 1999). This is corruption, and it undermines the recruitment process. Individuals recruited in such a way take up positions meant for the qualified as they turn down the qualified individuals. This shows that although background investigation is useful, it is not correctly used; this is why the police force would have both qualified and those who are not fit to called police men or women.
Personality testing
Another selection criteria used is personality testing. In this case, the recruitment officials test the participant’s characteristics that are likely to influence his behaviors and thoughts. These characteristics may include sensitivity, responsibility, emotional stability, self esteem, self control and moral judgment among others (Decker & Huckabee, 1999). In any organization, employee recruitment process involves personality testing. However, these tests are trusted by many firms; according to research these tests do not have a strong correlation between elements used for personality measures and those used for personality measurement. Also, personality measures have a low validity. This is because the quantity of measurement is not standardized, and when employers subject their employees to these tests, the results raise questions (Inwald, 2008).
According to some psychologists, personality test brings out the negative personality of an individual; however, tests have been justified by the courts. Research has it that sometimes, during personality test false positives can be recorded; people lose a chance of being hired and yet have qualities fit for the job. The same thing can apply during personality testing in police recruitment process. Research on police recruitment procedure reveals that personality tests do not account for average officers or differentiate them from exceptional officers (Inwald, 2008). Sometimes police department have what they want in their mind, but the tests they use to find it are not correct. According to Janik, personality testing involves psychological measures, which are validated using the academic performance of recruits, and this does not reveal the real performance of the police officer while in the field. Psychologists recommend that those participants who have undergone psychological tests should be called back for a psychological interview; this is meant to allow applicants who missed and those who passed to explain anything that was confusing to them (Janik, 1994). This also gives the police department officials a chance to know the overall mental health of each recruit and their suitability the police job. However, many police departments are always satisfied with their decision.
Other researchers argue that personality testing is irrelevant in the police recruitment; this is because the nature of tasks they carry out; these tasks are mostly physical in nature (Inwald, 2008). According to Inwald, personality tests are meant to scare potential recruits. On the other hand, police department officials disagree with the researchers, according to police officials personality tests ascertain the ability of candidates to cope with disturbing situations found in their line of duty.
Recommendations
The goal of every organization that engages in employees’ recruitment is to have the best candidate; most of these organizations, however, they believe that having a large applicant pool gives them a high possibility of choosing best candidates (Decker & Huckabee, 1999). Such organizations are deceived by their perceptions; they should not concentrate on the number of applicants available for recruitment but on their value. May be the society has not defined the role of a police officer well and this has a significant effect on the police recruitment process (Ployhart et al, 2006). According to the media, police officers are crime fighters; however, this definition does not exhaust the duties and responsibilities of a police officer. Therefore, because of this misinformation on the role of a police officer, police departments are challenged to create public awareness on what they expect from applicants (Decker & Huckabee, 1999). They also need to create applicant awareness on what it entails to be a police officer; this should reduce the risk of applicants being dropped earlier in the recruitment process.
After the society and applicants are aware of the roles of a police officer, then the police department should come up with a recruitment process that would enable them get applicants with qualifications that are fit the role of a police officer. This means that police departments should not just apply recruitment processes used by other organizations (Decker & Huckabee, 1999). They should come up with a recruitment process that is police-officer oriented; the selection criteria used should be direct to bringing out the qualifications required for a police officer to perform his or her role efficiently.
Sometimes, the process can be full of ethnicity and gender discrimination; to avoid this, the department should be diverse in its recruitment staff (Schmitt et al, 1996). Discrimination denies the department competent candidates, and lowers the performance of police officers (Ployhart et al, 2006). The society today is diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity, therefore, the police officers serving the society should be diverse to avoid cases of discrimination in serving people (Schmitt et al, 1996).
We understand that the tasks performed by a police officer require that, the recruitment process to scrutinize applicants, however, the process should be made short so as not to scare potential candidates. Some candidates dropped from the recruitment process, not because, they were disqualified, but because the process was too long for them to wait. Is the process genuinely long or is it meant to scare away some of the applicants as it does? (Decker & Huckabee, 1999). If the process is genuinely long, then the police department should review process to make it friendly to the participants in terms of time, this would also help the police department not to lose participants who are competent because of long recruitment process. To improve on time, the police department needs to include selection criteria that are only relevant to police officers and their roles.
Conclusion
The selection criteria in a police recruitment process should be more of physical test; this is because of the physical tasks performed by police officers. This does not imply that the police department should omit the other test. Tests such as personality test should still be included in the recruitment process to ascertain the ability of the candidates to cope with the emotionally disturbing situations while on duty. Cognitive tests are also pertinent to test the ability of the candidate to think critically when faced with a situation that required of him or her to do so (Ployhart et al, 2006). However, these tests should not be taken as foremost criteria in the selection of candidates; it should be an added advantage. Background investigation of candidates is also a recommended criterion; however, information such as academic performance should not be given more attention.
Reference List
Decker, L. K., & Huckabee, R. G. (1999). Law Enforcement hiring practices and narrowing the applicant pool: A case study. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 29(3/4), 57-70
Inwald, R. (2008). The Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI) and Hilson Research Inventories: Development and rationale. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 13, 298-32
Janik, J. (1994). Considerations in administering psychological pre-selection procedures to law enforcement applicants. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 10(2) 32-34.
Ployhart, R.E., Schneider, B., & Schmitt, N. (2006). Staffing organizations: contemporary practise and theory,(3rd ed.). New York: Routledge
Schmitt, N., Clause, C.S., & Pulakos, E.D. (1996). Subgroup differences are associated with different measures of some common job-relevant constructs. International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 11, 115-139