ABSTRACT
Psychological assessment of candidates for employment as police offi cers has become a widespread practice in the United States and most, if not all, police psychologists are either familiar with or directly involved in this practice. In a recent national survey, Cochrane, Tett, and Vandecreek (2003) surveyed a cross-section of small, medium, and large police agencies and found that as many as 90% of the departments surveyed currently use psychological testing in their pre-employment selection. Bartol (1996) surveyed police psychologists in regard to their activities and reported that pre-employment assessment accounts for the highest percentage of time expended (34.3%) among this group of practitioners. Scrivner and Kurke (1996) surveyed police psychologists employed by the 50 largest U.S. police agencies and found that 71% of this sample reported performing pre-employment psychological evaluations as part of their regular activities. Based on employment fi gures published by the U.S. Department of Justice (2007), it’s been estimated that as many as 100,000 pre-employment assessments of police offi cers are performed each year by as many as 4,500 psychologists (Corey, Cuttler, & Moss, 2009).
