Personality Traits
Police psychologists use personality tests to predict
police candidates’ behavioral predispositions to use force.
Candidates must demonstrate a willingness to use force.
Yet they must show self-restraint. Psychologists have
linked job-related uses of force with test scores on per-
sonality tests such as the California Psychological
Inventory (CPI) and the Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality Inventory (MMPI). Low CPI scale scores on
socialization, self-control, and well-being have led to
disciplinary actions against officers for unnecessary use
of force. Elevated MMPI scale scores on infrequency,
psychopathic deviation, and hypomania, combined with
control in psychological adjustment, correctly classified
aggressive officers who received disciplinary actions for
aggressive misconduct against offenders, inmates,
coworkers, or family members.
Which police candidates are prone to the abuse of
force? Personality tests contribute some knowledge
about candidates’ tendency to use force. What police
psychologists know is that most often, police candi-
dates who are successful on the job do not demon-
strate personality traits of impulsivity, hostility, undue
aggression, and poor frustration tolerance, which put
them at risk of having difficulty with on-the-job use of
force. Being prone to the abuse of force, however,
might be more than a matter of personality traits
measured at the candidate or predisposition level.
Researchers have found that some officers who had
high rates of excessive force complaints had also
received superior supervisory performance ratings.
Psychologists had rated them as suitable for police
training and work.
Not all psychologically healthy officers are free
from the abuse of force. Using excessive force or
using force excessively might be an outcome of per-
sonality traits that police candidates develop on the
job rather than something that they bring to the job.
For example, police work involves the possibility
of danger all the time. Danger shapes police-training
practices. Officers learn to see citizens as potentially
uncooperative, armed, and dangerous. They work in
an environment of condition yellow: continually occu-
pied with the present danger of the police-citizen con-
tact. Some researchers have suggested that because
officers focus on the interpersonal dangers of police-
citizen contacts, they develop a suspicious and author-
itarian work personality. To cope with danger and
keep safe, they employ a heavy-handed or take-chargework attitude. They are at risk of using force against
citizens where none is usually necessary.
Police use of force is not a simple extension of pre-
dispositional or changing personality patterns of offi-
cers. Situational factors such as instigation might
determine some acts of excessive force not predicted
by officers’ psychological profiles. Organizational
factors such as endorsed training practices, accepted
legal principles, and approved police policies might
attenuate the effects of personality traits. Psychologi-
cal paradigms offer some insight into police personal-
ity traits that might manifest themselves in the form of
undue force against citizens.Job-Related Experiences
Officers routinely respond to calls for service that
involve violence and danger. Exposure to traumatic
job-related events, such as participating in officer-
involved shootings, puts officers at risk of developing
posttraumatic stress disorder, which can lead to diffi-
culties with on-the-job use of force. For example,
some officers lose control or use excessive force when
they suppress postshooting trauma or other job-related
trauma. Responses to postshooting trauma sometimes
involve officers rushing possible force situations to
experience the thrill again. Symptoms of postshooting
trauma, such as trouble sleeping, emotional fatigue,
anger, alcohol abuse, and anxiety, sometimes reveal
themselves in the form of excessive use of force.
Police burnout, shift work, role expectations, and
organizational stress are other job-related experiences
that can result in undue use of force. Steps in place to
understand and control police use of force are pre-
employment psychological screening, use-of-force
training, and psychological monitoring. Police psy-
chologists use psychological tests to screen out police
candidates who show particular personality traits that
might lead to difficulties with on-the-job use of force.
Use-of-force training occurs at the recruit and incum-
bent levels. Psychological perspectives on police deci-
sion making and performance in use-of-force
situations are typical topics that police trainers dis-
cuss. Monitoring the psychological fitness of officers
following their involvement in traumatic job-related
force situations involves officers participating in
critical-incident debriefings, peer support programs,
or individual counseling.Frank J. GalloPolice Use of Force——— 595P-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:43 PM Page 595