command staff. Typically, the staff psychologist
acquires confidence and, most important, trust and
credibility as a member of the department. Although
not often discussed, power, hence professional influ-
ence, is of utmost significance for the in-house staff
psychologist. Power in this context is operationalized
as the individual psychologist’s ability to profession-
ally influence administrative and supervisory deci-
sions. Such influence can only be attained via
consistent, accurate, and professional consultative rec-
ommendations provided by the staff psychologist.
Thus, it is imperative that the in-house police psychol-
ogist be administratively placed as close to the highest-
ranking official in the department, usually the chief/
director or sheriff, as possible. In most large depart-
ments, given the sensitivity and confidentiality of some
situations (e.g., substance abuse or domestic violence),
it is best for the staff psychologist to be placed one
rung directly below the chief/director or sheriff in the
administrative chain of command. Therefore, the in-
house police psychologist is usually administratively
assigned the position of an assistant/deputy chief or
director. This administrative position potentially pro-
vides the staff psychologist with extraordinary positive
influence within a police organization. However, the
staff psychologist must always be cognizant of this fact
and limit his or her activities—both professional and
casual—with the senior command staff. For if the
rank-and-file officers and civilian support employees
perceive the in-house psychologist as being too
friendly with upper-echelon supervisors, the overall
trust for the staff psychologist will be severely com-
promised. The resulting outcome will be a significant
reduction in departmental employees seeking clinical
assistance with the professional staff at the psycholog-
ical services section. As such, the in-house staff psy-
chologist must always be aware of the potential impact
of dual or multiple relationships.
A dual or multiple relationship occurs when a psy-
chologist is in a professional role with a person and
concurrently is in another role with the same person or
when a psychologist is in a relationship with a person
closely associated with, or related to, the person with
whom the psychologist has the professional relation-
ship. For example, a police psychologist would enter
into a multiple relationship if he or she entered into a
therapeutic/clinical relationship with the commander
of the special response team with whom the staff psy-
chologist regularly consults on tactical operation call-
outs. Other advantages for the in-house staff psychologistis the ability to be knowledgeable about the unspoken/
unwritten rules of the department as well as the vari-
ous rumors within the organization. With this in mind,
the staff psychologist is able to develop a network that
can quickly ameliorate conflicts and potential oppor-
tunities. Another significant advantage for the in-
house staff psychologist is the ability to recognize
critical training opportunities and rapidly implement
appropriate training blocks. A secondary advantage to
the rapid implementation of departmental training is
the actual facilitation of the training blocks by the
staff psychologist and his or her staff. The facilitation
of the didactic block provides the opportunity for the
staff psychologist and his or her staff to interact within
the safety of the training environment. Often, depart-
mental employees will initiate the scheduling of ther-
apy on meeting the staff psychologist during the
training experience.
Other primary responsibilities of the in-house staff
psychologist include the provision of direct clinical
intervention—usually, short-term therapy, substance
abuse intervention, clinical referral, training and con-
sultation, and crisis and hostage negotiation training
and consultation. Most likely, the in-house staff psy-
chologist is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for
crisis response, including officer-involved shootings
and other crises, such as suicide and domestic vio-
lence. The latter professional demands of constant on-
call responsibilities, including hostage and crisis
intervention as well as other posttrauma and critical
event responses (e.g., employee trauma and death),
compel significant introspection by the psychologist
considering the acceptance of the position of internal
police psychologist. The constant on-call status itself
can be insidiously stressful to the psychologist as well
as to his or her family. In addition, it is evident that the
vicissitudes of traumatic event response can lead to
the dynamic of vicarious traumatization in some
police psychologists. Vicarious traumatization occurs
as a function of mental health professionals’ consis-
tently intervening in traumatic events. As a result of
routinely being exposed to the traumatic sequelae of
others, the responding psychologist may develop con-
comitant symptoms, such as social isolation/with-
drawal, sleep and appetitive disorders, burnout, and
substance abuse.
The other role for psychologists is that of an exter-
nal consultant, sometimes jocularly referred to as the
“out-house” psychologist. The external consultant’s
primary responsibility is pre-employment screening,576 ———Police PsychologistsP-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:43 PM Page 576