Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

predicting what police applicants might say or do on

the job—for example, being late or absent, using

drugs, violating police procedures and rules, and using

excessive force. Few psychologists continue to use

projective tests, which ask applicants to respond

to unstructured situations or stimuli, such as the

Rorschach Inkblot Test. Less frequent among psychol-

ogists is the use of situational tests, in which police

applicants engage a role-playing exercise usually rep-

resentative of job-related work conditions. There has

been little empirical evidence supporting the use of

projective and situational tests in screening police

applicants for law enforcement training.

Psychologists supplement test scores from a battery

of psychological tests with information obtained from

a personal interview, a common component of the psy-

chological evaluation. Psychologists use a personal

history questionnaire to gather information on appli-

cants’ background (e.g., family, work, health, and

any criminal behavior). Their interview, in part, usu-

ally involves a structured question format. Psycholo-

gists, however, often ask probing questions that follow

up applicants’ responses and sometimes ask questions

that their police agency clients request. Personal inter-

views with police applicants help psychologists inter-

pret and validate test data sources.

Educating and Training Police Officers

The police have the responsibility to keep the peace,

maintain order, enforce laws, and safeguard the well-

being of the community. This kind of duty to act involves

the possibility of danger all the time, puts police offi-

cers at risk, and requires education and training.

Critical issues in police education and training to

which psychologists have given considerable attention

are negotiating hostage and barricaded-suspect (HBS)

situations, handling people with mental illness, con-

ducting criminal investigations, and managing job-

related stress.

Negotiating Hostage and Barricaded-Suspect Situations.

Most police agencies have and employ critical inci-

dent teams, sometimes called special response teams

(SRT) or special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams,

to resolve or assist in resolving high-threat or special-

threat conditions, such as HBS situations. Police use

of critical incident teams has evolved since the highly

publicized HBS situation during the 1972 Olympic

Games in Munich, West Germany. The first police

approach to handling an HBS situation was an

assault,which involved officers primarily using force-

ful options, often with lethal consequences for suspects.

Sometimes, suspects’ family members subsequently

took legal action against the police.

In the early 1970s, psychologists and sworn per-

sonnel developed verbal tactics as alternatives to the

assault option. Such tactics focused on police officers

extending incident time to de-escalate the situation

and talking suspects into surrendering. Police records

have shown that critical incidents teams successfully

resolve most HBS situations without injury to partici-

pants when police officers negotiate verbally. When

police agencies used clinical psychologists to negoti-

ate such situations, the rate of success without injury

to participants increased.

HBS negotiation training is available at the Federal

Bureau of Investigation (FBI) academy in Quantico,

Virginia. The FBI’s Crisis Negotiation Unit delivers

training to all FBI negotiators and other law enforce-

ment negotiators. There are also private companies that

develop and deliver specialized training in negotiation

skills. Trainers are usually experienced police negotia-

tors who are sometimes psychologists. Police agencies

that employ full-time clinical psychologists sometimes

use them to educate and train their critical incident

team negotiators and work at times with them to

resolve, or assist in resolving, HBS calls for service.

Negotiation activities primarily focus on containing

suspects, negotiating with them, uncovering the per-

sonal factors motivating their behavior, and extending

incident time, which gives suspects the opportunity to

vent their emotions and make sensible decisions.

Negotiation training typically emphasizes developing

active listening skills through role-playing. Scholarly

research on the effectiveness of negotiation training is

in its infancy. A recent preliminary finding showed that

FBI agents significantly improved their active listening

skills following participation in the FBI’s National

Crisis Negotiation Course. Generally, however, there is

much research that needs to be done in order to evalu-

ate the effectiveness of crisis negotiation training.

Handling People With Mental Illness.The police are

having more contacts with people with mental illness.

Researchers have estimated that between 5% and 10%

of police-citizen contacts involve people with mental

illness. Contacts often occur in the home, family

members sometimes call for police services, and the

police usually resolve calls without incident. Some

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