Impact Of Removing Psychological Testing And Education Requirements On Policing Recruitment: An Essay.

Thompson Valley Police Service has recently appointed a new police commissioner, Commissioner Jason DeVillain. Currently, the police organisation is seeking to increase police strength (increase the number of police officers employed by the police organisation). As such, police recruit intake numbers will be doubled over the next three years. In order to achieve this increase, Commissioner DeVillain has proposed two (2) key changes to the current police selection process. These changes include:

Police recruit applicants will no longer require completion or partial completion of tertiary education upon entry Psychological testing will be removed from the selection process.

You are a research and policy analyst for the Thompson Valley Police Service. You have been asked to assess the validity and likely impact of the two key proposed changes to the police recruitment selection process. In your paper, discuss whether each of the proposed changes will separately or together help achieve the Commissioner's intended goal of doubling the size of the police force, and whether there are likely to be any unintended consequences resulting from one or both of these policy changes. You are to use empirical research evidence to support your conclusions and recommendations.

Higher Education and Australian Policing

The society has changed bringing changes in the law. Some of the crime the world is witnessing did not exist some years back, and if they were, they were not sophisticated as it is today. As the society changes, so does the policing system need to change so that it can be effective in its duties. The government needs also to recruit a sufficient number of suitable individuals who can address the ever-changing problems in the current dynamic society. Nevertheless, this can be a challenging task considering the tight labor market, and the fact that the recruitment process should not compromise the quality of service, recruits’ quality and the training quality. This paper would be an examination of whether a removing psychological testing and requirement for higher education can increase the number of individuals that enter into the policing, and whether such a change can have an impact in the efficacy of the police.

The debate about the significance of tertiary education on police officers has been there for decades.  As far as Australia is concerned, this debate went to the peak in the 1990s after the emergence of two different models of education that were meant for police officers. One of the models was based on the traditional liberal system of education (Paterson, 2011). The model was characterized by subjects based on social science. The second model was based on professionalism where the policing and the universities partnered to work together. In this one, the policing mainly concentrated on the development and control police related discipline (Paterson, 2011).

The implementation of tertiary education in policing came to Australia following Fitzgerald Inquiry regarding the Queensland police corruption. The enquiry stated that there is a need for the police to have more education for enabling them to handle their increasing complex roles(Fitzgerald, 1989). The report went further to specifically point on the need for higher education in the police sector (Fitzgerald, 1989).  Following the inquiry, a notable move was taken whereby a partnership between the Queensland Police and the Griffith University was born which was meant to deliver an enhanced course to newly recruited police officers (Prenzler, Martin, & Sarre, 2010).  

The policing in Australian has been a topic to various inquiries all the way from 1973 to 2006 (Rogers & Frevel, 2018, p. 250). Most of these inquiries all recommended a sweep of change to the minimum education requirement in recruitment and an internalization of training to dominate the preparation of the recruits (State Services Authority, 2011). In spite of the recommendations, the work of (Rogers & Frevel, 2018, p. 250) reports that there is still low-level education entry in the Australian policing recruitment.

The debate regarding the necessity of higher education on police officers has been there for decades (Bruns & Magnan, 2014; Eterno, 2008; National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2010; Rainford, 2016). Most of the studies conducted regarding police and higher education have been based on the general career demands and skills. For instance, (Sereni-Massinger & Wood, 2016) recommended that police officers require advanced skills in their policing job especially this time where police tasks have been transitioned to be more community-based. There are also some scholars like (Rainford, 2016) who have suggested that college education on police officers equips them with skills that prepare them for their future job, and they have more exposure to the knowledge than their counterparts high school level police officers.

Literature Review regarding Police Performance and Higher Education

While looking at professionalism, a report by the United States’ (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2010) theorized that professionalism has a significant value in the individuals. NCES argued that higher education provides an entity with a reputation as it determines the way it exercises its responsibilities. In this report, NCES states that people performing their roles in an organization must carry themselves out as per the set standards in that institution (NCES, 2010). This report argues that higher education plays a higher role in one’s professionalism. There are studies that have tried to prove a positive hypothetical link between police officers’ professionalism and higher education. For instance, one study conducted in (Eterno, 2008) aimed to analyze this hypothesis by putting the officers in three separate groups. The three groups were based on their recruitment education; those with cadet background, those lacking cadet background but had higher education; and those who had high school level qualifications. The results of this study found that there were very few cases of complaints from the civilians in the group of the police who had higher education than the rest of the groups. In most of the instances, the civilian had reported cases of offensive language, gratuitous use of force, and abuse of power in the police who never had higher education.

Similarly, in Australia, a 2007-2008 study carried in (Trofymowych, 2008) to analyze the police perceptions of the relationship between professionalism and tertiary education revealed that there a significant benefit of higher education in police officers. In particular, the respondents in the study had higher confidence that tertiary education was important in police ranking. In England, the work of (Paterson, 2011) suggested that when police officers acquire tertiary education, they are equipped with skills that enhance their performance.  Finally, in the performance, the work of (Hudgins, 2014) stated that officers with higher education respond appropriately to the situation, and they have better communication skills when interacting with the public than their counterparts.  A contributing factor that can be linked to (Hudgins, 2014) claim is that higher education provides an avenue for intellectual development, and officers who have had a chance to take higher education could have had a chance to develop themselves intellectually.  In terms of responsiveness, it can also be argued that intellectual development can earn the officers more faith and trust from the public as they are able to think professionally in how to respond to different situations.

On the other hand, there are still critics of the higher education model who think that raising the minimum requirements in educational level could have negative effects on the entire policing system. One of the negative effect stated in (Paoline, Terrill, & Rossler, 2015) is that more education would come with a demand for job satisfaction, and college-level officers might be dissatisfied with the innumerable aspects of work carried out by police officers. Another point brought forth in (Bruns, 2010) on the negative effects looks at the recruitment impact. Bruns thinks that a demand for higher qualification will decrease the number of applications, and this will potentially exclude many would-be officers who might be better for the job.  

Advantages of Higher Education on Policing Performance

Psychological evaluations are part of the police recruitment procedure in Australia as a selection process for those joining the police forces (Broadhurst & Davies, 2008, p. 69). The tests involve the use of medical and scientific procedures in assessing the applicants’ psychological standards, personality, analyzing behavior, medical, and other competencies (Australian Federal Police [AFP], 2016). The rationale for the AFP psychological assessment is based on three inherent requirements in the one’s performance as police. These requirements include the need to take responses to emergencies, one’s ability to execute urgent tasks such as driving safely, and lastly, ability to carry and use firearms safely (AFP, 2016).  Candidates who pass psychological assessments are those who have the pass the required minimum level of psychological resilience in their response to stressing factors and their ability to show high levels of psychological self-care (AFP, 2016).

Psychological Wellbeing has been defined as the continuous process of going through and realizing one’s true potential, purpose in life, and personal growth (Ryff, 2014). Psychological Wellbeing can generally be defined it as an intentional and proactive aspect of life which comprise one’s autonomy, mastery, self-acceptance, personality features such as integrity, curiosity, forgiveness, and spirituality among others.  According to (Dantzker, 2011), police officers have a difficult career, and they frequently handle issues that are more negative in nature which requires emotionally stable persons.  On the other hand, (Miller, Watkins, & Webb, 2009) states that law enforcement officers face significant influence from both the organization and the communities. With this, a police officer must have the ability to cope excel in such a demanding environment by learning to handle the ever-changing mandates, pressures, and focus. The work of (McFarlane, Williamson, & Barton, 2009) summarizes the role of the police as one that involves frequent experiences of traumatic incidences and various stressors moments.

There have been different studies on the importance of the psychological assessment of police recruitment. However, most of these studies have mainly focused on the actual effects of psychological well-being on police performance. An example of such studies was the work of (Al-Ali, 2011). The study analyzed police performance and the five-factors of psychological well-being which were police personality, their cognitive ability, job-related behaviors, and emotional intelligence (El).  The results of this study showed that psychological well-being had a significant correlation with officers’ job performance, their training performance, the overall perceived work stress. In (Shane, 2010), the authors aimed to examine the effects of organizational stressors on the performance of the police. The results of this study showed that stressing organizational factors affect police performance. Though this study did not specifically measure anything do with psychological assessment, it contributes to the evidence that psychological wellbeing which in police which is the ultimate goal of psychological assessment is important in the effective performance of the officers.

As there are different methods of psychological assessment, the study of (Mark, 2014) took a different approach of finding out whether the lack of consistency among these methods of psychological assessment can have effects on the recruitment process. Surprisingly, this study showed that the results of the assessment differed with each method. Focusing on three different procedures, the study concluded that there were significant negative implications from the use of inconsistent procedures. One of the main negative effects this study noted was that an applicant can be allowed in one procedure, and later disqualified by a different procedure. In addition to these problems, there have been other issues reported with psychological assessment. One of these is that the process greatly slows down the recruitment process as each applicant must be screened (Dantzker, 2011). Another negative effect of psychological assessment comes when the evaluator uses subjectivity techniques. In Brazil, for example, the court had to intervene to prevent techniques that went as far as psychological profiling (Santos, 2016).

Disadvantages of Higher Education on Policing Performance

Conclusion and Recommendations

The aim of this paper was to analyze the impact of the two key changes that were proposed to the recruitment process of the police. The changes were to stop lower the minimum requirement of education which previously required a tertiary education level. The second proposed change was to stop taking the phycological assessment in the recruitment procedure. The main drive to these changes was to double the number of police officers within the next two years. From what this paper has observed, the move would definitely reduce the time for the recruitment process and could reach this goal within the three years. Through an analysis of the past research, the paper has seen that a requirement of higher education screens and prevents many applicants from passing the recruitment. Similarly, the phycological assessments take time and screens out applicants who some of them could be effective officers if they were allowed.

However, the paper has counted numerous benefits of higher education and phycological assessments. Among them were good communication skills, improved job performance, intellectual capability, exposure, and trust from the public among others. This paper recommends that despite that requiring higher education and the phycological assessments would slow the recruitment process, the government cannot ignore the benefits of these factors. The concludes that ignoring these factors would compromise the quality of the forces in favor of quantity.

References

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