With police departments increasingly falling under the public microscope, it is extremely important for police chiefs and hiring managers to be certain they are hiring the right men and women to serve as officers.
With that in mind, the process of recruiting and screening candidates may be more important than ever in police departments. Fortunately, a range of companies exist that can help police departments make the right hiring choices for their needs.
Better recruiting on the front end can also help with a more familiar problem on the back end: retention. According to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2008, law enforcement agencies hired approximately 61,000 officers, but lost 51,000 in the same time frame for a variety of reasons, including resignation, medical and non-medical retirements, dismissals, and probationary rejections.1 Although departures are unavoidable, particularly in a profession as stressful and demanding as law enforcement, ensuring a good fit at the outset could help minimize the risk of high turnover.
On the other side of the coin, potential applicants have more options than ever for learning the ropes of a career in law enforcement before they enter the police work force. This means prospective officers can now be better equipped for success.
Applicant Training
The best recruits are prepared to hit the ground running, be it for their first applicant interview or first day on the job.
A significant amount of training is available online, which offers a convenient, easy, low-cost option for departments and candidates alike. A leader in this area for law enforcement audiences is V-Academy, a Tennessee company that offers online training in general patrol, investigations, and leadership, among other topics.
According to V-Academy Vice President David Moore, prospective officers and others can take advantage of the training to familiarize themselves with relevant topics before beginning or even applying for a job in law enforcement.
“One of the great by-products of developing online training is the accessibility we can provide those with interest in law enforcement who have not yet entered the field,” Moore said. “As a complement to our higher education partners, our training can be used by industry researchers to explore the many subject areas contained within our law enforcement profession.”2
V-Academy also allows users to create customized training modules. Combined with its testing capabilities, this can allow hiring managers to use V-Academy to assess candidates’ knowledge bases.
“From a screening standpoint, our training management system (TMS) has advanced testing functionality both for training produced and delivered by our company as well as presentation, training, and test builder for departmental policy or other required testing,” Moore said.3
V-Academy touts its TMS as the first cloud-based training management software solution of its kind. The software is easy to use and allows public safety agencies to deliver relevant training with less paperwork. And because users can take the test at their computers, both costs and time are saved on travel and scheduling.
Testing
The written exam is one of the most common—and challenging—components of the officer recruiting process. Applicants can prepare for the exam using practice packs from Darany & Associates, a California company providing written tests for entry-level hiring and promotions for police officers, deputies, and dispatchers.
The Darany Entry Level Police Officer Examination (DELPOE) is customized by state, so questions are centered on directly relevant content and situations. It is also one of the most widely used written exams for police hiring.
This wide use is why the DELPOE practice pack, available at a cost of $39 from the web-based company Test-Prep Online, can be a sound investment for applicants. Each pack contains more than 700 practice questions, two personality tests, and a study guide. The entire pack is available online, with access provided for three months after purchase.4
For $49, Test-Prep Online’s Police Premium Pack goes a step further, providing two full-length practice tests, approximately 1,200 practice questions, and 54 practice drills.5
Testing needs often go beyond the standard exam for new recruits, though. It’s also employed in many promotion processes for veteran officers. The IACP recognizes the importance of selecting and advancing the right candidates into leadership positions, and it has been assisting agencies by providing promotional examinations and assessment centers for decades.
Candidate Screening
It is critical that police agencies hire those of high moral character. Sometimes, in an effort to land a job, candidates may omit or occlude unflattering incidents when submitting their applications. In the event that a law enforcement agency hires someone with a criminal past (knowingly or unknowingly), wide-ranging implications for the department and the work it does in its community can result.
This risk is one of the reasons that screening is an important component of the hiring process. Several companies exist that can help department leaders learn more about who they are really bringing into the department before a final decision is made.
One classic way of doing this is via a polygraph or “lie detector” test. However, although polygraphs have various roles to play in law enforcement, there may be better options for screening job candidates.
“The polygraph is a technology that’s 90 years old and has only had a few updates in that time,” said Russ Warner, vice president of marketing and operations for Converus, Inc., a “deception detection” technology firm based in Utah. “For a long time we thought there was a better way. People don’t like to be strapped in. It makes them feel guilty. A nervous innocent person can fail a polygraph.”6
Converus offers EyeDetect, which it touts as “the next generation in lie detection.” EyeDetect is marketed specifically
for law enforcement pre-employment tests. Among current EyeDetect customers are the Salt Lake City Police Department (Utah) and the Peruvian counternarcotics agency.7
Part of EyeDetect’s appeal is the lower overhead it requires. Where polygraph training can take weeks, EyeDetect users can be ready to go in four or five hours, and the training is available online via Skype, Warner said. An EyeDetect pre-employment screening costs only about $150 and lasts just 30 minutes. Results are available in five minutes and provide 99 percent accuracy.
“You can find out if they falsified information on their application,” Warner said. “Have they taken drugs? This potentially keeps you from having to do a drug test. Have they committed a crime? You can commit a crime and not be caught, and this can catch that… If you’re putting your candidates through successive hurdles, it’s a good idea to put EyeDetect at the top of the tests because it’s cheaper and faster and can rule out having to do other tests.”8
The technology behind EyeDetect is its ability to pick up specific, involuntary eye movements that occur when a test subject is not telling the truth. This cuts down on inaccurate results. “If someone asks you something and you have to make up a story, you have to think hard and quickly about what you’re going to say,” Warner explained. “It causes an increase in cognitive load, which leads to eye movements that are a strong indicator of guilt… Even if you wanted to control these movements, you can’t.”9
Although lie detection can be a strong tool, sometimes there is no substitute for hard evidence. Hitech, a California software company, offers SafetyNet RMS, a law enforcement records management system that enables hiring managers to access and review personnel records, including data from participating regional public agencies.10
Many law enforcement agencies require applicants to pass medical and psychological screenings. Med-Tox Health Services, a California occupational health and safety services provider, conducts medical screenings for several public safety professions. The Med-Tox Medical Screening Manual for Law Enforcement Officers offers comprehensive guidance to police agencies for medical screenings of job applicants. Among other things, the manual gives detailed instructions on vision and hearing requirements, assessing persons with diabetes, and screening for complex conditions like HIV status and seizure disorders.11
Many law enforcement agencies around the world may face numerous obstacles in recruiting and retaining the best applicants for a very challenging job; however, there are companies and products that can help make every step of the complex screening and hiring process a little less of a burden for the agency. ♦
Notes:
1Brian A. Reaves, Hiring and Retention of State and Local Law Enforcement Officers, 2008 NCJ 238251, October 2012, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics (accessed June 23, 2016).
2David Moore (vice president, V-Academy), email interview, May 4, 2016.
3Ibid.
4JobTestPrep, “Darany Entry Level Police Officer Exam Prep,” (accessed May 11, 2016).
5Ibid.
6Russ Warner (vice president of marketing and operations, Converus, Inc.), phone interview, May 6, 2016.
7Ibid.
8Ibid.
9Ibid.
10Hitech, “SafetyNet RMS” (accessed May 11, 2016).
11Med-Tox Health Services, Medical Screening Guidelines for Law Enforcement Officers (accessed May 11, 2016).
Please cite as
Scott Harris, “Tools for Better Recruiting, Testing, and Screening of Police Applicants,” Product Feature, The Police Chief 83 (August 2016): 68–69.
| Recruiting, Testing, and Screening Tools | ||
|---|---|---|
| Converus, Inc. | Darany & Associates | Hitech Systems, Inc. |
| IACP Center for Professional Services | Liebert Cassidy Whitmore | Med-Tox Health Services |
| Pulsiam | Southern Police Institute | V-Academy |
