Roles of police psychologists

Roles of police psychologists

Abstract

Police psychologists came to play as a means of evaluating, assessing, and filtering recruits to the police service as it determines the fitness of an individual to the ensuing function. Their roles are varied based on the extremes surrounding the police service. Based on the varied tasks, an individual requires a doctorate in psychology with experience in related psychiatric situations.  The stressful nature of policing made psychology have multiple roles in providing solutions to the unit. These include selection during pre-employment exercise, evaluation for fitness of duty for officers, clinical interventions for officers who have undergone traumatic experiences, crisis or hostage negotiations, and solving the intricacies surrounding police use of brutal force. However, flexibility remains of necessity in police psychology based on the dynamic occurrences that the society experiences in the contemporary field.

Introduction

The late 1960s saw the involvement of psychologists in the police unit following the recommendation by the commission on disorder report. There was an increase in civil unrest due to the number of police disorder cases experienced during that time.  These were part of screening methods that were to be employed in determining the quality of officers selected.  There was a requirement by the police departments to seek the expertise from the psychologists to help in the selection of emotionally stable officers (Kaplan et al. 2017). The stressful nature of policing was a significant concern in the improvement of the sector; thus, psychology was prime informing its incorporation in the policing service.  Police psychologists, therefore, adapt to various roles within the policing service following the psychological issues that sometimes occur in the police system. This involved the incorporation of psychological tests meant to gauge the level of police affectivity in the service.

In 1916, Lewis Terman, a psychologist from Stanford, began integration and application of psychological precepts into law enforcement achieved through a variety of quick tests that Alfred Binet had proposed earlier. This led to the establishment of the name Alfred-Binet tests that found wide application in California for firefighter and police jobs. The tests remain widely applicable in the contemporary policing selection process, and the psychology in police service is continually growing to account for the dynamic changes that the service is experiencing. Social issues that require psychological expertise are on the increase, therefore, requiring flexibility in the field to account for such diverse activities.

However, in 2006, there was the ratification of guidelines that would be the base for consultation in police psychology. The guidelines, as per the International Association, integrated the ethical principles as well as the codes of conduct from the American psychological association. The Policing service as an essential component of society law enforcement agency required psychological principles, which are critical for societal business at large. The guidelines defined the boundaries within which the police psychologists would operate, thus established the professional roles with the appropriate legal and ethical standards necessary. The frameworks have proved vital in contemporary police psychology, as the standards tend to confine the psychological work within the appropriate framework. In this document, however, we focus on the roles of police psychologists.

Police psychologists perform a range of duties, mainly concerned with shedding some light on the inner workings of the human mind. They tend to advise the police on the appropriate ways of dealing with people, including interrogations and any other hidden compartment in the brain of humans when there is a need (Curran et al., 2019). In this regard, police psychologists require specialized skills to aid in performing such activities.  These include an in-depth understanding of public safety administrations and departments, normal and pathological responses to stress and trauma, and knowledge of fundamental psychological skills, among other skills. The IACP guidelines indicate that a police psychologist requires a doctorate in psychology with either licensed clinical pathologists or psychiatrist recommended for such assignment.

To begin with, a police psychologist is useful in the pre-employment selection process. The psychologist department is an attempt to provide standard guidelines for police selection as a solution to variable options that were employed (Kaplan et al., 2017) — from the instructions, only certified or licensed with appropriate training and experience in the interpretation of psychological assessments that are law-oriented.  In this regard, the police psychologists had to commit to a strict adherence to the standards and principles of APA and or other state and federal laws. Their role in this system includes an objective, cognitive, job-related, and psychologically validated methods with individual self-to-self interviews (Curran et al., 2019).  The psychologists will thus ensure that the selection process sieves the requisite personnel that is psychologically viable for the ensuring duties.

The service police psychologists provide relevant training to the officers on how to handle diverse people in society based on the situation. These include showing the methods for evaluation of offenders with mental complications, management of stress for officers and their families, training in police sensitivity and restraint, and the productive skills necessary for interviewing, particularly the mentally challenged, the ill, children, and the elderly populations. They also enlighten on psychological profiling, investigative hypnosis, diversity training, communication skills, practical report writing skills, and evidentiary issues involving criminal incompetence and intent (Police Psychology, 2019). Such preparations are instrumental for the police, particularly in the metropolitan area, who have to experience diverse people. Psychological identification with different groups promotes the function of an officer with such people as he or she has the relevant knowledge and ways of dealing with them. In this regard, psychology in policing provides a realm of experience where individual officers pose the capability to relate with all members of the public regardless of the variations that may exist between you.

Police psychologists are also useful in police recruitment; in other words, fitness for duty evaluation.  The psychological fitness for duty evaluations 2004 guidelines defines fitness for duty evaluation as an examination for incumbent employees basing on objective evidence that an employee is unable or able to perform the particular job with a consistent basis on psychological issues.  In this regard, the fitness evaluation determines whether a new police officer is psychologically fit to complete the task at hand (Curran et al., 2019).  This evaluation often requires a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist with reasonable training in psychological assessment, particularly in the evaluation of law enforcement personnel. With a viable recommendation from the psychologists, it is the role of the relevant department to make their decision based on the appropriate staff. Psychology in recruitment is crucial as it prepares the officers for the difficult task ahead (Police Psychology, 2019). The experiences that the police undergo may be disastrous, especially for individuals with psychologically related issues. This will, therefore, provide a platform where new police are psychologically prepared for any occurrence that may interfere with their mental state in the course of duty. It also helps isolate individuals who are potential risk factors for the service, which, in the long run, may compromise the work of the force.

Police officers who have had significant experience in the force explain that the fit for the evaluation process is a lengthy and intrusive process (Major, 2019). Tactical rifle team operators are difficult tasks; therefore may not be left for any other police officer. Thus, the psychological screening process does work in choosing officers that are fit for such demanding tasks. The psychologists will continue to provide their support after the police undergo such horrific experiences through individual counseling or their families.

Clinical responses and intervention are similarly crucial for individuals in the police sector. In primary metropolitan setups, crisis responses are prone to an average of one incident occurring per week. Responses are diverse and include involvement in shootings, significant deaths and injuries, attempts of suicide, adverse vehicular accidents, and unique weapons, and tactics callouts frequently occur, thus require faster interventions by the police sector (Police Psychology, 2019). These experiences, as the public may see them as familiar to the public, are traumatic on the sides of the police.  From a psychological perspective, an officer who has undergone such a situation is considered having an experience that supersedes the typical human experience; thus requires faster intervention less the consequences pose complex repercussions.  In most cases, these critical incidences are often followed by anxiety and depression, social isolation, increased alcohol and substance abuse, hypersensitivity,  sleep disturbances, and flashbacks (Police Psychology, 2019). In this regard, the police psychologists do have the task of providing stress inoculation training programs that the sector has identified as necessary in the reduction of psychological impacts of stress associated with such occurrences.

Common interventions that the guidelines involve include marital, individual, and family counseling programs. In individual therapy, issues of concern usually include anxiety, depression, domestic violence, and substance abuse. However, contemporary psychological patters accord compulsive gambling as also key in individual therapy.  Marital and family interventions, on the other hand, are confidential majorly on a short -term basis of between 8 and 12 weeks.  The individual interventions often involve exclusive experience members of the section who assess, treat, or refer the police based on the level of effect.  However, the current system has allowed for the establishment of peer support aftercare groups within the departments as a long-term strategy for gambling and substance abuse cases.

Police psychology also works to address the issue of police suicide, which has become prominent and is likely to reach an epidemic level.  Suicide among police officers is often easy based on the weapons that they have. Therefore, police psychologists are developing a training program to be implemented in the contemporary policing duties to identify, address, and eliminate the causes that bring about suicide (Major, 2019). The issues are psychological; therefore, psychological precepts and interventions are the only ways of finding a lasting solution to the problem.

Police psychology also has extensive applications during hostage and crisis negotiations.  In many cases, the police are involved in law enforcement tactical teams in areas of crisis. A hostage situation is a state where individuals are held through an act of active coercion. The police psychologists, therefore, tend to provide information that influences the next action by the police. In such circumstances, the role of a police psychologist is to provide generalized theoretical and practical behavioral scientific information.  In this regard, they design and implement negotiator training and selection programs. They also provide particular behavioral recommendations to the chain of command in charge of operations (Miller, 2006). Hostage situations normally require the experienced police psychologist, as their decisions are likely to impede or compromise the entire situation if it is miscalculated.  Therefore state and legal constraints always provide the boundaries within which the police psychologists operate; consequently, they do not wholly rely on personal judgment to inform the group’s operations. The role of psychologists in this realm is more critical as it is the ultimate determinant for the success of the program.  Psychology helps people to have an effective means of gathering intelligence, which provides the relevant strategies to implement during such critical incidences.

Police psychologist also tends to the officers with difficulty in deploying their duties based on family or marital issues. Family separations or loss of loved ones not only affects an individual psychologically but compromises their ability to attend to their normal activities (Miller, 2006).  Such personal situations do change individuals, thus undermining their capacity to deal with fear, emotionally charged patrols, and animosity situations.  In such environments, officers can become erratic and can be equivalent to the use of excessive force that we sometimes experience among the officers.  Experienced officers with in-depth psychological knowledge can, however, identify such behaviors to inform the appropriate action. Police psychologists, therefore, have the responsibility of identifying and initiating individual counseling programs to offset such occurrences.

Finally, police psychologists focus on the use of lethal force by the police in their activities. The law system is replete with numerous cases of police brutality towards the citizens; therefore, police psychologists have incorporated this issue as part of their responsibility (Miller, 2006). They conduct a diverse study on the workings of police officers from which they deduce the possible causes of lethal use by police. In this regard, the recommendations have been useful in limiting the number of cases related to police brutality, which in turn is helpful in the improvement of policing service.

Conclusion

Police psychologists have diverse applications in the modern law majorly for law enforcement agencies. The development of a high professional level is dependent on psychology achieved through the screening process during selection where t has numerous applications. Psychology has undergone significant transformations since incorporation in 1916 and continues to provide solutions to the policing sector on the inner mind of humans. From the text, the roles of police psychologists pre-selection process during police employment, fitness for duty evaluation, clinical intervention, hostage and crisis negotiations, and solving the police use of brutal force among populations. The populations have recorded satisfaction with the sector as the focus has shifted from police use of brutal force to non-brutal incorrigibility with the populace. However, successful police psychologists require vast knowledge in policing service, psychological skills, and a strong sense of morality and ethics. Moreover, flexibility is of great necessity to the psychological field owing to the current events that are fast-changing and are continually shaping the field. However, I hold the view that police psychology is an essential aspect of policing and needs detailed study to assess its suitability for application in all the sectors of the police unit.

References

Police Psychology. (2019). Police Psychologist Career – IResearchNet. Retrieved 16 February 2020, from http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/forensic-psychology/police-psychology/police-psychologist-career/

Kaplan, J. B., Bergman, A. L., Christopher, M., Bowen, S., & Hunsinger, M. (2017). Role of resilience in mindfulness training for first responders. Mindfulness, 8(5), 1373-1380.

Major, J. S. (2019). Anti-terrorism, Forensic Science, Psychology In Police Investigations. Routledge.

Miller, L. (2006). Practical police psychology: Stress management and crisis intervention for law enforcement. Charles C Thomas Publisher.

Curran, S. F., Holt, E. O., & Afanador, J. H. (2017). Transition and reintegration of military personnel to law enforcement careers. Police psychology and its growing impact on modern law enforcement (pp. 158-175). IGI Global.