Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

Finally, all candidates must possess a current certification in CPR and first aid by the
time an offer of employment is given. 4
2. The role of Psychological Services in new constable selection
5. An important part of the constable selection process is psychological testing and
a psychological interview. The interpretation of this testing and the psychological
interview may be conducted either by one of the Service’s two in-house psychologists in
the Psychological Services unit, or contracted out to other psychologists if the
application volume exceeds the capacity of TPS Psychological Services. Only candidates
that have shown promise at the two earlier stages of the evaluation process will be
selected for psychological evaluation.
6. All candidates selected for psychological evaluation must complete a personal
history questionnaire and two well-established psychological tests: the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2 (MMPI-2) and 16 Personality Factor (16PF). The
tests are slightly modified by the TPS psychologists to omit questions that may be
prohibited by the Ontario Human Rights Code. 5 The MMPI-2 is one of the most
commonly used tests of adult personality traits and psychopathology. 6 The 16PF test is
another widely-used test to analyze 16 primary personality traits and the “big five”
secondary personality traits in adults. 7
7. These tests, though useful, have limitations. The OACP Constable Selection
System’s “Guidelines for Psychologists” recommend that the results of MMPI-2 tests
should be considered invalid under certain circumstances. Without delving into
excessive detail regarding testing methods, the Review been informed that it is not an
uncommon result in psychological testing of recruit candidates for the tests to be
deemed invalid. As a result, the TPS psychologists exercise both caution and discretion
in the interpretation of test results whenever the test may not be considered valid
pursuant to the CSS guidelines. In this circumstance, their hiring recommendation may
be based on the psychological interview alone.
8. Through the above tests and the psychological interview, the psychologists screen
for the following traits, among others: problem-solving abilities, self-confidence,
communication, flexibility, stress tolerance, self-control, ability to build relationships,
emotional insight, empathy, tolerance of diversity, and patience. Psychologists also
screen for measures of past and present psychopathology, and other undesirable
psychological traits that may interfere with the safe and effective discharge of the duties
4
Ibid.
5
Carol Vipari & Cathy Martin-Doto, Psychologist Guidelines – New Constable Psychological Screening Evaluations (Toronto, ON:
Toronto Police Service, 2013) [Vipari & Martin-Doto, “Psychologist Guidelines”]; Human Rights Code, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19.
6
Martin Sellbom, Gary L. Fischler & Yossef S. Ben-Porath, “Identifying MMPI-2 Predictors of Police Officer Integrity and
Misconduct” (2007) 34:8 Criminal Justice and Behavior 985.
7
Heather E.P. Cattell & Alan D. Mead. “The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)” in Gregory J. Boyle, Gerald Matthews
& Donald H. Saklofske, eds., The SAGE Handbook of Personality Theory and Assessment (Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications,
2008) 135 at 136. The 16primary personality traits are: warmth, reasoning, emotional stability, dominance, liveliness, ruleconsciousness,
social boldness, sensitivity, vigilance, abstractedness, privateness, apprehension, openness to change, self-reliance,
perfectionism, and tension. The “big five” secondary personality traits are: openness to experience, conscientiousness,
extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Police Encounters With People in Crisis |130