Describe the current trends in the selection and hiring of law enforcement personnel

The trends In law enforcement have thankfully been changing in the last few decades, when looking at
the current trends in the selection and hiring of law enforcement they have not only become more
inclusive but also a little more strict. Currently law enforcement personal has expanded to include
women and minorities in a once male and white dominated field. Not only are there more women and
minorities in this particular field but potential hires also need to pass a flurry of test such as entry level
examination, physical agility test, background investigation, medical examination, polygraph test, and
psychological evaluation.

Identify and explain two psychological test that you would administer if conducting pre-employment
psychological evaluation on a police officer candidate. Justify your selection

NEO Personality Inventory’

The NEO Personality Inventory is a test that assesses normal personality bases on five personality
factors, those five-factor are neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
It is useful in determining whether or not a person’s personality matched the criteria put forth in job
descriptions. I would use this test if I were to conduct pre-employment psychological evaluations on a
police officer candidate because each personality dimension has many different facets that should be
considered when dealing with sensitive situations. Each facet under the 5 factors are akin to traits that
should be present in every police officer, without them situations that are not necessarily life
threatening can turn that way very quickly.

16 Personality factor Questionnaire

The 16 Personality factor Questionnaire is another assessment that measures personality traits, it uses
five factors, extraversion, anxiety, toughmindedness, independence and self-control and can even
predict turnover of police officers. I chose this test based on the fact that It could measure
emotional/mood state. This will allow us to predict the potential response given when a police office is
not emotionally stable, a high strung police officer in many situations can potentially turn the situation
deadly.

Harmening, W.H., & Gamez, A.M. (2016). Forensic psychology. Boston, M.A.: Pearson.