The Pre-employment Clinical Assessment of Police Candidates: Principles and Guidelines for Canadian Psychologists

Identification and selection of acceptable police candidates is a complex and multi-step process. The Canadian Police Sector Council has articulated a comprehensive process by which appropriate candidates can be identified, and candidates who are likely to be unsatisfactory police officers can be eliminated from consideration (see A Guide to Constable Selection: A Best practice Approach and Research Update (July, 2011, hereafter to referred to as the PSC Guide). The current Guidelines describe one aspect of the selection process outlined in the PSC Guide, the clinical psychological assessment. The purpose of the clinical assessment is primarily to identify candidates who exhibit personality traits, behaviour patterns or psychological characteristics that are likely to be problematic in the police workplace. The clinical assessment is intended to contribute information to be considered in the overall assessment of suitability, but it is not a selection decision in and of itself. As is stipulated in the PSC Guide, there are a number of ways in which psychologists and other specialists with expertise in employment selection and measurement can be involved in the pre-employment selection and assessment of police candidates. At the broadest level, they may play an integral role in the overall development of a selection process. They may be involved i