Consultation in police and public safety psychology.

Abstract

According to Kitaeff (2011b), Hugo Munsterberg was arguably the first police psychologist in that he explored psychological aspects of crime detection and related themes in an influential book titled On the Witness Stand (Munsterberg, 1908). Other early examples of psychological consultation to law enforcement included Terman's use of psychological testing to assist the San Jose Police Department in California in its selection of police officers (Terman et al., 1917). By the 1970s, the provision of direct psychological services to law enforce ment personnel was more common and included individual therapy for police officers, substance abuse recovery groups, and postcritical incident debrief ings (Kitaeff, 2011b). Important to the development of police psychology was a number of federal commissions that advocated for reforms in areas such as police officer selection and training (Trompetter, 2017), including The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (President's Commission, 1967). These political and social forces, along with the accumulated wisdom of police psychologists and the fruit of psychological research, led to the expansion of police psychology to include four domains: assessment, intervention, operational support, and organizational consultation (Aumiller & Corey, 2007).The maturing of police psychology into a distinct practice area was formal ized by two important events. In 2011, the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) recognized PPSP as its 14th specialty board (ABPP, n.d.). This meant that PPSP took its place among other specialties, such as clinical neuropsychology and clinical health psychology, as a practice area in which psychologists could seek advanced certification. Trompetter (2011) described this achievement as the most important development to date in the history of police psychology. In 2013, the American Psychological Association (APA) officially recognized PPSP as a specialty (APA, n.d.b). Professional milestones such as these do not occur by accident; they are the hardwon successes of visionary professionals working together. APA (n.d.a) describes PPSP as follows: CONTEMPORARY DEFINITIONPolice and public safety psychology is concerned with assisting law enforcement and other public safety personnel and agencies in carrying out their missions and societal functions with effectiveness, safety, health and conformity to laws and ethics. It consists of the application of the science and profession of psychology in four primary domains of practice: assessment, clinical intervention, operational support, organizational consultation. ("Police and Public Safety")The four domains and other definitional aspects of PPSP have been described in detail elsewhere (e.g., Aumiller & Corey, 2007;Trompetter, 2017) and are explored more fully later in this chapter.

Statewide psychological screening mandates for police candidates in the United States: A review and comparison to the standard of practice.

“…Two professional practice guidelines are often cited as foundational to the standard of practice for conducting suitability evaluations of police candidates (Mitchell & Dorian, 2020). The APA adopted as official policy the Professional Practice Guidelines for Occupationally Mandated Psychological Evaluations (OMPE; APA, 2018; hereafter, “OMPE guidelines”), which contain guidelines for conducting “clinical evaluations of individuals for occupational purposes, regardless of whether the evaluation is intended to obtain employment, to achieve licensure/certification, or to maintain either” (p. 186).…”

“…Standards of practice are generally aspirational and not subject to civil enforcement for nonadherence, but breaches can result in sanctions by licensing boards and other professional bodies even though they do not typically expose a nonadherent professional to civil liability. Nevertheless, knowledge of the standard of practice is essential for competent practice by psychologists who conduct police suitability evaluations 1 (Mitchell & Dorian, 2020). Adherence to the standard of practice can be challenging for psychologists conducting these evaluations when the laws or regulations governing them contain anomalous requirements that may fall below the standard or when they do not address one or more components of the standard.…”