Colorado About to Require All Police Officers to Undergo Psychological Evaluations

[Katashi_itto]

Colorado ruled Monday that police officers in the state be required to undergo full psychological evaluations. The checks would occur before an officer is hired, and every time an officer changes jobs or jurisdictions in the state thereafter, the Denver Post reported.

According to the Post, state law already requires psychological evaluations but such checks are rarely carried out in practice. The new rules were affirmed during a meeting of the Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training Board.

The loose protocols have largely benefited problem officers who can shuffle between departments when they have committed violations. In many cases, they end up in more impoverished rural areas which typically have difficulty finding qualified candidates.

“What the public is concerned about is that police departments don’t pass off someone that is a problem in one department to another department,” Grand Junction, Colorado police chief and POST vice chairman, John S. Camper, told Mic. Camper disputed the Post‘s claim that the primary screenings were not being enforced. “I haven’t heard of that,” he said. “I can tell you in the departments I’ve been in … we do psych tests on everyone.”

http://truthvoice.com/2015/12/colorado-about-to-require-all-police-officers-to-undergo-psychological-evaluations/

[tularetom]

1. I once had an employee who made some suggestive remarks to several female coworkers

And when we attempted to discipline him, the HR people required us to send him to psychological counseling. In the course of the counseling, he turned over a coffee table and threatened to kick the counselor's ass. So we began disciplinary proceedings, during which we received a background check request from the California Highway Patrol regarding this guy. He had applied for a position with them. I relayed the facts to the investigator thinking this was the last we'd hear of his ambitions to be a cop.

I was amazed (as well as somewhat relieved) when he came into my office a week or so later and handed me his resignation. The CHP had hired him.

I'm somewhat skeptical that psychological screening for prospective police officers has ever or is going to in the future, yield the the type of individuals we need in these sensitive jobs. If the testing shows you to be a bully, you're hired. Otherwise, forget it. It should be just the opposite.

[AZ Progressive]

4. A police bully is a potential liability to the department, why would they want them?

Unless police departments are fully confident that they can win lawsuits filed against them.

[eggplant]

8. They're insured. n/t

[Bohunk68]

18. The insurance is the taxpayer. Not some nebulous company.

[eggplant]

20. Actually, that's not true.

See http://www.cirsa.org/index.aspx

[markpkessinger]

15. The problem is that even when police lose lawsuits . . .

. . . it isn't the police that are on the hook for payment of the claims -- it's the taxpayers. Here in NYC, in 2014, taxpayers paid out $550 million in lawsuits against the NYPD. The police are effectively unaccountable, win or lose.

[PADemD]

16. Taxpayers on the hook for lawsuits

That is why each police officer should be required to carry insurance similar to medical malpractice insurance. If there are too many claims, an individual police officer's insurance rates would increase so much as to become unaffordable or the insurance company would drop coverage altogether. No insurance, no job anywhere.

[ArcticFox]

17. They dio like to be considered "professionals", so yes

They should carry insurance just like other professionals - lawyers, doctors, accountants.

[libdem4life]

21. You have to have expensive Errors and Omissions Insurance just to sell a house.

[napi21]

2. I think that is the first REALLY GOOD IDEA I've heard in an effort to begin to solve the policing

problems we have everywhere! I honestly thought most police departments already do that!

Many times a person can pass the initial psych test when hired, but things happen that change that, but without further examinations its never caught.

This sounds like something that should be implemented in every police department in the country, including the FBI.

[Snobblevitch]

3. I am quite sire that in order to get a peace officer's license

in my state, an individual must pass a psych test.

[Lee-Lee]

5. That's been pretty standard here in NC for at least all new hires

Some smaller departments don't do it because they hire only officers already trained and certified, but to get started anywhere it's a must pass, and most agencies over 12 officers or so do it for most hires no matter what, unless they are hiring part time and they know the officer is in good standing full time at an agency they trust.

[NotHardly]

7. Small agencies and end up with big expensive problems...

State might want to think how to help small agencies afford the process rather than assuming it is not necessary for the protection and safety of a community with a population under 12,000... those folks don't need abused either.

[NotHardly]

6. Back in the 80s and 90s most states, KS, CA, WS, Iowa and WA for sure did tests

It was standard for new hires to take the MMPI or CPI (Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory or California PI) and be interviewed by a psychologist. The test given in KS managed to keep the infamous BTK (Dennis Rader) off the Wichita Sheriffs Dept and Police Departments ... good thing we had it then. Sure could use it in all departments again, if that is what happened... saving money by neglecting to do the exams. Also, new hires were thoroughly background checked ... detectives were assigned to do deep checks, interview the officer, family, friends, associates, neighbors, etc. Kept a better check on incoming problems. Moreover, good supervision, real supervision was also helpful. Maybe everyone just outsourced the issue or did the business model of looking the other way and letting the problem become one of community budgets rather than doing their jobs, you know, sorta like Lee Iacoca did for the exploding Pinto, betting they could beat the rap in court and save money by not fixing the problem.

[jtuck004]

9. "...and they gave Me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604.""

"And I waked in and sat down and they gave
Me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604.""

And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I
Wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and
Guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill,
Kill, kill. " And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "kill, kill, " and
He started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down
Yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me,
Sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."

...

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/a/arlo_guthrie/alices_restaurant.html

I feel better now.

[SecularMotion]

10. The same should be required for anyone who carries a gun in public.

[madville]

11. And also before anyone is allowed to vote

Most Republicans wouldn't be able to pass for either reason.

[Snobblevitch]

14. Should anyone who votes also be required to own property?

[elmac]

12. I wish the house and senate would have the same evaluations

[Jarqui]

13. Some cities have been doing it for decades

A friend of my brother's, who was a bank manager that wanted to be a cop (which some may take as the first clue), flunked the psych exam in 1976

[Bohunk68]

19. This covers new hires only.

The very first paragraph says that. This law does NOT apply to ALL officers, only NEW HIRES.

[libdem4life]

22. They are afraid of how many would not pass. And then there would be the Pension situation..

But I take comfort in the knowledge that it is coming out in the light of day. It will check some of the acts that might have been done, second thoughts, and then the new hires may not be so anxious to join the Silent Blue Line when things do go awry. All in all, it's progress.