POLICE PSYCHOLOGY:Use of excessive force, Corruption, Personnel Selection

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Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

Lesson 04

POLICE PSYCHOLOGY

Objectives:

To understand the issues of police like use of excessive force and corruption

To understand the strategies to combat with corruption

Issues of police

a. Use of excessive force

b. Corruption

Use of excessive force

Use of excessive force is an unacceptable behavior. "When the level of force exceeds the level

considered justifiable under the circumstances, it is called excessive force". For example, in a park

few young boys were playing cricket, a woman asked them to stop their play but one boy denied and

they kept playing. She called the police, boy again showed resistance. Policemen caught that boy and

beat him badly. Now this is the excessive use of force, policemen could have warn him or simply caught

him but they excessively used their force and beat-up that boy to death. Some time only one policeman

is involved in torturing and some time all police is involved in such unjustifiable behaviour. In this

regard a psychologist can help to identify whether the use of force was excessive or not? And if use of

force was excessive then what should be the remedy.

Many researches has targeted the use of excessive force and regarding the unsatisfactory officer, Bartol

(1982) have found that police applicants who consistently score low on personality tests and are later

involved in excessive use of force, misconduct, accidents, deadly force, and/or resignation tend to fall

into one of two (2) groups:

Antisocial Personality -- characterized by narcissism, suspiciousness, cynicism, tough-

mindedness, insensitivity, defensiveness, rigidity, irritability, resentfulness, sensation seeking

and hyperactivity.

Ineffectual Personality -- characterized by indecisiveness, introversion, dependency,

cautiousness, oversensitivity, and tended to be quiet individuals who went through the motions

and failed to make a difference on the street.

Corruption

First of all there is an essential need to realize that only police is not the single department that is corrupt

and not only are Pakistani police corrupt. We can not found a single country of the world without

corruption. Perhaps because of the frequent police-society interaction police is being perceived as more

corrupt department. The application of psychology to law enforcement and public safety is a rapidly

growing area increasingly recognized as vital to many aspects of police work and the academic study of

policing. However, the field suffers from something of an identity complex.

Strategies to combat with the corruption of police

As discussed earlier Forensic Psychology can help law enforcing agencies in many different ways, but

how can Forensic Psychology help in combating with police corruption? Forensic Psychology can help

at following different levels:

1. Personnel Selection

2. Training Level

3. Police Counseling and On duty Stress Management

Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

Personnel Selection

How to judge a person will corrupt or not? Who is more likely to indulge in corrupt behavior? The

typical psychologist involved with personnel selection would use personality test results to assist

selection boards to either "screening-in" or "screening-out". Many personality tests are used for

recruitment but are not good predictor of honesty or/and corrupt behavior.

Personality tests were used extensively to try and predict corruption tendencies and PERSEREC Study

is illustrative of such efforts. This study looked at the correlations between personality traits, as

measured by four instruments (the MMPI-2, IPI, 16-PF, and CPI), and employees who were forced to

resign, were fired, disciplined, or prosecuted. While the overall results were not promising for a sole

testing approach to root out corruption, the following are some personality traits which had high

correlation:

Personality Traits associated with Police Corruption

16-PF

MMPI-2

Lying .32

Hypochrondriasis .31

Tough Poise .23

Paranoia .34

Overly Shrewd .22

Problematic Anger .39

Overenthusiastic .28

Imperturbability .41

Bold .28

Adjustment Problems .20

CPI

IPI

Trouble with the Law .29

Capacity for Status.20

Antisocial Attitudes .24

Good Impression .28

Family Conflicts .32

Independence .22

An American agency founded that Immaturity, unreliability and irresponsibility at young age were the

best predictors of corrupt behavior. But still identification of all these traits does not guarantee the

honest and incorrupt behavior. Because many officers with these traits did not show corrupt behavior

later and many who did not possess such traits showed undesired behaviour.

Training level

At recruitment level once desired traits have been identified, these good and desired traits can be

improved at training level in following areas:

Designing training program by applying Psychological principals

This is possible by the application of psychological knowledge and principals. Psychologists are well

aware of the principals of teaching and learning so can help in designing training program.

Basic things to develop during a training program in police are:

a. Empathy

Empathy refers to the "appreciation of another's problems and feelings without experiencing the same

emotional reaction. To be distinguished from sympathy that is usually nonobjective and non-critical" a

policeman must know to be empathetic. `Seek first to understand, and then to be understood', which

serves as a constant reminder for the need to listen to the other person before you can expect them to

listen to you. Training of empathy not only helps understanding the community problems but also help

in maintaining the good image of police along with the handling of corrupt behavior.

b. Customer service attitude

Like many other businesses and community service departments the importance of customer service

attitude is also crucial in policing. Customer service attitude is a positive attitude toward customer that

is supposed to be evident through the verbal as well as non verbal means of communication. Positive

Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

attitude can be defined as a helpful state of mind or a feeling regarding a situation or fact. Customer

service is not easy. Everyone has at some time been challenged by a difficult customer. The skilled

professional is constantly faced with situations that require the utmost skill, tact, diplomacy and positive

attitude in order to succeed in even the most adverse conditions. A positive attitude is deeply rooted in

character. Encouraged character aspects can be learned. It takes practice and a willingness to change.

And the incorporation of training for customer service attitude can help in improving the police

behavior.

Police Counseling and on duty Stress Management

A common, everyday function for the police psychologist is police counseling. In majority of

departments, police officers usually receive free, in-house counseling as often because of stressful

nature of job they need it and confidentiality is sometimes an issue, so external sources for counseling

are sometimes obtained.

Stress management

Police stress is perhaps the most common problem a police psychologist deals with; although a variety

of other problems exist, ranging from compassion fatigue to marital problems to alcoholism to suicide.

PSTD (Post Shooting Traumatic Response) or burnouts are common, as is "burst stress", which means

that there is no steady stressor. Officers go from periods of complete calm to periods of high activity in

sudden bursts, much like a military "hurry up and wait" drill.

The families of police officers also suffer stress, a kind of vicarious occupational stress. The

unpredictability, shift work, fear (of death, injury, kidnapping), isolation, and low pay all cause family

problems. Children of officers are held to higher standards by the community, spouses are often at odds

in figuring out how to communicate with one another, and both groups must deflect the never-ending

stream of public inquiry whenever the police department is in the news. Relationships in police families

are often distant (NIJ 1991).

What is stress?

Before going into details let's understand what stress is.

"Stress is mental or physical tension that results from physical, emotional, or chemical causes. It is

emotionally disruptive or upsetting condition occurring in response to adverse external stimuli

and is capable of affecting physical and mental health which can be characterized by increased

heart rate, a rise in blood pressure, muscular tension, irritability and depression"

Now, while this may sound funny there is a real element of truth to it. An element of truth that says an

awful lot about police work. And that is the part of the definition "......BUT YOU CAN'T". Police work,

by its very nature, calls for an incredible amount of restraint. The demands on police officers to show

ever greater control, have been increasing over the years, but not so coincidentally have the effects of

stress on police work. With the recent attention that police suicide has received in the media there have

been a number of reviews on police suicide.

Types of police stressors

Stressors Internal to the Police Organization:

Stressors that are related to the organization can include following:

Poor supervision (too lenient/too tough)

Insufficient training

Absence of upward mobility

Absence of an extrinsic reward system

Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

Offensive (annoying & silly) policies and procedures

Excessive paperwork

Bad equipment

Poor salary

Shift work (night duties)

Stressors external to the police organization may include:

Absence of career development & lateral entry

Ineffective criminal justice system

Biased press and media influence

Derogatory remarks of laymen

Political interference

Stressors task-related to police work

Role conflict and strain

Rotating shift work

Fear and danger involved in job

Giving up cases to the detective division

Victim pain & anguish

Employee review boards

Stressors Associated with Personal Problems

Marital and family relationships (like divorce, and/or other familial problems)

Health problems

Addictions

Peer group pressure

Depression

Harassment

Lack of accomplishment

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