Statewide Psychological Screening Mandates for Police Candidates in the United States: A Review and Comparison to the Standard of Practice

Public Significance Statement This article provides an analysis of how the statutory and regulatory requirements for preemployment psychological evaluations of police candidates in all 50 U.S. states compare to the standard of practice and provides important information for interjurisdictional practice and for consideration of new or revised mandates. Requirements for preemployment psychological screening of police candidates are informed by professional practice guidelines and, in some U.S. states, laws regulating police officer certification or entry to the police academy. Knowledge of these laws, both individually and collectively, serves important purposes, including interjurisdictional practice, aiding legislative and regulatory staff when proposing new legislation or updating regulations, and identifying adherence to standards of practice in the field of police and public safety psychology. In this review, we first outline the current standard of practice for conducting preemployment psychological assessments of police candidates and then examine the extent to which they are represented in statewide mandates throughout the 50 U.S. states. We focus specifically on the extent to which statewide mandates articulate (a) the criterion standard for determining the psychological suitability of police candidates; (b) who is qualified to conduct these assessments; (c) whether written testing is required and, if so, what types of tests; (d) whether the use of collateral information is required and, if so, what type; and (e) whether a psychological interview is required and, if so, with what parameters. We conclude that there remains a remarkable lack of cross-jurisdictional uniformity in preemployment psychological evaluations of police candidates and that most jurisdictions fall well short of the standard for conducting such assessments, and we discuss the need for and ways to address this challenge.