Question

Bay Ridge, a city with a population of about 125,000, experienced remarkable growth over a short time for two major reasons. First, several large industries were attracted to the area; with more jobs came more people. Second, due to a rezoning plan, several small townships were incorporated into Bay Ridge, which caused a sudden burgeoning in the city’s official population. As a consequence of this growth, the city needed to expand its police force. For many years, Bay Ridge had a relatively small force and used only a brief interview to select the officers. Recently, however, there had been several complaints about the city’s selection interview. Due to the complaints and the need to hire many more officers, the city council decided to abandon the old method of hiring. The city commissioned a work analysis for police officers and determined that three major factors contributed to success on the job. The next step was to develop selection measures to assess each of the three factors. The city council called a meeting with the city personnel director to get a progress report on the selection measures being proposed. Four city council members and Ron Davenport, the city personnel director, attended.

Davenport: I’m pleased to report to you that we have made substantial progress in our study. The work analysis revealed that the following factors determine success on the police force: physical agility, sensitivity to community relations, and practical judgment. We are fairly pleased with the tests developed to assess two of the factors, although one of them is causing us some problems.

Councilmember DeRosa: Would you kindly elaborate on what these factors mean?

Davenport: Certainly. Physical agility is important in being able to apprehend and possibly disarm a suspect. It is also important in being able to carry a wounded officer out of the line of hostile fire. Sensitivity to community relations involves knowledge of racial and ethnic problems in the city, plus an ability to work with the community in preventing crime. Practical judgment reflects knowing when it is advisable to pursue a criminal suspect and what methods of action to use in uncertain situations.

Councilmember Flory: How do you propose to measure physical agility?

Davenport: It looks as if we’ll go with some physical standard—being able to carry a 150-pound dummy 25 yards, or something similar. We might also use some height and weight requirements. We could have some problems with gender differences in that women are not as strong as men, but I think we can work it out.

Councilmember Reddinger: Are all of these tests going to be performance tests?

Davenport: No, that’s the only one so far. For the community relations factor, we’re going to use a situational interview. We’ll ask the candidates how they would go about dealing with some hypothetical but realistic problem, such as handling a domestic argument. The interviewers will grade their answers and give a total score.

Councilmember Hamilton: What will be a passing score in this interview?

Davenport: We haven’t determined that yet. We’re still trying to determine if this is the best way to measure the factor.

Councilmember Flory: How do you plan to measure practical judgment?

Davenport: That’s the problem case. We really haven’t figured out a good test of that yet.

Councilmember DeRosa: How about a test of general intelligence?

Davenport: It appears that practical judgment is related to intelligence, but it’s not the same thing. A person can be very intelligent in terms of verbal and numerical ability but not possess a great deal of practical judgment.

Councilmember Reddinger: Hasn’t some psychologist developed a test of practical judgment?

Davenport: Not that we know of. You also have to remember that the type of judgment a police officer has to demonstrate is not the same as the type of judgment, say, a banker has to show. I guess I’m saying there appear to be different kinds of practical judgment.

Councilmember Hamilton: Could you use some personality inventory to measure it?

Davenport: I don’t think so. I doubt that practical judgment is a personality trait. At least I’m not aware of any direct measures of it.

Councilmember Flory: How about using the interview again? A police officer has to demonstrate practical judgment in handling community relations. Can’t you just expand the interview a bit?

Davenport: That’s a possibility we’re considering. Another possibility is to put candidates in a test situation where they have to demonstrate their practical judgment. It could be a pretty expensive method, all things considered, but it may be the best way to go.

Councilmember DeRosa: I have a feeling, Mr. Davenport, that your success in measuring practical judgment will determine just how many good officers we get on the force.

Questions: 1. The city should validate whatever predictors it develops to select police officers. Describe how a criterion-related validity study would be used to assess the accuracy of the predictions.

2. Do you think biographical information might be useful in predicting one’s success as a police officer? If so, what types of items might be useful?

3. Describe a work sample or situational exercise that might measure practical judgment.

4. What might be a problem in using a physical ability test to select police officers?

5. The personnel department has asked you to assist in developing or selecting predictors of police officer performance. What advice would you give?

Answer 1

1. Definitely, a criterion-related validity study would be useful to assess the accuracy of the predictions. For the accuracy of predictions for selecting police officers the following key parameters can be set

• Physical agility,
• Sensitivity to community relations,
• Practical judgment

If a candidate has all the above-mentioned qualities then he can be considered a suitable   match for police officer post. After checking these qualities of the applicant, on the spot performance and then an interview can validate his candidature ship

2. Yes! I think that biographical information might be useful in predicting one’s success as a police officer because it reveals a lot of background information & his past actions, behaviour, his contribution to his family, friends & society. If we have his/her, all the biographical information then can judge the candidate and his suitability for the job.

The items or criteria we can set for the applicant are such as

• His/her family background, his parents job or contribution to the country or society
• His/her education at both school and college levels
• His/her work type and experience or services(if any)
• His/her interest or hobbies, strengths and weaknesses.

3. Let’s take a sample or situational exercise that might measure practical judgment ability of the candidate.

Suppose at the crime spot there is a situation in which a person is attacked and stabbed with a knife. As the police reaches there they find the victim bleeding and the criminal is running at the same time with some vehicle as per the witness, so in that situation what would a police officer will choose between helping the injured person in first aid and getting him/her to the hospital or chasing the criminal ???

In this practical situation, we will judge the candidate based upon his responses.

4. In physical ability test, we might face the problems, which are as following:

• On the gender basis: - we know that men are physically stronger than women are so for this test we will have to set different physical ability parameters for both of them.
• We will have to check their ability in being able to apprehend and possibly disarm a suspect. Because it is also important in being able to carry a wounded officer out of the line of hostile fire or out of any emergency.
• His/her running, jumping and chasing capability, sense of taking immediate actions with rational mind etc.