Police Selection and Training

The New Police Officer During the past twenty years the tasks required of police officers have expanded and changed with dramatic rapidi ty. The tradi tional roles of the police had been those of law enforcement and the maintenance of public order. As a consequence police officers were typically large-bodied males, selected for their physical abilities and trained to accept orders and enforce the law. Over the past two decades, however, the industrialized nations have placed a variety of new demands on police officers. To traditional law enforcement and public order tasks have been added social work, mental health duties, and cORllluni ty relations work. For example, domestic disputes, violence between husbands and wives, lovers, relatives, etc. , have increased in frequency and severity (or at least there has been a dramatic increase in reporting the occurence of domestic violence). Our societies have no formal system to deal with domestic disputes and the responsibility to do so, in most countries, has fallen to the police. In fact, in some areas as many as 607. of calls for service to the police are related to domestic disputes (see the chapter in this text by Dutton). As a result the police officer has had to become a skilled social worker, able to intervene with sensi ti vi ty in domestic situations. Alternatively, in the case of West Germany, the officer has had to learn to work co-operatively with social workers (see the chapter by Steinhilper).

Section I - Lecturers Chapters. - 1. Recruit Selection in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. - 2. Critical Issues for the Police Psychologist in Training Police. - 3. The Development of Training, and the Need for In-Service Training. - 4. The Panacea of Training and Selection. - 5. Training Police for Social Work? - Experiences from a German Program. - 6. The Contribution of Psychology to the Development of Police Training in Britain (with Particular Emphasis on Metropolitan London). - 7. An Evaluation of Police Recruit Training in Human Awareness. - 8. The Limits of Police Community Relations Training. - 9. The Public and the Police: Training Implications of the Demand for a New Model Police Officer. - 10. Officer-Involved Shootings: Effects, Suggested Procedures and Treatment. - 11. Police and the Mentally Disordered. - 12. Criminal Psychopaths. - 13. The Inheritance of Human Deviance: Anti-Genetic Bias and the Facts. - 14. Meaningful Research in the Police Context. - Section II - Delegates Papers. - 1. Psychological Standards Research for California Law Enforcement Officers. - 2. Assessment Strategy for Special Unit Assignments: An Alternative to Psychological Tests. - 3. Municipal Police Evaluation: Psychometric Versus Behavioural Assessment. - 4. Police Selection and Training in West Germany. - 5. Resignation During Police Training in Britain. - 6. Leadership Training and an Integrated Introduction to Psychology for Police Officers. - 7. Helping Young Policemen Cope with Stress and Manage Conflict Situations. - 8. Integrating Women into Law Enforcement. - 9. Interviewing Development: Facing up to Reality. - 10. Special Care Questioning of Mentally Vulnerable Victims and Witnesses of Crime. - 11. Police and Public Perceptions of the Police Role: Moving Towards a Reappraisal ofPolice Professionalism. - 12. The Psychologist as an Agent for Change. - 13. Community Liaison Specialists - A British Perspective. - 14. Evaluating the Police: Attitudes, Competency and Credibility.