Chapter 4 Selection and Hiring Practices Police Officer Selection The police officer selection process consists of a process The funneling process puts the less steps toward the front of the selection process and reserves the more items for the latter portion of the selection process o Funneling o costly expensive o Screening in o Weeding out o Weeding out implies that the agency is looking for people who match a profile of what a good police officer should look like means that investigators approach each application looking for grounds to disqualify the person from further consideration Which type of selection process is used Why do agencies take such an approach to personnel selection o Most organizations usually have an enormous field of prospective candidates from which to choice should the agency mistakenly eliminate a qualified job seeker there are enough suitable replacements left to cushion against an appreciable loss in quality o Most agencies have not identified the qualities that make a good police officer What is the biggest drawback of the screening out approach o Failure to distinguish between mediocre and outstanding job candidates o Remaining candidate pool is people with widely varying abilities and attitudes o System does not allow identification of the most promising applicants Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action What legislative was put in charge of monitoring unfair labor employment practices o 1964 Civil Rights Act The 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from doing what o Refusing to hire someone because of that person s race color religion sex or The 1972 Amendment established the as the federal agency in charge of national origin overseeing compliance o Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EEOC The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was in charge of identifying and eliminate and hiring practices o Unfair discriminatory A is an essential job requirement or duty that created the need to hire or to seemingly discriminate against certain people o Bona fide occupational qualification BFOQ Bona Fide occupation qualification means that a particular is needed to operate the business safely and efficiently o hiring practice o Height At one time many law enforcement agencies had a restriction Is the height restriction constitutional o NO It disproportionately eliminated protected classes such as women and Hispanics from police positions o No demonstrated connection btw the height restriction and the job performance For example depends upon local conditions o Swimming Valid BROQ for Seashore PD located on the coast Invalid BROQ for Death Valley PD located in the dessert w no surrounding water What is one limitation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act o It did not define discrimination Which court decision introduced the notion of prima facie discrimination o Griggs vs Duke Power Company exists when an employment prerequisite disproportionately excludes a protected group from being hired o Prima facie discrimination In prima facie discrimination the burden of proof shifts to the who has to demonstrate the validity of the BROQ o Employer What are the 4 criteria necessary to prove prima facie discrimination o 1 Complainant must belong to a protected class minority member or a female o 2 Complainant must meet the minimum entrance standards for the position o 3 The employer rejected the complainant even though the applicant met the minimum entrance standards o 4 The employer continued to hire other applicants What is the impact of these judicial decisions o Every selection standard must have a firm basis in actual on the job performance o Occupational barriers that formerly closed job access to members of protected classes are dismantled o Immediate consequence of these actions is to broaden the pool of suitable applicants from which to choose the best qualified police recruits The Selection Process What are the 3 most common screening methods employed by police departments o 1 Criminal Record Check o 2 Background Investigation o 3 Driving Record Check What is the least common screening method employed by police departments o Personality inventory The first step in the selection process starts with the The application included basic information to check compliance with What are the minimum entrance requirements to become a law enforcement officer in o Application o Minimum standards Florida o Be at least 19 years old o Be a United States citizen o Hold a high school diploma or its equivalent o Hold an honorable discharge if a previous member of the armed forces o Pass a fingerprint check for a criminal history o Pass a medical health examination o Not have any prior felony convictions o Not have any prior misdemeanor convictions involving perjury or a false statement o Be of good moral character o Successfully complete a basic police training course o Successfully complete the state law enforcement certification exam Along with the application a cursory is initiated to see whether an arrest history or a poor record will disqualify the applicant o Background check driving Written Psychological Exam The second step in the selection process involves a o Written psychological exam Agencies may incur if they hire somebody who is not fit for duty or who misbehaves while on official business o Civil liability Surveys of law enforcement agencies show that what two devices are most often utilized for pre employment assessment o Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory MMPI California Personality Inventory CPI These surveys are used to weed out unsuitable candidates who exhibit emotional or psychological instability o Paper and pencil Polygraph Testing Applicants who have survived the review process so far are subjected to a more thorough and intense o Background investigation What do most departments look for in the background investigation o Good work habits o Sound character o Financial credit check to check whether finances are in order o Aims to uncover any flaws that signal a reason to eliminate or to weed out a prospective employee After the application written psychological exam background investigation the next component in the selection process is the o Polygraph lie detector examination Polygraph Testing measures physiological when responding to inquiries Some agencies couple the polygraph with a for detection o Deviations o Urine analysis drug Why do police applicants not possess the same expectation of privacy for pre employment drug testing 2 reasons
View Full Document