Psychological Profiling of Australian Police Officers: An Examination of Post-Selection Performance
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| Author | Jonathan Lough,Michael Ryan |
| DOI | 10.1350/ijps.7.1.15.63490 |
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Psychological profiling of Australian police
officers: An examination of post-selection
performance
Jonathan Lough†and Michael Ryan‡
†(Corresponding author) Lough Research Services, 6 The Quadrangle, Glen Waverley, Vic,
3150, Australia. Tel: 03 8501 4483; Fax: 03 9574 7363; email: loughresearch@bigpond.com
‡Staff Support Unit, Tasmania Police, 55 Argyle St, Hobart, Tasmania 7000. Tel: 03 6230
2188; Fax: 03 6230 2520; email: Mike.Ryan@police.tas.gov.au
Submitted: 5 February 2004; revised and accepted 19 May 2004
Jonathan Lough
is a psychologist and inde-
pendent research consultant in Melbourne, Aus-
tralia. He specialises in research design, analysis
and statistics, survey writing, and psychological
assessment. Over the last three years, he has
worked with a range of private and government
clients, including ANZ Bank, Clemenger BBDO,
and the Australian Institute of Forensic Psychol-
ogy. Prior to establishing Lough Research Ser-
vices, Jonathan was a research psychologist at
Monash University, working in the area of public
safety and injury prevention.
Michael Ryan
, PhD, has been the Manager of
Psychology Services in Tasmania Police for nine
years. Based in Hobart, he is also the Clinical
Consultant to the Tasmanian Emergency Ser-
vices Critical Incident Stress Management Pro-
gramme. Prior to that, Michael worked with
Queensland Health as a clinical psychologist and
Director of Allied Health Services for seventeen
years.
A
BSTRACT
The performance of two groups of Tasmania police
employees (all of whom were constables or proba-
tionary constables) was evaluated after their first
year of training and on-the-job employment.
Group membership was a function of initial
selection process — one group undertook detailed
psychological profiling as part of their pre-
employment testing, and the other group did not.
The non-screened group was compared to the
profiled (screened) group across a range of per-
formance measures. Across seven out of eight
measures, the screened group outperformed the
non-screened group, with four of the differences
statistically significant. The screened group also
had a lower dropout rate. The simplest explana-
tion of results suggests that a different quality of
applicant is selected by the psychological profiling
system, when compared to more traditional pro-
cesses such as simple selection interviews. Implica-
tions for future selection of police personnel in
Australia are also discussed.
INTRODUCTION
Psychological profiling as a personnel selec-
tion process is generally acknowledged to
be a viable means of assessing candidature
for employment. Use of profiling for selec-
tion in the police industry is well estab-
lished, particularly in the United States (I.
Guller, 1993). In Australia, the uptake of
psychological profiling has been more
recent, and while it is used by a number of
states, there is virtually no published
research evaluating its effectiveness. The
current study therefore represents the ‘first
step’ in establishing a body of research for
Australian police.
International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume 7 Number 1
International Journal of Police
Science and Management,
Vol. 7 No. 1, 2005, pp. 15–23.
© Vathek Publishing,
1461–3557
Page 15
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