Good Morning 99%'ers. I have been struggling with what direction this series would head as I waded deeper and deeper into the issues and potential causes of police brutality and the rising number of people being killed by the police.

As a quick recap, in my first essay of December 30, 2015, we learned that even though overall crime rates have declined significantly, the rate of police killings of civilians has risen sharply to nearly 1,200 people killed in 2015, based upon the best information possible. In addition, blacks and people of color are far more likely to be killed by a police officer than whites, with the rate of killing 21 times greater for black males age 15-19 than for white males of the same age. Overall, blacks are 3.5 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than whites.

In my second essay of January 6, 2015, we looked at some of the broader causes behind the increase in both police brutality and killings of civilians, including racial bias against people of color.

In both of the first two essays, the issue of police departments actively recruiting and hiring veterans was raised as a possible link to police brutality. This is a difficult issue because I could not find actual statistics on this subject, so this essay is one of generality than of quantification. I tried to explore this issue from the perspective of whether or not actively recruiting former combat vets was a good idea and of course, my research took me down several side roads, particularly on the issue of psychological testing. As with the first two essays, I am not going to come to any concrete conclusions in this essay, but am putting information out as kindling for discussion.

Before we even begin to look at the hiring of veterans as police officers, perhaps this one statistic should be considered. For various reasons, the Veterans Administration has grossly under estimated the number of veterans experiencing PTSD. While there are no definitive statistics on the number of combat veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have been diagnosed with PTSD, experts estimate that between 30 and 35% of returning combat veterans experience some degree of PTSD. I will return to this later in the essay when we review psychological testing of police recruits.

The new PTSD report of nearly 30 percent actually is closer to the predictions from a 2009 study by Michael Atkinson of the Naval Postgraduate School, Adam Guetz of Stanford University, and Lawrence Wein of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, which is not cited by the V.A. The study concluded that PTSD among Iraq veterans will be as high as 35 percent.

The United States government has a program called Vets to Cops which funds grants to local police departments for the hiring and training of post 9/11 veterans as police officers. (h/t to Pluto) As per the White House press release of 2012, here is how the program works.

The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) today announced funding awards to over 220 cities and counties, aimed at creating or saving approximately 800 law enforcement positions. The grants will fund over 600 new law enforcement positions and save an additional 200 positions recently lost or in jeopardy of being cut due to local budget cuts. All new law enforcement positions funded in the COPS 2012 Hiring Program must be filled by recent military veterans who have served at least 180 days since September 11, 2001.

Apparently, the idea behind the Vets to Cops program was to help address the high unemployment rates among veterans while helping to address funding cut backs in local police departments.

Recent vets face high unemployment rates, and Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that this initiative is part of the Obama administration's effort to try to help them transition to civilian life.

Supported by the Vets to Cops program, many local police forces are actively recruiting veterans for their police forces using a pitch similar to this one.

Military service can be a perfect entrance into a law enforcement career. While military police and security forces may have the most directly applicable skill set, service members from a variety of occupational specialties are also well suited to police service.

While directing veterans into policing sounds like a great idea on the surface, there are many potential problems associated with this program. There is no real consensus as to whether or not this is a good idea. Even veterans themselves have mixed feelings about sending recent combat veterans into police work.

Veterans face challenges that civilians do not. Some are unsure how to express to potential employers how skills learned in the military translate to the civilian job market. Some return with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury and wonder if those conditions will be a deal-breaker if they reveal them when interviewing for a job.

So the notion of taking military skills to a civilian agency that has a similar structure can be appealing. And that's a two-way street. Several job fairs for veterans have been held in the Bay Area over the past few months. They all seem to feature multiple law enforcement agencies looking to hire.

So in regard to the issue raised in previous essays which was that of veterans being steered into policing, the question became can combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan be a good match for policing in the United States after discharge? But to answer that question, the more important question is how are police recruits (including veterans) determined to be fit for the job of policing our communities?

Two of the safeguards most often cited to ensure police recruits are suitable for their jobs, are the use of back ground checks and the use of psychological testing of police recruits. These two factors are designed to weed out the most unsuitable candidates (veterans or not) for policing. Background checks are fairly self explanatory so the rest of this essay will focus upon psychological testing of police recruits.

The point behind such psychological evaluations isn't solely to determine whether an applicant has a diagnosable mental disorder, but also to flag potential recruits whose personality types and behavior are unsuited to a job in which sound judgment - including the ability to make quick decisions - is key, as is emotional stability in tense situations. It's a determination that plays a substantial role in keeping trigger-happy cops off the streets - and thus, more people alive.

A big part of the problems associated with psychological testing are two fold. First there are no nationwide standards, so the standards vary from state to state as to what the tests are designed to do and how the tests are constructed.

Truthout reviewed the websites for each state's standards and training commission and/or state statute and found that 22 states' commissions and/or state statutes do not explicitly mandate that a licensed psychologist administer a psychological evaluation as a minimum qualification for a potential police recruit.

Some states use vague language in their statutes, requiring only that a candidate must "be free of" any mental or emotional condition that may affect the candidates' ability to perform their job functions. In some cases, this determination is made through the background investigation process alone. In other cases, the commission and/or state statute says that a clinical physician will make such a determination as part of a required physical examination.

The second problem with psychological screening of police recruits is that most tests are only designed to weed out the most unsuitable candidates.

Another problem that most assessments have in common, Dantzker observes, is their objective of screening out unfavorable profiles, instead of trying to screen-in resilient, stable and conscientious personalities less likely to abuse the powers of their badge (at least initially). Like the lack of consensus surrounding the best protocols to use for psychological screenings, there remains no consensus as to the ideal personality profile for potential police recruits.

While psychological testing of police recruits may weed out only the most unsuitable candidates, the number that are eliminated from the process via psychological testing is abysmally small.

Interestingly, data suggests that the psych exam typically only screens out about 5 percent of those tested. With so much on the line, is it worth these departments' money to go to the added expense and effort if they're losing such a small percentage of applicants in this particular phase?

This is because most police recruit psychological exams are based upon weeding out the most unsuitable officer candidates rather than looking for the best possible candidates. This wonderful
article that appeared in the June issue of GQ features an interview with a former police officer who now does psychological testing of police recruits.

Still, tests are not required in every state today and, in fact, the American Psychological Association is currently in the process of deciding on guidelines for the psychological assessment of police officers.

With the field in flux and increased attention to psychological screening, GQ spoke with David J. Thomas, a Florida-based instructor, therapist, and former cop, whose practice provides counseling services for law enforcement officers. In his work as a mental health counselor, Thomas does evaluation and testing of police candidates, offers therapy services, and counsels officers in stress management. He shed light on the psychology, good and bad, behind policing.

Mr Thomas gives us a more in depth look at how psychological testing of police recruits can be used to improve policing in the US. Ironically, psychological testing is not being used to determine racial bias.

Racial bias testing has come up a lot in recent months in response to high-profile incidents of alleged police brutality. How common is bias testing in the psychological screening of police candidates?

It’s not common at all. With everything going on in the country, I’ve heard the politicians and others say it’s something we need to assess, but it’s not a common assessment at this point. Being an African American and having been a recruit, I can tell you that issues of race do come up in the police academy. They came up when I was a recruit and, as a mentor to younger African-American officers, I know that they still come up today.

The issue with bias testing is that setting a threshold is subjective, and there are still questions around the validity of the test themselves. Things like that are hurdles to incorporating bias testing into screening. I may be wrong, but I don’t think we’re going to it widespread bias testing in policing any time soon.

I strongly recommend you read the entire GQ article. It is a fascinating peek inside the world of psychological testing of police recruits.

In my next essay on this subject, I will be discussing the militarization of police departments and the internal culture within them.