This week, Colorado's Peace Officer Standards and Training board recommended stricter psychological evaluation requirements for police officers in the state,according to the Denver Post. Currently, state laws and the POST board—which outlines the criteria applicants must meet to become certified law enforcement officers—only require such exams before officers are initially hired. But even that requirement is not always met, according to the Post, and POST officials want to expand the requirement so that officers receive follow-up evaluations any time they change agencies within the state. There are legal precedents for periodic psychological testing for police officers, but history shows that law enforcement agencies don't always comply with these kinds of recommendations right away.
It's in the best interest of every police department to weed out the applicants poorly suited to becoming cops; aside from the danger that an unqualified cop on the street poses to the public, training police officers is expensive. The Los Angeles Police Department, for example, drops roughly $100,000 training each new recruit. If the recruits don't make it on the force, that's a hefty waste of resources.
[For more of this story, written by Kate Wheeling, go to http://www.psmag.com/politics-...-for-colorado-police]
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