Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jan 2001
Source: Advocate, The (LA)
Copyright: 2001 The Advocate, Capital City Press
Contact:  525 Lafayette St., Baton Rouge, LA   70802
Website: http://www.theadvocate.com/
Author: Melissa Moore

DATABASE HELPS FIND 'GOOD FITS' FOR POLICE WORK

Police officer candidates who say they have smoked marijuana turn out to be 
somewhat better officers than those who say they have not, a police 
psychologist says.

It's not really an issue of illicit substance use. It's an honesty issue, 
Cary Rostow says of the finding.

Rostow, a psychologist for 30 years, and his student-cum-partner Robert 
Davis discovered the marijuana admission predictor and dozens of other 
predictors for police performance as they built an extensive database to 
predict which applicants for police jobs will do well and which will misbehave.

The Baton Rouge Police Department has recently started using Rostow and 
Davis' company, Matrix Incorporated, to screen applicants for their jobs. 
State Police has used the company since 1997. LSU Police and the state 
probation and parole office also have their applicants evaluated by Matrix.

Rostow said the database idea developed when he was approached in 1994 by 
Risk Management Inc., a self-insurance pool for municipalities and 
parishes. The agencies wanted to reduce the risk of liability for police 
misconduct.

Davis said he and Rostow researched the issue and found that most agencies 
screen potential police officers only for mental illnesses.

"We knew immediately that was stupid," Davis said.

Very few mentally ill people make it through the other parts of the 
application process, he said.

What was needed, they decided, was a gauge to see whether the potential 
officer would be a good fit for the job.

They decided, Rostow said, that they should be looking for "telltale signs 
that would give us some indication of future trouble."

So they started collecting data, running experiments and building a 
database that analyzes officers' answers on standard personality tests.

They track how officers and officer candidates answer questions and watch 
to see which officers misbehave. They find the patterns, the places where 
particular answers correlate to certain misconduct.

The marijuana admission was one of the surprising correlations Rostow and 
Davis have found.

Rostow said they thought answers that showed "overcontrolled hostility" 
would predict bad behavior, but have turned out not to.

However, Davis said, gastro-intestinal problems and generally not feeling 
well show a correlation to racially offensive behavior. Neither Rostow nor 
Davis can explain why that might be.

The database now has more than 3,000 officers in it, which Davis said gives 
the analysis a 5.47 percent error rate.

That means 5.47 percent of the candidates deemed acceptable by the test 
will wind up committing some kind of misconduct, Davis said.

Rostow said error rates for more simplistic tests are much higher, 
sometimes up to 30 percent.

Retired State Police Lt. Col. Ronnie Jones said he was so impressed with 
Matrix's work in State Police that he now does some work with the company.

"When they first came to us, I was suspicious," Jones said.

But the results Jones saw changed his mind.

"I am very convinced that this is a good process," he said.

Weeding out officers who are likely to misbehave later helps reduce the 
likelihood of expensive lawsuits that can result from officer misconduct.

"This is just like buying insurance for your house or your car," he said. 
"You can pay now or pay later. This is a good use of the public's money."

Davis said Matrix charges $200 to $250 per evaluation. Rostow said the 
company also does some training for the agencies with which it works and 
meets with officer candidates who don't make the cut.

Police Chief Greg Phares said he is hopeful that Matrix will help eliminate 
some officers with potential problems from the applicant pool.

The Baton Rouge Police Department was embarrassed by its March 2000 academy 
class. Three of the 20 officers who graduated resigned within just a few 
months in the face of almost-certain termination.

One became a murder suspect. Another was arrested for having sex with a 
prostitute in his police car and a third wrecked his police car while 
off-duty and tried to substitute his brother's urine for his own in a 
post-wreck drug and alcohol test, officials have said.

Phares said Matrix also will evaluate veteran officers when questions arise 
about their fitness for duty.

In one such case, an officer Rostow found to be unfit for duty has filed a 
lawsuit against the department in an attempt to return to work. That case 
is pending.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart