Don't Set a Thief to...

When three new patrolmen were hired in a Chicago suburb, the police chief had an uneasy feeling that there was something wrong with one of them. So he sent all three for evaluation to a private firm called Government Personnel Consultants in Oak Brook, Ill., where they were gone over by a psychologist and a lie-detector specialist. The chiefs instincts were correct. The man whom he had suspected confessed that only a week before he was hired he had committed rape. The case was on the town's list of unsolved crimes.

On another occasion, G.P.C.'s psychologist Alan Strand and polygraphist Robert Cormack delved into the character and past of a suburban fireman who had been on the force for several years. He now wanted to transfer to the fire department in another town. They learned that he was an arsonist who had already set several fires.

This month Strand and Cormack interviewed a man of 22, a candidate for a police force, who admitted to robbery, selling narcotics, shoplifting, vandalism and regular use of marijuana and pep pills. Asked, "How would you rate yourself in terms of honesty?", he replied, "Above average," and commented: "I get self-satisfaction when I'm being honest."

Sour Cream. These cases are typical of the 10% to 15% who are outright criminals among the 5,000 applicants for police and fire work interviewed in five years by G.P.C. Those percentages seem remarkably high, but even more startling, Strand and Cormack have found that almost 50% of the applicants they screen are psychologically unsuited for the jobs they seek. Analysis of 400 candidates recently rejected by the consultants showed that about 25% were turned down for emotional immaturity, almost as many for general instability, almost 20% as thrill seekers, and 9% for tendencies toward brutality. Virtually all these men had already gone through written and oral tests and supposedly thorough background checks before they got to G.P.C., and were about to be hired. Says Strand sardonically: "We get only the cream of the crop"--and two-thirds of it is sour.

The contrast between these men and the Norman Rockwell stereotype of the burly, friendly cop on the corner is partly explained by both economic and social factors. A policeman's job used to carry relatively high status and pay for working-class people. This is no longer so true. Among the unsuitable applicants seeking to fill the ranks are men whose ambition it is to enforce rigid law and order with gun or nightstick. And some men with a criminal bent figure that the safest place from which to operate--whether as burglars, child molesters or firebugs--is from the sanctuary of a protective force.

Frank Answer. A candidate's day at G.P.C. begins with interviews on general background, which are designed also to get information about trustworthiness. Strand and Cormack have recently added the Dektor Psychological Stress Evaluator (TIME, June 19) to their battery of tests. The day ends with a polygraph session. "After this," says Strand, "they feel that they've been through the mill."

Used separately, Strand and Cormack agree, either psychological or polygraphic testing is only 60% to 65% accurate; but the two combined score about 95%. The lie-detector test at the end of the evaluation is seen as a threat, and encourages applicants to tell the truth in the written examinations; the psychologist's oral probing reveals sensitive spots on which Polygraphist Cormack can concentrate. Significantly, most police departments use only one of the methods in their own screening.

"The thing we're most concerned about is brutality," says Strand. "What's this person going to do when he has a gun and a big car?" One sheriff's policeman in a northern Chicago suburb, seeking a transfer, supplied a frank --though hardly typical--answer. He would take a suspect for a drive in his unmarked car and demand a full confession. If the confession was not forthcoming, he said, he would push the suspect out of the car and report that he had tried to escape from custody--at 80 m.p.h. When the candidate admitted to the consultants that on at least one occasion he had carried out his threat, G.P.C. abruptly ended the interview. The policeman did not get the transfer, but managed to keep his old job.

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