Psychological Profiling of Australian Police Officers: A Longitudinal Examination of Post-Selection Performance

The current study expands upon the work of Lough and Ryan (2005). The performance of two groups of Tasmania Police employees (all of whom were constables or probationary constables) was evaluated after their first two years 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 with the profiled (screened) group across a range of objective performance measures. The screened group consistently outperformed the non-screened group, with four of the differences statistically significant. Additionally, the screened group had a lower drop-out rate, and were less likely to make serious on-the-job errors resulting in formal action or investigation. The results suggest that a different quality of applicant is selected by the psychological profiling system, when compared with more traditional processes such as simple selection interviews. Implications for further research and development are also discussed.