physics

Police psychology

Police psychology is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Police psychology rather than just read about it. In short: Police psychology, also referred to as "police and public safety psychology," was formally recognized in 2013 by the American Psychological Association as a specialty in professional psychology. The goal of police psychology is to ensure law enforcement is able to perform their jobs safely, effectively, ethically, and lawfully.

Key takeaways

Police psychology belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Police psychology to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Police psychology from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Police psychology, also referred to as "police and public safety psychology," was formally recognized in 2013 by the American Psychological Association as a specialty in professional psychology. The goal of police psychology is to ensure law enforcement is able to perform their jobs safely, effectively, ethically, and lawfully.

Police psychologists Police and public safety psychologists have specialty knowledge about the nature of police work. This specialized knowledge consists of police working environments, the goals of the agencies, stressors and trauma that public safety personnel experience, their responses to these stressors, and the interventions used to treat symptoms of PTSD. Additionally, police psychologists are aware of confidentiality and testimonial privilege when serving this community. These psychologists then apply the science and profession of psychology in four primary domains of practice: assessment (primarily preemployment assessments of prospective candidates and fitness-for-duty evaluations of incumbent personnel), clinical intervention, operational support, and organizational consultation. Police and public safety psychology intervention strategies primarily include short-term cognitive behavioral treatments and approaches. Training also includes review of research regarding the relative efficacy as well as the limitations of post-crisis interventions unique to law enforcement personnel (e.g., post-shooting incidents, line-of-duty deaths, deep undercover stress reactions). In addition, various modalities of treatment and programs are typically integrated within the training (e.g. peer support teams, EMDR, suicide intervention training, wellness coaching). Preparation for practice in operational psychology includes review of research in: crisis intervention, hostage negotiation, criminal profiling, psychological autopsy, and epidemiological factors affecting outcomes of various tactical situations.

Organizations There are several police and law enforcement agencies in the world today that employ police and public safety psychologists and these are:

The Los Angeles Police Department - At the Behavioral Science Services The Federal Bureau of Investigation - At the Behavioral Analysis Unit U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations - A military investigative agency The National Police Improvement Agency (UK) - Behavioural Investigative Advisors (BIA) The Hong Kong Police - Hong Kong Police Force - Psychological Services Group The Japanese Police - Japanese Nation Policy Agency - National Research Institute of Police Science at the Criminology and Behavioral Sciences Section Singapore Police Force - Police Psychological Services Department (PPSD), Police Headquarters. Western Australia Police Academy - Occupational Psychology Unit.

Professional organizations American Board of Police & Public Safety Psychology American Psychological Association, Division 18 (Psychologists in Public Service), Police & Public Safety Section Consortium of Police Psychological Services (COPPS) International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Police Psychological Services Section. Society for Police and Criminal Psychology

Investigative psychology Investigative psychology has gained its own following. This field was started in 1990 by Professor David Canter whilst at the University of Surrey, in the South of England (Canter and Youngs, (2009). It brings together issues relating to investigative information, the drawing of inferences and the ways in which law enforcement decision-making can be supported through scientific research. Investigative psychology grew directly out of empirical research. This field covers the full range of investigation related activities such as:

detection of deception, investigative interviewing, statement analyses, behavioral analyses of crimes. This sphere has been much abused worldwide with the spread of the use of originally Eastern methods, including gradual copying of the type of methods once associated to some areas of Asia, what characterizes the latter is the contacting of the suspect via mental means, "thinking to" techniques known already in Eastern Europe followed by repetition of the alleged offence continually mentally to make it start repeating itself in the mind and even begin to affect speech. Thus these types of investigations and any based on them, being most legally conducted in their areas of origin, are highly dubious.

Universities Bond University (Australia) Griffith University (Australia). Masters of Science in Forensic Psychology. University of South Australia (Australia). Master of Forensic Psychology. Hong Kong University (while it doesn't specialise in police psychology, its faculty includes police psychologists. University of Indonesia (Professor Sarlitos Wirawan Sarwono) Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) (not a course itself — but a module). The Forensic Psychology of Crime, Terrorism and Disasters National University of Singapore. Correctional Psychology (Singapore) Leicester University (UK). Masters of Science in Forensic Psychology. University of Liverpool (UK). Masters in Investigative and Forensic Psychology. Portsmouth University (UK). Masters of Science in Forensic Psychology.

Police Psychology Blogs Dr. Gary S. Aumiller's Inside Police Psychology Dr. Laurence Miller

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Police psychology

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Police psychology claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Police psychology before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Police psychology ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Police psychology

In research: Police psychology appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Police psychology in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Police psychology is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Forensic psychology, Law enforcement, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Police psychology outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Police psychology in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Police psychology means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Police psychology out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Police psychology in simple terms?

Why does Police psychology matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Police psychology?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Police psychology.