Setting Up a Behavioral Science Essay

" (Linden and Kleinm 1988, cited in Russell and Biegel, 1990). They believe the role of peer counselors should be expanded to involve peer counseling in support groups for new recruits and their spouses, teaching in the police academy, in-service training for police officers handling posttraumatic incidents, and providing retirement counseling. They have developed a peer training program in California that has been approved by the California Commission on Police Officers Standards and Training (POST). This program has been widely acclaimed by officers.

According to Kurke and Scrivner (1995) the most productive service for psychologists to offer is probably crisis intervention, as opposed to long-term treatment. In most communities adequate mental health resources are available to all citizens, and mental health practitioners in the private sector are available under many health insurance plans. These resources should be used. The department psychologist can maximize these resources by doing liaison work between the community's mental health resources, including private practitioners, so that police officers and their families can be referred to professionals who have some understanding of police work and the police culture, and who have a desire to work with law enforcement personnel (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995).

Police agencies may request the advice of psychologists in evaluating officers for special assignments, such as SWAT, hostage negotiation teams, or sex crimes.Some police agencies have asked psychologists to sit in on promotion boards. In our judgment, psychologists and other mental health professionals have little to offer in these cases. The best predictor of a person's behavior is past behavior. Police officers, particularly senior patrol officers, sergeants, and lieutenants, can do a much better job than most mental health professionals in selecting personnel for these assignments or for promotion (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995).

In summary, I recommend using the Tucson model to perform all of the duties described above. It is important for small police departments or sheriff's offices to consider this model, since services involved in selection, training, and counseling may be needed more in small than in large departments. As Russell and Biegel (1990) point out, "If one person is ineffective in a ten-person department, it will be more devastating than if one person is ineffective in a two thousand-person department" (p. 431).

References

Kurke, M. & Scrivner, E (1995) Police psychology in the 21st Century, Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers

Russell, H.E. & Beigel, a. (1990) Understanding human behavior for effective police work, Basic Books

Staff (2007) Inside the mind of the….....