Correlates of the Selection Validation Survey with Police Officer Field Performance

Area of Science:

• Psychological assessment in public safety
• Law enforcement training and evaluation
• Personnel selection and validation

Background:

• The Selection Validation Survey (SVS) is an informant rating form.
• It assesses characteristics of newly hired public safety personnel post-training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine performance rating correlates of the SVS.
• To validate the SVS against field training officer (FTO) performance data.

Main Methods:

• Correlated SVS ratings with aggregate daily performance observation scores from FTOs.
• Used data from 174 police officers during a 16-week field training period.

Main Results:

• Found moderate to strong associations between similar SVS ratings and FTO scores.
• A single SVS item on overall field performance showed a high negative correlation (-.69) with observed performance and problem-solving skills.

Conclusions:

• SVS variables validly summarize performance data from the field training period.
• The SVS efficiently captures crucial information on new police officers' performance and skills.
• The SVS serves as a useful validation criterion for predicting police officer performance.