Assessing Bias in the Public Safety Applicant Population with the CPI and PAI Public Safety Reports

Sunday, October 20, 2024

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM ET

Location: 257AB

Submitter and Speaker(s)

RYAN ROBERTS

Psychologist, Business Owner
Law Enforcement Psychological Services Inc
Los Gatos, California, United States

Speaker(s)

Michael Roberts, PhD

Owner
Law Enforcement Psychologist Services
Los Gatos,, California, United States
Cerise C. Vablais, PhD

COO/Managing Member
Psychologist
Lynnwood, Washington, United States

This presentation will report on an ongoing study of bias in the public safety applicant population. The research was conducted in response to the events of 2020 and a then-new California law (AB 846) requiring that police officers be screened for bias as a condition of hire. Progress on the development of a validated measure to detect problematic levels of bias within public safety applicants will also be discussed. This research measure has been administered to more than 2,400 public safety applicants. This presentation will report on the base rate of biased opinions and behavior in the public safety applicant population and their correlates, including admissions of historical biased behavior and scales from established broadband measures of personality and psychology.