The Psychiatrist and Psychologist as Consultant to Law Enforcement

• Author: Alberto Choy and Mini Mamak
• Pages: 103-117

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CHAPTER 7

The Psychiatrist and Psychologist

as Consultant to Law Enforcement

Alberto Choy and Mini Mamak

“I am not the law, but I represent justice as far as my feeble powers go.”

— Sherlock Holmes, e Adventures of the ree Gables

I. INTRODUCTION

e use of mental health professionals by police services has a lengthy history dating back to the early

twentieth century. At that time, psychologists aided in personnel selection, initially conducting intel-

ligence testing and later adding personality testing (Bartol, 2006; O’Connor, 2005). ese experts were

typically corporate or clinical psychologists who provided a narrow clinical perspective for the sole pur-

pose of constable selection.

As police administrators became more educated and the public demanded greater accountability,

the use of psychologists in police organizations expanded. In the 1970s, counselling was added to the

portfolio of the police psychologist’s professional activities. Aside from the reasons already noted, the

expansion of the eld was likely due to the recognition of the stressful nature of police work and also

in part due to increased appreciation of the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on police

ocers traumatized in the course of their work. PTSD was added to the DSM-III as a formal diagnostic

category in the 1980s (Bartol & Bartol, 2006).

“Critical incident stress debrieng” followed, as did “tness for duty” and “assignment to special unit”

(e.g., tactical teams, drug squads) evaluations. Although the role of a mental health professional within

law enforcement expanded, it remained clinical in nature, with the expert’s contact being narrow in

scope and for the most part devoid of any legal or forensic components (Cochrane et al., 2006). Because

of this, corporate and clinical psychologists and psychiatrists continued to dominate the eld. From the

personnel perspective, these contacts with mental health experts were enforced by superiors and were

oen unwelcome by ocers.

e role of mental health professionals within a police organization has changed signicantly over

the past two decades. Notwithstanding the high ly divergent training and professional orientation of the

two groups, their relationship has not only stood the test of time, but has resulted in even more creative

ways of collaborating in the interest of public safety and security. As this relationship has evolved, for-

ensic experts have been increasingly called upon for assistance and consultation in various aspects of

policing, including hostage and crisis negotiations, training, criminal proling, and crime investigation.

Despite the advancements in the eld, the role of forensic psychiatrists and psychologists working

with police is still in its infancy. In Canada, as in the United States, there are a small but growing num-

ber of psychologists and psychiatrists involved in providing this type of sub-specialty service. As this

sub-speciality of professional work evolves, a number of factors must be addressed and better dened,

specically relating to professional training to attain competency in the area, the nature of the relation-

ship and ethical considerations, as well as services rendered.