DATABASE HELPS FIND 'GOOD FITS' FOR POLICE WORK

Police officer candidates who say they have smoked marijuana turn out to be
somewhat better officers than those who say they have not, a police
psychologist says.

It's not really an issue of illicit substance use. It's an honesty issue,
Cary Rostow says of the finding.

Rostow, a psychologist for 30 years, and his student-cum-partner Robert
Davis discovered the marijuana admission predictor and dozens of other
predictors for police performance as they built an extensive database to
predict which applicants for police jobs will do well and which will misbehave.

The Baton Rouge Police Department has recently started using Rostow and
Davis' company, Matrix Incorporated, to screen applicants for their jobs.
State Police has used the company since 1997. LSU Police and the state
probation and parole office also have their applicants evaluated by Matrix.

Rostow said the database idea developed when he was approached in 1994 by
Risk Management Inc., a self-insurance pool for municipalities and
parishes. The agencies wanted to reduce the risk of liability for police
misconduct.

Davis said he and Rostow researched the issue and found that most agencies
screen potential police officers only for mental illnesses.

"We knew immediately that was stupid," Davis said.

Very few mentally ill people make it through the other parts of the
application process, he said.

What was needed, they decided, was a gauge to see whether the potential
officer would be a good fit for the job.

They decided, Rostow said, that they should be looking for "telltale signs
that would give us some indication of future trouble."

So they started collecting data, running experiments and building a
database that analyzes officers' answers on standard personality tests.

They track how officers and officer candidates answer questions and watch
to see which officers misbehave. They find the patterns, the places where
particular answers correlate to certain misconduct.

The marijuana admission was one of the surprising correlations Rostow and
Davis have found.

Rostow said they thought answers that showed "overcontrolled hostility"
would predict bad behavior, but have turned out not to.

However, Davis said, gastro-intestinal problems and generally not feeling
well show a correlation to racially offensive behavior. Neither Rostow nor
Davis can explain why that might be.

The database now has more than 3,000 officers in it, which Davis said gives
the analysis a 5.47 percent error rate.

That means 5.47 percent of the candidates deemed acceptable by the test
will wind up committing some kind of misconduct, Davis said.

Rostow said error rates for more simplistic tests are much higher,
sometimes up to 30 percent.

Retired State Police Lt. Col. Ronnie Jones said he was so impressed with
Matrix's work in State Police that he now does some work with the company.

"When they first came to us, I was suspicious," Jones said.

But the results Jones saw changed his mind.

"I am very convinced that this is a good process," he said.

Weeding out officers who are likely to misbehave later helps reduce the
likelihood of expensive lawsuits that can result from officer misconduct.

"This is just like buying insurance for your house or your car," he said.
"You can pay now or pay later. This is a good use of the public's money."

Davis said Matrix charges $200 to $250 per evaluation. Rostow said the
company also does some training for the agencies with which it works and
meets with officer candidates who don't make the cut.

Police Chief Greg Phares said he is hopeful that Matrix will help eliminate
some officers with potential problems from the applicant pool.

The Baton Rouge Police Department was embarrassed by its March 2000 academy
class. Three of the 20 officers who graduated resigned within just a few
months in the face of almost-certain termination.

One became a murder suspect. Another was arrested for having sex with a
prostitute in his police car and a third wrecked his police car while
off-duty and tried to substitute his brother's urine for his own in a
post-wreck drug and alcohol test, officials have said.

Phares said Matrix also will evaluate veteran officers when questions arise
about their fitness for duty.

In one such case, an officer Rostow found to be unfit for duty has filed a
lawsuit against the department in an attempt to return to work. That case
is pending.