The M-PULSE Inventory POST Scales and police officer performance: Liabilities, termination, and resignation

The selection of officers who will not prove to be a liability on the job is of importance to officers, the agencies they serve, and the community at large. Although the use of psychological testing in officer applicant screening and selection began nearly one hundred years ago, even today, the tests that are used are subject to much criticism and evidence a number of limitations. In order to overcome a number of these criticisms and limitation, Matrix Inc. developed a new test the Matrix-Psychological Uniform Law Enforcement Selection Evaluation (M-PULSE) Inventory. The M-PULSE Inventory was specifically designed for use in officer screening and has demonstrated predictive power of officer performance. The present study examined select M-PULSE Inventory POST Scales and officer performance liabilities, termination, and resignation. The purpose of the study was to investigate where the M-PULSE Inventory POST Scale mean t-scores differed between groups of officers who: (a) evidenced liabilities vs. those who did not evidence liabilities, (b) were terminated vs. those who were not terminated, and (c) resigned vs. those who did not resign. Independent group t-tests were used to compare the group means. A number of statistically significant differences were found on the M-PULSE Inventory POST scales. There are two noteworthy concerns based on the results: first, the group differences were often only one to two t-score points, calling into question the practical utility of the instrument, and second, on some of the scales the termination groups scored lower than the non-terminated groups, the opposite of what was expected. These concerns are addressed, reminding the reader of the actuarial use of the M-PULSE Inventory results, and possible reasons identified. Additional limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.