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Police psychology is a specialized field of psychology addressing issues specific to police personnel and other public safety workers.

Police psychologists

Police psychologists [1] work in three main areas supporting police forces to:

1. enhance police organisational structures and processes (e.g. pre-employment screening for police and public safety personnel, leadership and command assessment, assessing organisational climate),
2. enhance police operations (e.g. working in crisis and hostage negotiation teams/hostage barricade team, developing offender and terrorist profiles for investigation and crime prevention, investigative psychology, teaching the psychology of warning systems and evacuations),
3. providing services for officers and their families (e.g. peer counselling, counselling programs, resilience and life skills building).

Organisations

There are several police and law enforcement agencies in the world today that employ police and law enforcement psychologists and these are:

1. The Federal Bureau of Investigation - at the Behavioral Analysis Unit
2. U.S. Air Force of Special Investigations [2][a military investigative agency which undertakes investigations]
3. The National Police Improvement Agency (UK) - [Behavioural Investigative Advisors]
4. The Hong Kong Police - Hong Kong Police Force - Psychological Services Group
5. The Japanese Police - National Police Agency (Japan)- National Research Institute of Police Science]] at the Criminology and Behavioral Sciences Section
6. Singapore Police Force - Police Psychological Services Division (PPSD), Police Headquarters. ^[1]
7. Behavioural Sciences Unit, Singapore, at the Home Team Academy.^[2]
8. Western Australia Police Academy - [Occupational Psychology Unit][3].

Professional organisations

1. Society of Police and Criminal Psychology^[3]
2. International Association of Chiefs of Police.^[4]
3. University of Liverpool - School of Psychology^[5]
4. Consortium of Police Psychological Services (COPPS)

Investigative psychology

Investigative psychology is a sub-speciality within police or law enforcement psychology that has gained it’s own following ([see http://www.i-psy.com/index.php).] This field was started by Professor David Canter at Liverpool (U.K.) and it brings together issues relating to investigative information, the drawing of inferences and the ways in which law enforcement decision-making can be supported through scientific research. Investigative psychology grew directly out of empirical research. This field covers the full range of investigation related activities such as :

1. detection of deception,
2. investigative interviewing,
3. statement analyses
4. behavioral analyses of crimes.

Universities

1. Leicester University (UK). Masters of Science in Forensic Psychology.^[6]
2. Portsmouth University (UK). Masters of Science in Forensic Psychology.
3. Griffith University (Aus). Masters of Science in Forensic Psychology.^[7]
4. University of South Australia (Aus). Master of Forensic Psychology.
5. Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) (not a course itself - but a module). The Forensic Psychology of Crime, Terrorism and Disasters^[8]
6. National University of Singapore. Correctional Psychology (Singapore)
7. University of Indonesia [Professor Sarlitos Wirawan Sarwono][4]
8. Hong Kong University (while it doesnt specialise in police psychology, its faculty includes police psychologists[5]

References