The value of criminal history and police intelligence in vetting and selection of police

Abstract

Despite decades of research considering police misconduct, there is still little consensus on officer characteristics associated with misconduct, and best practice for detection and prevention. While current research focuses on the correlates of misconduct among serving police, a small but growing body of research seeks to understand factors that could improve the accuracy of vetting during the police recruitment process and thereafter. In the wake of recent high-profile misconduct by police in the UK, there is a renewed focus on whether current vetting processes are sufficient, and how they might be improved. The present research analyses data from the vetting of a sample of UK police officers to consider whether current processes accurately identified which officers were high risk for misconduct. Findings suggested that current vetting processes performed poorly at identifying officers at risk of misconduct. However, police intelligence and criminal history data from the time of recruitment performed very well at identifying which officers were high risk for serious misconduct later in their career. These findings hold important implications for how police are vetted, and subsequently selected in the UK. In particular, the importance of integrating police intelligence, and criminal records data into vetting processes.