Validation of Police Officer Recruit Candidates' Self-Reported Drug Use

Three hundred and fifty-nine Chicago Police Department recruit candidates submitted urine specimens as part of a drug-screening program. Candidates were tested in two groups about a week apart. About 20% of the recruit candidates in each group evidenced drug, primarily marijuana use. As part of a ps...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of forensic sciences 1987-03, Vol.32 (2), p.496-502
Main Authors: Ostrov, E, Cavanaugh, JL
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Appointments & personnel changes
Drug addiction
False Negative Reactions
Female
Humans
Job Application
Male
Personality Inventory
Pharmaceutical Preparations - urine
Social Control, Formal
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Three hundred and fifty-nine Chicago Police Department recruit candidates submitted urine specimens as part of a drug-screening program. Candidates were tested in two groups about a week apart. About 20% of the recruit candidates in each group evidenced drug, primarily marijuana use. As part of a psychological screening test battery all the candidates also took the Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI). The IPI contains a self-report Drug Use Scale. Drug-Positive and Drug-Negative candidates' Drug Use Scale scores were matched by age, sex, and racial/ethnic group and compared to evaluate the accuracy of self-reported drug use when screening police recruit candidates. Results showed that Drug-Positive candidates' self-reported drug use was consistently higher than that of Drug-Negative candidates. Item-level analyses showed which drug use items best discriminate between Drug-Positive and Drug-Negative candidates. Implications are drawn for use of self-report as part of a police candidate screening process.
ISSN:0022-1198
1556-4029
DOI:10.1520/JFS11151J