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An
Interesting Career in Psychology:
Police
Psychology in the Federal Government
Neil
S. Hibler, FAClinP
 Long-established
ambitions can lead to great satisfaction. Mine began in elementary
school with a fascination with crime solving. My twin and several
neighborhood friends formed the typical “no girls allowed”
tree house club we called the “Junior Detectives of America.”
We thought everything about police work was cool, spending the
summer between the fifth and sixth grades looking for lost pets
and trying to solve other local mysteries.
When of age, we joined the Police Athletic League
Rifle Team, and in time practiced with the police pistol team.
With some new friends who shared our interests, we trained in
first aid and rescue, establishing a “junior” auxiliary
to the local ambulance corps. We reveled in the excitement of
responding to emergencies. For a teen, it was empowering to have
responsibilities that truly made a difference. Not to mention
that it was really cool to occasionally be taken out of high school
classes by a police officer with a waiting cruiser, speeding away
with lights and siren to the scene of a fire or wreck. Talk about
reinforcement.
In college I proudly enrolled in Air Force ROTC,
but had no idea where that would lead. I was a psychology major,
permitted to obtain a masters degree prior to entering active
duty. I studied school psychology, which was qualifying for assignment
as an Air Force Psychologist. My graduation present was a letter,
informing me that the qualifying standards had just changed and
now required a doctorate. I had to select another military career
option and was asked, would I be interested in being a Special
Agent of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations? Providence.
Following training I was assigned as a Special
Investigations and Counterintelligence Officer to the Air Force
OSI office in New York City. Later, I was reassigned to the Special
Investigations Academy in Washington, DC where I instructed in
a variety of topics, including interviewing and interrogating,
due to my psychology background. But I wanted to do more. The
field of police psychology was just emerging in 1973 and my interests
were fired by behavioral science techniques such as forensic hypnosis,
psychological autopsies and profiling. My efforts to practice
in these areas were, however, blocked by the AF Surgeon General’s
Office, properly declaring that these were “psychological”
methods and by military standards, I wasn’t qualified. My
agency fixed that, sponsoring a fellowship for doctoral study
that I was the first to occupy, resulting in my being the first
police psychologist in the federal government.
More good luck. I studied under Charlie Spielberger,
who some readers may not know was an Officer in the Navy Reserve.
I am indebted for his commitment to my goal in applying psychological
science to military law enforcement. My master’s thesis
and doctoral dissertation exposed the misuse of voice stress analysis
for lie detection. Voice analysis is a process that now thirty
years later is enjoying resurgence in the marketplace, despite
the absence to date of any form of scientific validation.
Of the many applications of psychology to military, law enforcement
and forensic arenas, several stand out for me due to their inherently
interesting nature as well as the need for credible study. One,
which has been a particular honor, regards espionage. In 1983,
I participated in a conference at the CIA that was intended to
reframe the counterintelligence field. The topic was personnel
security; the intent was to start from square one, asking the
hard questions, to include why espionage occurred, and how to
investigate and stop it. The conference confirmed that the Intelligence
Community had as many different conceptions of this crime as there
were agencies to pursue it. The direction for investigation and
security came from intelligence officers and agents for whom espionage
was anathema. With few exceptions, the keepers of our national
security could not comprehend how trusted employees could betray
their nation. There was no understanding of the mindset from which
espionage grew, nor of influences that promoted or deterred such
activity. I concluded that there had been no effective effort
to coordinate or scheme to share information, analyze patterns,
trends and factors that might explain what was considered to be
an enigma.
I proposed research to conduct a comprehensive
study of espionage, incorporating multidisciplinary experts in
the review of every case in which the subject was alive and willing
to speak to researchers. Using a model pioneered by the FBI, we
set forth to interview and psychologically assess espionage subjects
and to collect corroborative information from those who knew them
at the time of their crimes. By the time I retired from the government
I was working full time directing this effort, which has resulted
in many innovations in countering espionage, to include the effective
profiling of suspects. This important work continues today, applying
research standards to understanding and reducing risk to national
security.
This is just one of a number of areas where psychologists
in the government are making important contributions. Since leaving
military service I have established a network of police psychologists
to serve Federal law enforcement agencies. Our team covers all
50 States and US Territories, providing pre-employment selection
screening, fitness for duty evaluations, crisis intervention,
direct investigative/operational support, team building, training
and other services, when and wherever the need.
Like an old firedog, when there is an emergency,
I still see opportunity and adventure. I never figured out which
I liked better, being a cop or a psychologist; this is the best
of both.
Readers interested in military psychology should
know that all branches of the armed forces have clinical and industrial/organizational
psychologists. APA Division 19 (Military Psychology) is an excellent
resource. APA Division 18 (Psychology in Public Service), Police
Psychology Section, provides opportunities for networking with
colleagues who apply psychological science to law enforcement. •
(Originally
published in the May/June 2002
issue of Psychological
Science Agenda,
the newsletter of the APA Science Directorate.)
More Interesting
Careers in Psychology....
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