The Police Assessment Center

In The Police Assessment Center: Important Keys for Success, a retired police captain provides practical tips and important concepts so candidates up for promotion can receive better scores on their assessments. Barry Malkin has personally conducted over seventy assessment center feedback, coaching, and teaching sessions with candidates who have competed in the promotional process for sergeant, lieutenant, and captain. He shares his successful training style along with a descriptive background of the Assessment Center; the training and selection process of the Assessors; and the critical concepts for success during the process. Candidates will learn specifically: - How Assessors calculate candidate ratings - Why extra points make such a difference - How scenarios are prepared - Why issues, actions, and follow-up actions are so important Malkin's easy-to-apply tips effectively guide candidates through a process that can often be intimidating and nerve-wracking, ultimately providing insight and a clear understanding into how candidates can make a positive impact on their entire police career.

The Assessment Center process is the best method for identifying management potential in candidates and whether they can demonstrate a talent for planning and organizing, and possess the necessary judgment, communication skills and decision-making ability to move up the ranks. Many candidates do possess these abilities, but they have not learned how to apply them. This book will teach you how to use all your potential. Law enforcement officers are often confused, afraid, nervous or just plain curious about what they will experience when they go through the process. Most books on the assessment center process cover primarily its history, the skill dimensions, a description of the process and provide a few sample exercises. What makes this book different is that it provides an experiential approach to preparing for an assessment center by including numerous practice exercises, experiential learning, role player scripts, sample detailed Assessor Guides, and information from an experienced professional who has a 360-degree view of assessment center processes. By practicing these exercises, the reader will learn a great deal about their potential and abilities. The organization of this book starts with the notorious, challenging, perplexing, incorrectly defined and life-changing in-basket exercise. The author has many years of experience with in-baskets, which has included providing feedback to candidates and training assessors. Many of the essential sample exercises and components of the in-basket exercise are included in this book and have been used in past assessment center processes or in customized exercises. This second edition also includes a new chapter on “The Future of Policing Exercises,” and several new exercises have been included in the Exhibits Appendix. After reading the sample exercises and commentary contained herein, you will be convinced that your time and money have been well spent. Why? Because you will have practiced the exercises herein and, beyond just reading about the assessment center process, you will have learned about many of the most important components of the process.

Assessment centers continue to be widely used as the preferred and accepted manner of evaluating potential members of police and fire departments as a part of their standardized promotional examination process. This third edition of this most successful book expands upon the concepts and principles of the first two editions and introduces new innovations. Chapters have been extensively edited and reformatted. New sections have been added covering the tactical EMS problem and public education exercises. An entirely new chapter, “Best Practices in Assessment Center Exercises,” provides many examples of how candidates can achieve superior performance in many different kinds of assessment exercises. An additional new section offers opportunities for incorporating advancing technologies in assessment center programs. The text continues to offer invaluable insight concerning the reliability, cost-effectiveness, and objective methods for the selection of candidates for higher appointments. Reviewed are the advantages of an assessment center, typical assessment center exercises, design and administration, selection and training, candidate evaluation and scoring methods, and preparation. A substantial appendix provides many valuable resource tools, including exercise plans, typical schedules, candidate evaluation and assessor feedback forms, room configurations, and feedback questionnaires. The text continues to be the authoritative source for assessment center administrators.

Our Police Assessment Center Exam Training Guide (3rd Edition, 2020) was written entirely by Chief Alfred P. Donovan (ret). Chief Donovan has written Assessment Center Test exercises for dozens of Assessment Center promotional tests conducted by numerous police departments. Chief Donovan has also acted as Assessment Center Test administrator and evaluator on numerous occasions. Chief Donovan knows what types of exercises you are likely to face and he knows the response your department is looking for and he shares them with you in this manual.

This third edition has the honesty, humor and interesting perspectives that made previous editions so enjoyable to read and easy to understand. In addition, every chapter has been refreshed and renewed with tips, techniques and insights that will help candidates use assessment center exercises to demonstrate their readiness for the rank and role they seek. Chapter Three, What Is Your Assessment Center Challenge? and Chapter Six, Three Characteristics of a High Caliber Candidate, are completely new. They reflect decades of observation and analysis and will provide insights and guidance not found in any other training or text. The entire book is focused on improving the law enforcement profession by helping promotional candidates prepare to be effective in their preparation and testing, then effective on the job as they develop as coaches and leaders. This book is a must-have for assessment center preparation for any rank or role.