Bill would require Oregon law enforcement agencies to psychologically evaluate applicants

SALEM, Ore. — Oregon does not require law enforcement agencies to psychologically evaluate job applicants before they become officers. But new legislation would change that.

A new bill would require all agencies in the state to psychologically evaluate officer candidates, and another aims to address the mental health of officers already wearing a badge.

Most law enforcement agencies conduct the screenings anyway. Researchers say around 14 percent in the state do not. They're mostly in rural or remote areas.

Troy Clausen, the undersheriff of Marion County, said reform is needed.

"People in our career field, they are burning out and blowing out," he told a KATU reporter Thursday. "When you see infants die in motor vehicle accidents, when you're exposed to home fires where people die and you have to sift through evidence that way, when you deal with explicit, graphic rape cases or sexual trauma to juveniles, to youth, those things, they live with you. They wear with you basically."

A recent study found that nationwide more officers died by suicide in 2017 than died in the line of duty; 140 compared to 129.

Alcoholism has also plagued police. One study found up to 23 percent of officers surveyed abuse alcohol. That's three times the national average.

To help fight the problem, State. Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, is co-sponsoring two bills.

"I frankly believe this will bring down the stress for everyone," Frederick, who is African-American, told the state House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. "I also hope that when I see blue lights behind me that I no longer get worried that, as I think about it every time, 'Am I going to die today?'"

One measure, Senate Bill 423 A, would require all law enforcement agencies in Oregon to psychologically evaluate job applicants before they become officers, and require the state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training to create standards for those evaluations.

Clausen, speaking on behalf of both the Oregon Association Chiefs of Police and the Oregon State Sheriffs' Association, said he supports Frederick's efforts.

"We ended up going out and surveying all 208 law enforcement agencies in the state of Oregon," Clausen explained. "We've got about a 90-plus percent return on that. And during that process, we found out that about 86 percent of Oregon agencies were using a pre-employment psychological background or a mental health screening test before they actually hired somebody. For those agencies that weren't doing it, really, it was a resource factor, it was cost and whether or not they could find the right professional to administer those kinds of tests."

Washington requires all officers statewide to undergo psychological evaluations before they're hired.

Meanwhile, the other measure Frederick co-sponsors, Senate Bill 424, calls for law enforcement agencies to establish mental health wellness policies relating to police work.

Both bills would require agencies to pay for the evaluations and the policies themselves.

"We're not making sure on the front end that the right people are getting into the job," said Clausen. "For those agencies where, yeah, it could be a cost factor, they have to take a look at it though on the, conversely, if you don't pay for it up front, you could end up paying for it in the end when you end up with an individual who maybe shouldn't have been in the profession in the first place. And they end up broken or, worse yet, they have a blowout moment, an extreme use of force-type situation, commit some criminal activity an egregious policy violation. ... The risk level and the liability level there is huge."

A psychologist who evaluates law enforcement officers in the Portland area said evaluations can range in price from $375 to $450 each.

KATU contacted several major law enforcement agencies in the Portland and Salem areas Thursday and they all said they psychologically evaluate candidates before they're hired.