How to answer judgment questions on police recruitment tests?

Most recruitment tests used by police departments across North America contain some sort of judgment questions. Questions seek to assess your ability to use sound judgment in dealing with possible or likely situations encountered by police officers in the course of their day-to-day duties.

In these situational judgment questions, you are given a scenario, usually one in which you are a new police officer. You are faced with a situation. It could involve chasing down suspected criminals. It could involve interpersonal relations with other police officers, or your supervisors. You are given several possible responses to the situation, and then asked to choose the most appropriate (and sometimes the least appropriate).

These questions can get tricky, and they are known to trip up more than one potential police recruit.

So, how to best answer them? Here are some of TEST PREP HACKER’s strategies:

• Start by eliminating the obviously wrong answers. Often, judgment and other questions on police recruitment tests will have an obviously wrong answer. A good strategy when tackling these questions is to start by getting rid of those answers, and then move on to parsing through the remaining answers.

• Remember, you are looking for the answer that provides the most positive set of outcomes, or the least negative set of outcomes.

• Remember the behaviour standards expected of all members of the police officers. This includes good character, ethical behaviour, and maintaining public trust.

When faced with one of these questions, it can help to ask yourself a few questions right off the bat to help clarify what type of judgment question it is. That, in turn, will help you determine what the appropriate answer should be.

Ask yourself:

• Does this question involve my personal safety, that of my fellow officers, and the general public? You must seek to minimize danger to yourself, other officers and the general public. Don’t choose answers that put yourself or others in danger (if it can be avoided).

• Is this a life or death situation? If yes, then you must act immediately. But you must not take unnecessary or dangerous risks.

• Does the situation involve harassment or something illegal? If so, you must take immediate action, and report it to your Chain of Command.

• Does this situation involve the Chain of Command? You must respect the Chain of Command.

• Does this situation involve the privacy or personal life of a co-worker? Could the issue potentially affect the safety of your fellow officers or the public? If so, you must report it to the Chain of Command. If not, it may be better to approach the coworker and discuss it on a peer-to-peer basis.

• Are you jumping to conclusions? Is there enough evidence to support your decided action?

• Are you being honest and accountable for your actions? If you do something wrong, it is always best to own up to it.

• Are you being consistent with your answers? Tests that measure judgment skills will often have several similar questions to determine if the respondent is being truthful and consistent with their answers.

Asking yourself these questions will help guide your responses. If you feel like you could use some practice police judgment questions, check out our police practice tests.