KSCPOST Spotlights

The Demographic Form CR301 on the KSCPOST website, as you know, is used to notify KSCPOST when an agency hires a new officer. The form is pretty self-explanatory and collects basic information about the LEO and the agency. However, Box 4 “Employment Information” can cause some confusion sometimes when it comes to the last field in that box: “Date of Employment as a Police or Law Enforcement Officer with Your Agency”

Where this field becomes confusing is for agencies that have a policy or procedure that they have to “hire” the applicant prior to administering the psychological evaluation so the applicant can be paid for the time required to complete the evaluation.

Why is this an issue? K.S.A. 74-5605(b)(6) states that before KSCPOST can issue a provisional certificate to the officer, they MUST “have completed an assessment, including psychological testing approved by the commission, to determine that the applicant does not have a mental or personality disorder that would adversely affect the ability to perform the essential functions of a police officer or law enforcement officer with reasonable skill, safety and judgement;…”.

[Take a big breath…this is a long run-on sentence…]
So, a person cannot be hired as a Police or Law Enforcement Officer before they successfully complete the psychological assessment because KSCPOST cannot issue them a provisional certificate until they’ve done so and absent a provisional certificate they are not and cannot be employed as a Police or Law Enforcement Officer.

This means that the “Psychological testing – Date agency received psychological results” field in Box 5 must be ON or BEFORE the date entered in the “Date of Employment” field in Box 4:

If your HR department requires the applicant be “hired” before they take the psychological assessment, we suggest you work with your HR department to determine how best to handle this internally.

Another question that comes up frequently regarding the psychological assessment is “do we have to wait until we get the official written report back from the Doctor?”. The answer is “NO”, you do not have to wait for the “official written report”…if the Doc emails you that the applicant is suitable for law enforcement employment, use the date you received the email. If the Doc calls you and gives you verbal “they’re good to go” that date will also work. We would strongly recommend placing a copy of the email or making a note of the phone call in the officer’s file…we all know that if it’s not on paper, it didn’t happen, right?

As always, we are here to be a resource and partner for all of our fellow Kansas law enforcement agencies, so if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.