Pedophile cop case highlights how Romanian Police tests staff

The Romanian Police is assessing its staff using unlicensed psychological tests that are 40 years old. Some of the tests used can be found with a simple Google search, alongside the answers and their interpretation, a feature of local daily Gandul showed. The issue of the police staff psychological testing came to public attention after a traffic police officer was arrested for sexually assaulting two children in Bucharest. Reacting to the case, Romania’s interior minister Carmen Dan asked if the psychological evaluations the cop passed were thorough and when he was examined last. Later, the minister revealed that most units of the Romanian Police used unlicensed psychological tests, Gandul reported. She also requested that the testing procedures be redone. The staff of the Interior Affairs Ministry (MAI) currently undergo psychological testing that includes a set of exercises meant to determine the respondent’s intelligence level, and a set of 100 questions to establish a psychological profile. The test lasts approximately two hours, and the questions are designed to repeat the same ideas, phrased differently, so as to prevent any attempts to sway the results. An interview with the psychologist of the police unit follows the psychological testing. Such an interview takes 5 minutes and happens once every three years, Gandul reported. At present, one psychologist tests approximately 1,000 police staff. Cosmin Andreica, the president of the Europol European Police Union, told Gandul that the MAI psychological testing has become a formality. He argued that psychological testing is used against inconvenient staff members, as psychologists are subordinated to chief police inspectors who indicate who should be evaluated. “In 99% of the cases, when the chief requests the testing of a subordinate, it is established that those people no longer fit the requirements of the position so, most of the times, their weapons are taken away, they are abusively transferred, and, sometimes, harassed or stigmatized in front of their colleagues,” Andreica told Gandul. What do the tests look like? One of problems of the police test requires respondents to determine whether the distance in km between two localities is greater if covered by foot instead of by car, according to the tests presented by Gandul. Yes or No answers are required for statements such as “Is a summer week longer than a winter week?” or “I would rather be a ‘wolf’ and eat the others, than be a ‘sheep’ and be eaten.” Pedophile cop case puts a spotlight on Romanian Police problems