Stone, McElroy & Associates recognizes the important decision involved in selecting a psychological firm to assist your organization. Our team of culturally competent psychologists and staff offer the expertise to help you build a resilient team from the ground up. The evaluations we offer meet the requirements of the IACP Evaluation Guidelines and are considered the most comprehensive, valid, effective, and legally defensible methods for police and public safety assessment in the country. While there are many different types of psychological services available in our field, our team primarily focuses on evaluation and assessment of prospective or current employees to ensure you are building a healthy and resilient team from the ground up. The services we offer include:

Fully Remote Pre-Employment Psychological Screening through ProctorPRO

Critical Incident Debriefings and Consultation

Fitness for Duty Evaluations

Annual Wellness Visits and Team Wellness Training

We are proud to offer police and public safety psychology services from our home offices in Smyrna, GA to the states of Georgia, New York, Mississippi, Florida, Ohio, and South Carolina. SMA has the ability to conduct all of our evaluation services remotely through PsiWare, our proprietary evaluation software, and ProctorPRO, our remote test proctoring service. For more information or to receive a proposal regarding our services, please email Kate Sullivan, [email protected]

Pre-Employment Psychological Screening

How does an Agency select a psychology firm to conduct their pre-employment screenings for police and public safety sensitive roles when there are so many providers to choose from? Here are a few things you should look for when choosing an evaluator: a valid testing battery, doctorate-level, licensed psychologists, use of background and medical information, understanding of relevant employment laws and updates, and cultural awareness in the field. As a leader within the field of police and public safety psychology, SMA’s evaluations meet the standards upheld by the IACP and ensures the use of valid testing and comprehensive interviews with licensed/board-certified psychologists, who review all relevant background and medical information. Our psychologists are also actively involved in organizations like the IACP and FBI-NA to ensure they’re receiving the most up-to-date training and information in our field, including employment laws and updates that could have a critical effect on the defensibility of your evaluations. We can assure you that your candidates will be placed with a culturally-competent psychologist, some of whom have close family members in the field or are reserve officers themselves.

Over the past 30 years, our process for the psychological pre-employment evaluation of public safety candidates has roots in evaluation methods that were carefully developed and continue to be refined by our board certified police and public safety psychologists. The methods used by our team to evaluate your candidate’s have been validated specifically for use with law enforcement personnel and are approved methods according to the IACP’s Pre-Employment Evaluation Guidelines, and we have utilized these methods extensively, effectively, and legally on behalf of hundreds of public safety agencies. The methods involved and criteria for making a recommendation include:

• Psychological personality testing
• Psychological testing for psychopathology
• Tests of basic reasoning ability
• Tests of writing ability
• Review of biodata from our Personal History Questionnaire
• Review of background information that is made available
• Semi-structured forensic interview (including detailed history and formal mental status evaluation)

The result of the evaluation is a suitability finding delivered in a detailed report designed to meet the needs of your agency and to conform to legal standards. Most agencies for whom we provide services require that the report give a clear and concise hiring recommendation-recommend or not recommend. We plan to work with your agency to deliver a recommendation that is consistent with your needs. We welcome feedback from our clients and can cater the recommendations accordingly. Our customizable Pre-Employment Services include:

• Web-Based, Off-Site Testing and Remote Interviewing Capabilities through ProctorPRO and PsiWare;
• Pre- and Post-Offer Screening of Candidates;
• Same Day Results Delivered Electronically to your Specified Recipients;
• One-Hour Clinical Interview with a Licensed, Doctorate-Level Psychologist;
• Personalized, Comprehensive Reports;

Click here for IACP Guidelines

ProctorPRO© Remote Evaluation Service

NEW! Have your candidates evaluated from ANYWHERE with ProctorPRO©! Our new remote proctoring service allows you to put your candidates in control of their evaluation scheduling…. from anywhere! You will send a link to your candidates where they will have access to different dates and times for a testing session. They will access the testing session via Zoom with a proctor (test administrator) from SMA. Once they have completed the testing session, the candidate will schedule their interview time with the SMA Proctor. On the date and time of their interview, they will join the interview session with a police and public safety psychologist via PsiWare©. For more information on ProctorPRO©, click HERE.

If you choose to conduct testing and interviews from your agency, all you have to do is give your candidate a quiet space to work in with a computer, and our Proctor will take care of the rest! Candidates receive instructions for completing their evaluation after they sign up, and the Proctor will ensure they have all the information they need to successfully complete the evaluation without your agency’s assistance.

Budget-Friendly, Two Step Screening Process (Bifurcated Screening)

A pre-employment psychological screening is a necessary step toward building a strong and meaningful team, but sometimes, it is not always affordable. Our budget-friendly, two-step screening process gives pre and post-conditional offer evaluation results. Unsatisfactory ratings are a reality in the screening process, but by breaking evaluations into a two-step process, you can rank order candidates at the beginning of the hiring process to put the best suited candidates through the remainder of the hiring process first, increasing the speed and efficiency of your hiring process while decreasing costs, saving you money and getting the best candidates through the process more quickly.

Critical Incident Debriefing/Consultation

This proposal covers consultation with the agency in the aftermath of an officer-involved shooting or deadly force event (or other critical incidents which may involve serious injury, loss of life, or threats of severe harm). Stone, McElroy & Associates proposes to meet with the appropriate department personnel within 24 to 48 hours of the incident to discuss ways to manage the mental health needs of the personnel involved.  SMA will also provide critical incident debriefings for personnel approximately 72 hours after a critical incident.  The debriefing will consist of psychoeducation to address typical emotional and physical responses to critical incidents, signs and symptoms of mental distress, resources available for ongoing mental health support, and general information about mental wellness following involvement in a critical incident.The Psychological Fitness for Duty (FFD) Evaluation program provides assessment of an incumbent

Fitness for Duty Evaluations

The Psychological Fitness for Duty (FFD) Evaluation program provides assessment of an incumbent employee whose behavior is regarded as creating risk for the employer and is suspected to be related to a psychological issue. Fitness for Duty Evaluations can have significant legal and safety-related implications and thus demand the highest level of expertise, competence, and attention on the part of the examiner. The objective of the assessment is to:

• determine the nature of the psychological impairment (if any)
• assess the impact of the mental problem on work-related behavior
• assess the risk factors for the employer
• in light of the impairment and risk factors, determine the employee’s fitness for duty
• determine the likelihood of improvement in the employee’s condition
• address any corrective measures which might be appropriate (within the framework required by the Americans with Disabilities Act)
• in appropriate cases, develop on behalf of the employer a proposed contractual relationship (or return to work agreement) with employee. Typically, such agreements define job restrictions (if any), treatment requirements, stipulation that the employee will avoid further adverse behavior, and other relevant conditions
• in cases where this is requested and in which employee is under a return to work agreement, make back-to-work recommendations;

The Fitness for Duty evaluation typically consists of consultation with the requesting agency to determine the most effective method of dealing with the specific issue, psychological testing, a clinical interview with the employee, comprehensive record review, and collateral interviews with persons who are familiar with the employee. A Fitness for Duty report will be issued to the employer through the designated personnel director, attorney, or others. The level of detail in a Fitness for Duty Report, while usually quite substantial, is restricted to job related findings and can be modified depending on the requirements of your agency. Reports draw clearly articulated conclusions related to fitness for duty and (where employee is temporarily unfit or conditionally fit) provide recommendations related to returning the employee to work.

Click here for IACP Guidelines

Post-Critical Incident Management

SMA offers consultation with your agency in the aftermath of an officer-involved shooting, deadly force event or other critical incident. Our psychologists who respond to critical incidents, either on scene, at your department or in our office are trained in and familiar with the tactics and procedures involved in critical incidents and can conduct debriefings and other consultation for your department to help you navigate the post critical incident response appropriately.

Click here for IACP Guidelines

Operational Consulting/Threat Assessment/Hostage Negotiation

SMA assists departments in improving highly specialized tactics, as well as day-to-day operational aspects of an agency. This may include specialized input on counterintelligence/counterterrorism, criminal profiling, tactical support, hostage negotiation and psychological autopsies, all areas in which our psychologists have unique training and experience. We provide consultation and training to agencies related to supervisor training, team management, employee retention, and mediation as well as crisis intervention training and general training in mental health issues public safety employees may encounter in their everyday duties. SMA also partners with Critical Response Associates  to provide the highest level of threat assessment and workplace violence training available.

Click here for IACP Guidelines

Special Assignment Screening

SMA provides highly focused assessment services for personnel being considered for special assignments such as, SWAT, Bomb Squad, Crisis negotiation, Covert Operations, Undercover operations, and others. The assessment protocols provide an evaluation of the psychological strengths of the candidate to function under the unique stresses of these assignments. The protocols comply with CALEA standards for the initial and periodic screening of such personnel to determine whether the officer continues to meet the psychological requirements of the position. Broad methods utilized are similar to those used in pre-employment screening, although testing and nature of interview is specific for this purpose. Stone, McElroy & Associates’ psychologists are unusually qualified to provide this service to public safety agencies at all levels (local, county, state, and federal).