Authorizes the removal of police officer candidates from an eligible list when such candidate does not meet psychological fitness requirements or lacks good…

• Democratic5
• Republican2

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Robert Jackson says this is needed

According to the New York Sheriffs' Association, the Professional Polic- ing Act directed the Municipal Police Training Council to promulgate regulations "prescribing height, weight, physical fitness and psycholog- ical requirements for eligibility of persons for provisional or perma- nent appointment in the competitive class of the civil service as police officers of any county, city, town, village or police district as it deems necessary and proper for the efficient performance of police duties." Executive Law § 840(2). The requirement that police officer candidates meet certain standards pertaining to psychological fitness for the job was a new criteria added by this legislation, and not an unwelcome one. Most Sheriffs already required applicants to undergo some form of psychological screening prior to employment; these regulations simply standardized a common practice. But, the formal legal requirement that police officer candidates undergo this testing has revitalized an old complaint. That being said, there is nothing in the law or regulations that technically disqualifies a candi- date who fails their psychological screening from eligibility for the position. The result is that in many counties, if an individual who is psychologically unfit to be a police officer scores high on the written examination they remain on the eligible list, essentially rendering the "rule of three" into the rule of two or one. This is not what the legislature ever intended. This bill would empower the appointing authority to compel the local civil service director to remove such candidates from the eligible list, ensuring that police chiefs and Sheriffs have the opportunity to select recruits from the full pool of candidates contemplated by the law.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.