Unit 4: Selection and Crime Scene Process

The Oral Examination

This examination may be an interview where the candidate meets, one-on-one, with an interviewer, or it may be before an oral board or panel. In small police departments, the candidate may meet with the police chief for this interview. In the FBI, the candidate is interviewed by a panel of special agents, trained to conduct applicant interviews, and the applicant is asked prepared questions and graded individually by each interviewer. Some agencies conduct confrontational examinations where the applicant’s ability to deal with stressful situations is tested.

This area of testing is less standardized than the written examination and, where the test is unstructured, may be subject to the same criticism of job relatedness as written exams.