Changes were recently made to this form, and the new form is available in a fillable format on our website (kscpost.org) under Report Forms then Central Registry Forms. In this month's spotlight, we want to highlight a few of the changes and the rationale for the changes. If agency policy allows, please feel free to post or share this and future spotlights with your peers. Anyone can sign up for KSCPOST updates by going to our website and selecting "Subscribe to KSCPOST Updates" in the red banner.

Box 1

• We have updated the race and ethnicity fields to better capture officer hiring data and trends. Agencies need to indicate ethnicity and race for all hires.

Box 4

• Note that the employment date is the date of employment as a law enforcement officer. If the employee was a detention officer or telecommunicator with your agency prior to becoming a law enforcement officer, don't use their original employment start date. Instead use the date that they were employed as a law enforcement officer.
  

• Some agencies may even hire an employee for a week or two of plain clothed orientation prior to the employee's date of employment as a law enforcement officer.

Box 5

• The applicant must swear or affirm the oath and then sign and date on or before the officer's date of employment as a law enforcement officer.

• The date for psychological testing was added to ensure departments are seeking psychological testing prior to an applicant's hire.

  • New Hires – Enter the month, day, and year of psychological examination.

  • Lateral Hire - If the applicant is a certified officer from another jurisdiction, the hiring agency needs to submit at least the month and year in which the psychological examination was completed. In rare cases, the previous agency and/or the psychological examiner may not be willing to disclose the date of the psychological examination. In this scenario the appointing authority can enter the approximate date that the officer can recall. For example, "Spring 1997 per Officer" or "Approx. June 2003 per Officer."

Nothing on this form would preclude an agency from completing a new psychological examination for a lateral hire. In fact, many agencies are already doing this as it is consistent with best practices and affords liability protection. Although not currently required, KSCPOST is working on an administrative regulation that would mandate a new psychological examination be done if the applicant has been out of law enforcement for 12 months or more prior to being hired.

• Date of appointing authority's signature must be on or prior to the officer's date of employment and on or after the date the agency received the psychological results. This is because the appointing authority (commonly the Chief of Sheriff) is attesting that the applicant meets the qualifications of K.S.A. 74-5605(b).

• The "Appointing Authority" is defined as a person or group of persons empowered by a statute, local ordinance, or other lawful authority to make human resource decisions that affect the employment of officers. A sheriff shall be deemed to be that individual's own appointing authority (K.A.R. 106-2-1(b)). Therefore, the appointing authority for a chief or director may be a mayor or city manager depending on organizational structure.

Remember that all Demographic and Employment Information forms should be submitted to KSCPOST within 30 days of appointment or election as a law enforcement officer K.S.A. 74-5611a(c).

As we all work to become more professional, efficient, and effective, we hope you found this spotlight topic to be informative and beneficial. A new topic will be chosen each month and emailed to those that have signed up to receive updates. If you have a topic that you would like KSCPOST to examine in future spotlights, please let Executive Director Doug Schroeder know.