Individual and Psychological Characteristics of Law Enforcement Officers as a Basis for Effective Psychological Selection of Personnel for Modern Police Organizations

: The distinguishing features of a specific type of modern law enforcement activities (criminal police, patrol police, security police, pre-trial investigation bodies, district police officers) require a law enforcement officer to have certain individual and psychological characteristics, the absence of which make it impossible to successful perform their service tasks. Individual and psychological characteristics must be taken into account during the psychological selection of personnel for law enforcement agencies. The aim of the research is to undertake the comparative analysis of the individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers who carry out various types of law enforcement activities. 986 law enforcement officers engaged in various types of law enforcement activities took part in the research. The research was carried out on the basis of a systematic approach using an optimal set of psychodiagnostic techniques. Professionally significant individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers who undertake various types of service activities were singled out. It was found that the representatives of the criminal police and security police units are emotionally more stable compared to other categories of police officers. On the other hand, high levels of confidence, independence and leadership are expressed among patrol officers and investigators. Police officers in all types of law enforcement activities are particularly characterized by high self-control, responsibility, conscientiousness, thoroughness, and discipline. The obtained data will contribute to the improvement of the mechanism of psychological selection of personnel for modern police organizations.


Introduction
Modern law enforcement activities require a significant increase in their effectiveness to ensure law and order as well as public safety of citizens, fight against crime, providing services and legal assistance to the population, etc. One of the ways to improve the effectiveness of law enforcement activities in modern conditions is to optimize the process of psychological study of law enforcement officers, to improve the professional selection of personnel based on the comprehensive consideration of individual and psychological characteristics and the level of psychological suitability of individuals to the requirements of a specific type of law enforcement activities Shvets, et al., 2020). Hence, it can be stated that under the modern conditions of the development of society, the introduction of information and communication technologies is consistently strengthening a new perspective on human resourcing of the law enforcement system, the key element of which is the personnel of the police organization as one of its main resources. This reflects a real increase in the role of the human factor in police activities, the growing dependence of the functioning of each unit on the quality of law enforcement services, the motivation of specialists, the nature of the use of personnel as a whole and individual employees. That is why paying attention to human resources and staffing in general should be considered as a long-term factor of competitiveness and successful functioning of law enforcement agencies. Carrying out radical reforms in the system of police bodies is, in particular, directly related to increasing the role of the individual and psychological potential of its subjects (Bondarenko, et al., 2020b;Fedorenko et al., 2020;Huhta et al., 2022;Yevdokimova, et al., 2020).
In this context, the issues of adaptation and improvement of the psychodiagnostic tools of professional selection of specialists for various types of law enforcement activities are of particular importance. This puts forward qualitatively new requirements for the theory and practice of the organization of personnel policy and determines the need to create an optimal mechanism for the formation of personnel of modern police organizations.

Literature Review
In recent years, national and foreign scientists have paid a lot of attention to the issue of diagnosing the individual characteristics of police officers, as well as to the development of qualification characteristics of law enforcement professions. It is worth noting the attempts and efforts of modern scientists to expand the scope of scientific research in this direction Bondarenko, et al., 2020a;Kirdan et al., 2021;Kryvolapchuk et al., 2020;Kubaienko et al., 2021;Miloradova et al., 2015;Ostapovich, et al., 2020;Prontenko, et al., 2020;Prykhodko, et al., 2022). This increased the potential opportunities of practical psychologists in working with the personnel of police bodies and units, improved the system of psychological support for their activities, etc. In addition, the implementation of certain scientific approaches in practice allowed to focus on the professional activities of each individual specialist, and thus ensure the qualitative use of functional elements of personnel management i. e. selection, adaptation, development, training, motivation, work evaluation, encouragement, etc. In general, the given processes determined the degree of overall organizational effectiveness through the development of human factor management tools, among which the consideration of individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers takes priority.
The researchers from foreign countries, in turn, also raised in their publications the issues of psychological study of the professional activities of law enforcement officers, diagnosis of psychological suitability for service activities, selection of diagnostic tools for professional selection of personnel, etc. (Abbe, & Brandon, 2014;Alcadipani et al., 2021;Barrett et al., 2003;Bartol & Bartol, 2004;Bjerregaard, & Lord, 2004;Carlsmith, & Sood, 2009;Deller-Wessels et al., 2022;Detrick et al., 2005;Hoggett et al., 2019). Certain scientists have established correlation relationships between the success of law enforcement activities and the degree of manifestation of certain characteristics of police officers, in particular, introversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, conscientiousness, etc. However, the comparative analysis of the individual and psychological characteristics of police officers of different types of activities and their psychograms has not been conducted so far, which limits the possibilities of practical psychologists and personnel department employees in determining the level of psychological suitability of an individual for service activities, optimizing the appointment of people to various positions in police units. Instead, a favorably constructed and successfully organized diagnostic process based on specific (individual and psychological) indicators allows in a short time to identify suitable and motivated law enforcement officers who are able to work not only in accordance with their personal goals, but also organizational and corporate tasks. Under such conditions, we can say that the mechanisms of human resources management in such a police establishment will be properly managed, and therefore effective. New specialists are able to form the personnel resource of the unit already at the Individual and Psychological Characteristics of Law Enforcement Officers as a ... Ivan OKHRIMENKO et al. 145 initial stage of work, and its activities begin to positively affect the competitive advantages of the structure as a whole. The aim of the research is to undertake the comparative analysis of the individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers who carry out various types of law enforcement activities.

Methodology
The research was conducted during 2019-2021 with coverage of 986 police officers by the main types of police activities (criminal police (n = 231), pre-trial investigation bodies (n = 205), district police officers (n = 164), patrol police (n = 247), security police (n = 139)), aged 22 to 46 from 20 oblasts of Ukraine; 77.9 % of respondents were men. The special ranks of police officers ranged from corporal to police colonel. According to the results of the expert assessment, 80 % of the examined were characterized as successful employees. Considering the scope of examined police officers, the quantitative indicator of the sample is representative (with a confidence level of probability of 0.99 with a theoretical statistical error of 0.01). The criteria of the psychological suitability of the individual to the requirements of the activities included the following: the criterion of the type of higher nervous activity (indicators of the strength and lability of the nervous system); the criterion of personal characteristics (indicators of temperament and character).
A complex of methods was used to solve the tasks: -theoretical methods (analysis, synthesis and generalization of psychological literature on the research problem); -empirical methods involved tapping test, adapted questionnaires: individual and typological questionnaire (leading trends); questionnaire of the Big Five (characteristic features); temperament structure questionnaire; the Leonhard-Shmishek questionnaire (accentuations of personality); the method of diagnosing interpersonal relations (variant of T. Leary's interpersonal diagnosis) (Barrett et al., 2003;Black, 2000;Cochraine et al., 2003;John et al., 2008;Salgado, 2002); survey and interview of police officers, expert assessment; -methods of mathematical and statistical data processing involved a package of application programs such as "SPSS 22.0" and "Microsoft Office Excel 2003", which provided the calculation of variation statistical indicators: Student's t-test for independent samples to identify statistically significant differences between the average values of the compared indicators between the research groups. The research was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Regulation on academic integrity at the National Academy of Internal Affairs, which was developed on the basis of Ukrainian and global experience of ethical rulemaking. This document was approved by the Academic Council of the National Academy of Internal Affairs (protocol No. 5 of March 27, 2018) and put into effect by the order of the rector of the Academy (order No. 422 of March 30, 2018). According to its provisions, the members of the scientific community in their activities are guided by the norms and rules of ethical behavior and professional communication, take into account the principles, values, norms, rules and conditions for observing academic integrity. Prior consent to participate in the research was obtained from all subjects.

Results
Two main criteria were chosen as ones for assessing a person's psychological suitability for activities: a) the criterion of the type of higher nervous activity (HNA) (specified in the indicators of the main properties of nervous processes i. e. strength and lability); b) the criterion of personal characteristics (specified in the indicators of temperament and character traits). Such a choice is based on the methodological standpoint, according to which the prediction of a person's psychological suitability for activities in various situations is based on taking into account his / her constitutional and characterological features (traits) (Smith, 1988).
Let's consider the criteria in sequence.
The criterion of the type of HNA. Police officers are characterized by a strong, average-strong or average-weak type of nervous system, high or average lability of nervous processes, high psychophysiological endurance and working capacity. Police officers have several typical profiles based on the results of the tapping test. On average, about half of the examinees show an average-strong type of HNA (41.9 %), almost a third (31.7 %) reveal a profile characteristic of an average-weak nervous system. One-sixth of the respondents (14.9 %) demonstrated a strong type of nervous system, a small proportion (11.4 %) of respondents have a weak type. More than half of police officers have high (53.4 %) indicators of lability of nervous processes, more than a third (36.0 %) have average (intermediate) and only 10.9 % of employees have low lability.
The largest number of police officers with strong and average-strong types, which are predictors of the success of an employee's professional activities in special conditions, was found in investigation units (59 %), followed by patrol officers (56.6 %), employees of criminal police units (55.3 %), security police officers (53.1 %), district police officers (50.6 %). Therefore, for all types of police activities, the majority of employees are characterized by a sufficiently strong nervous system, which is obviously related to the need to constantly endure significant emotional and physical stress during service activities, to overcome feelings of fear, insecurity, and uncertainty.
Regarding the lability of nervous processes, we came to the conclusion that the largest number of highly labile police officers work in the criminal police (65.8 %), investigation (60.0 %), and patrol police (57.5 %) units. Obviously, this testifies to the importance of the ability for the employees of the mentioned units to quick arousal, flow and termination the nervous process, switch from excitement to inhibition and vice versa, quick thinking and reaction to events, intellectual flexibility, etc. (Table 1).

The criterion of personal characteristics
Characteristic features. The research of personal characteristics using the Big Five Inventory (BFI) made it possible to find out that police officers have such traits as conscientiousness (average value -35.6 points); openness to new experiences (32.9 points); moderate agreeableness (31.3 points), and extraversion (30.0 points), low level of neuroticism (14.5 points) ( Table 2). The indicators of testing of law enforcement officers of different units are close to each other, the differences are statistically insignificant (р = 0.001). This means that police officers are characterized in terms of the main types of professional activities by controllable behavior and proactive attitude, self-control, perseverance, diligence, accuracy in work, thoroughness, responsibility, organization, discipline, and lack of anxiety. They are also characterized by impartiality, interest, receptivity to new information and knowledge, the presence of broad interests, developed imagination, flexible mind, independence and non-standard thinking, orientation to the search for new approaches, ways to solve problems, propensity for introspection and reflection, originality of perception. Police officers are characterized by focus on the outside world, sociability, ability to get on well with people, leadership aspirations, vigor, proactive attitude, impulsiveness, optimism. Moderate compliance indicates sensitivity, benevolence, trustworthiness, conformity, a tendency to subordinate personal interests to the needs of the group, orientation to cooperation. Tendencies towards rationalism, stress resistance, endurance, calm response and attitude to events as well as the environment are also observed.
The analysis of the averaged personality profiles of police officers, obtained on the basis of the use of an individual-typological questionnaire, allows us to characterize them as linear, located in the range of 3-7 points, which indicates the harmony of the personality of police officers, the balance in their personal qualities. The variability of the profiles is insignificant (0.10-0.26), which indicates the balance of multidirectional tendencies. The averaged profile contains four peaks on the scales: 1 (extraversion), 8 (lability, emotionality), 2 (spontaneity), 4 (rigidity). The lowest indices were recorded on scales 5 (introversion) and 7 (anxiety) ( Table 3). As in the case of the results obtained from the Big Five Inventory, the test indicators are very similar, the differences between the data are statistically insignificant (p = 0.001). Police officers are extroverts with moderate indicators of spontaneity, aggressiveness and rigidity. Sensitivity and emotionality are represented by indices within the normal range. Introversion and anxiety are not very pronounced.
The highest indicators of sthenic scales i. e. spontaneity and aggressiveness are characteristic of employees of criminal police units (5.84 and 4.91, respectively), which is evidence of a strong "Ego", offensive tendencies, assertiveness, search proactive attitude, ability to resist environmental influences, etc. Quite high indicators of these scales, as well as rigidity (5.78), were also noted among employees of pre-trial investigation bodies, which indicates such traits as persistence, a certain pedantry and a tendency to carefully check the information received. The highest indices of the scale of hyposthenic type 6 (sensitivity) were found among patrol police officers (4.35), which is evidence of a certain emotional warmth of police officers, sensitivity, empathy and a tendency to compromise in interpersonal relationships.
So, all police officers can be characterized as people with a sthenic type of response, high proactive attitude and a high level of claims, high lability (emotionality), but controllable emotional reactions. They are characterized by a dominating style of behavior, the ability to quickly form new skills, resistance to stress, a tendency to self-realization, independence and resistance to the influence of the environment. The personality of a police officer is characterized by stable characterological features, such as extroversion, spontaneity, emotionality, optimism, and practicality. In interpersonal relations, specialists strive for a leadership position, are energetic and persuasive.
The analysis of the features of individual profiles made it possible to single out several typical variations from the sample.
The first group (30 %) was made up of energetic persons with the 1 st and the 2 nd profile (extroversion-spontaneity), such police officers are characterized by searching proactive attitude, courage and determination, speed in making decisions. The second largest group has peak indicators on the 1 st and the 8 th scales (25 %) in the profile. Such police officers have a tendency towards leadership, they are diligent, responsible, consistent and goal-oriented, seek to help others, show empathy and understanding of people. The next group (20 %) consists of police officers with a psychological profile dominated by the 4 th and the 3 d scales (rigidity and aggressiveness). Such workers are energetic and determined, somewhat irritable and aggressive; tend to oppose their own interests to the environment, they are independent and rational. The fourth group of police officers (15 %) is characterized by grade-ups on the 6 th and the 5 th hyposthenic scales; as well as the 4 th mixed type scale. These are introvertedrigid individuals who are characterized by multidirectional tendencies. Such individuals are somewhat shut-in, individualistic, unyielding and independent, sometimes suspicious and excessively stubborn. This is followed by a small group of people (10 %) who have peaks on the 1 st and the 6 th scales (extraversion and sensitivity) in their psychological profile. Such police officers are energetic, optimistic, sociable, have many friends and acquaintances, they are sensitive and friendly, but sometimes indistinct in social contacts.
The results obtained using the Leonhard-Shmishek questionnaire indicate the absence of accentuations of character and temperament in police officers. In the averaged profile of police officers, some increases were recorded on the 5 th (hyperthymism); the 1 st (demonstration); the 3 d (pedantry) scales. The indicators of anxiety, excitability, dysthymicness are insignificant (in the range of 4.80 -9.0 points) (Table 4). The highest indicators of hyperthymism (scale 5) were shown by criminal police officers and investigators (15.69 and 15.28), the lowest ones by district police officers and security police officers (14.76 and 14.66); the highest indices of demonstrability (scale 1) are inherent in district police officers and investigators (14.58 and 14.29), the lowest ones in security police officers (12.73). This means that all police officers have such individual traits as vigor, proactive attitude, emotional stability, tranquility and self-control in conflict as well as stressful situations, decisiveness, the ability to take responsibility, adequately assess one's strengths and capabilities, perseverance, as well as emotionality, management skills, certain artistry. High indicators on the 2 nd scale (fixedness) were demonstrated by investigators and employees of criminal police units (12.61 and 12.46), the lowest ones by patrol police employees (9.60). So, law enforcement officers (especially investigators and representatives of the criminal police) are characterized by such traits as commitment to principles, firmness of convictions, unsociable demeanour, sense of duty, and obligation. According to the 3 d scale (pedantry), the highest indicators were recorded among patrol police officers (12.36), as well as security police officers (10.73), and the indicators were within the normal range among police officers of other units. This shows that police officers (especially patrol officers) are characterized by punctuality, reliability, stability of mood and relationships, accurateness, and conscientiousness. The scales of the emotional (9) and cyclothymic (10) type are moderately pronounced in police officers (the highest indicators were found in patrol police officers (10.87 and 11.43, respectively) and investigators (10.78 and 9.68). In general, all categories of law enforcement officers, especially patrol police officers and investigators, are characterized by features of a mixed type of response i. e. benevolence, emotionality, executive discipline and responsibility, as well as individualism and seriousness.
Features of temperament. Surveys using the "Temperament structure questionnaire" generally confirmed the previous data, and therefore give grounds for asserting that law enforcement officers have high indexes on the substantive and social tempo scales (4 and 5) -10.07-8.12, respectively; as well as the substantive and social tempo scales (1 and 2) -10.18-7.10, respectively (Table 5). This indicates a high tempo of behavior and execution of substantive work operations, motor and motion speed as well as speed of speech actions in the process of communication, including high mental capacity, the need for proactive attitude, leadership and mastering the world through communication. The highest indicators according to the specified scales were revealed by employees of criminal police units and investigators (10.07-10.18), followed by district officers of the patrol police (9.53-9.22). Also, all police officers are characterized by high indicators of substantive plasticity (scale 3) -9.31-9.10, which indicates the ease of switching from one type of activity to another, a quick transition from one form of thinking to another, a desire for diversity in substantive activities. It was established that the majority of police officers have low levels of emotionality (scales 7 and 8) -2.92-2.02. This means that law enforcement officers in general are not characterized by emotionality and sensitivity, they are self-confident in situations of professional communication, emotionally stable in case of failure, they are not characterized by anxiety and excessive excitement about service situations. Specialists of criminal police units (2.02) and security police officers (2.10) are the most emotionally stable.
The analysis of the given psychological profiles obtained by the method of interpersonal relations diagnostics (Table 6) allows us to conclude that the majority of police officers are persons who have developed harmonious relationships with the environment (most scales do not exceed 8 points). The octants of the sthenic type of response (1-3), which reflect such traits of interpersonal interaction as leadership, confidence (1), independence, rivalry (2), straightforwardness, impulsiveness (3) are most pronounced in patrol police officers (8.33-6.09), investigators (7.93-5.41) and security police specialists (7.90-5.50); to a lesser extent in employees of criminal police units (6.50-4.69). The octants of the hyposthenic type (5 and 6), which indicate a tendency towards compliance, modesty, avoidance of confrontation, dependence on others, indecisiveness in interpersonal relationships in general are not very pronounced and are most evident in patrol police officers (4.18 and 5.60), as well as security police officers (4.15 and 5.40); they are least pronounced among representatives of the criminal police (2.59 and 3.83, respectively).  This can be explained by the fact that patrol police officers have to show more understanding, empathy and conventionality in their relations with citizens, while criminal police officers, who deal mainly with the criminogenic element, are less prone to compromises, more aggressive and offensive in their professional relationships. The same follows from the results obtained on the scale of the mixed response type (8 -responsible and generous type). The highest values are shown by patrol police and security police officers (6.89 and 6.60, respectively), which indicates the importance of such traits as willingness to help others, a sense of responsibility for the assigned task, altruism, etc., for service activities.
The lines of evidence are completely expected by us, because a police officer must be persistent and convincing in communication, provide an objective assessment of the actions and behavior, influence the interlocutor, attract attention and rouse interest in people, and create a sense of trust in them. In addition, it is very critical to have the ability to quickly establish contacts with people; find the necessary tone of conversation, convince, determine the individual characteristics of the interlocutor, achieve the set goal in the process of communication, defend one's opinion, work in a team, plan activities, predict the outcome of activities, regulate and control one's own actions, show leadership qualities. The highest indices of sthenic and hyposthenic types of interaction were recorded in patrol police officers, which can be explained by a significant range of their duties and, accordingly, a wide corridor of communicative personality qualities -from domineering and dominating to compromising tendencies, and, therefore, a strategy of moderate compliant behavior.

Limits and Discussion
The indicators of the individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers who carry out various types of law enforcement activities that we obtained, in a certain way clarify and specify the results of the empirical studies published in the scientific literature (Barrett et al., 2003;Cochraine et al., 2003;Detrick, & Chibnall, 2013). In general, from the point of view of psychology, law enforcement activities have some invariant features, which are due to the common specificity of the performance of law enforcement functions, as well as their certain variability depending on the specific type of law enforcement activities.
The research demonstrated that differences were recorded according to many criteria and indicators of the psychological suitability of a law enforcement officer for service activities. Most of the employees with a strong type of nervous system belong to the criminal police, patrol police and security police units. The largest number of highly labile police officers work in the units of the criminal police, pre-trial investigation (investigators), and patrol police. Obviously, this testifies to the importance of the employees' ability of the mentioned units regarding quick arousal, flow and termination of nervous processes, switching from excitation to inhibition and vice versa, quick thinking and reaction to events, intellectual flexibility, etc. This situation is explained by the extreme nature of the law enforcement activities itself, its intellectual saturation. In view of this, the opinion of McCafferty (2003) is apt that the demands on police officers have increased significantly in recent times, which is associated with a significant growth in threats to society and the personal safety of law enforcement officers.
It is also worth agreeing with the viewpoint that one of the ways to improve the efficiency of modern police organizations is to attract candidates who are most capable and prepared to perform functional duties in the field of law enforcement activities (Hoggett et al., 2019). Based on the results of our research, employees of the criminal police units demonstrate rather high levels of preparedness, which is evidence of their strong "Ego", offensive tendencies, persistence, search activities, the ability to resist external influences, etc. This is due to the need to take measures to combat organized crime (Fedorenko et al., 2020) Our results confirm data previously presented in the scientific research by Black, J. (2000). Positive correlation relationships were noted between the success of police activities and some personal characteristics, which are diagnosed using the given diagnostic tools. At the same time, the work by Ono, Sachau, Deal, Englert, Taylor (2011) identified cognitive abilities and the level of emotional intelligence as predictors of the success of the work of investigative units. The study by Sanders (2008) also confirmed the predictive value of diagnosing personality traits such as extraversion, anxiety, impulsivity, rigidity, etc. for predicting the success of the service activities of different categories of law enforcement officers.
In general, the results obtained by us form the concept of psychological diagnosis of personality suitability for law enforcement activities and are very important, because they increase the potential opportunities of practical psychologists in working with the personnel of police bodies and units both in Ukraine and in the countries of Western Europe.
Testing of the examinees was carried out by employees of psychological support according to the same requirements, but at different times of the day, which could in some way affect the results obtained. It was conducted in classrooms specially equipped for such research, which reduced the risks of extraneous influences. The conditions for the voluntary participation of respondents were also provided, taking into account the possibility of the respondents to refuse to participate in the testing.

Conclusions
It was found that various types of law enforcement activities have a number of common features, which are due to the specifics of the law enforcement system itself. Police officers in all types of law enforcement activities are characterized by high self-control, responsibility, perseverance, conscientiousness, thoroughness, discipline, lack of anxiety, etc. They are also characterized by impartiality, receptiveness to new information, the presence of broad interests, independence and non-standard thinking, orientation to the search for new approaches, a tendency to reflection, Individual and Psychological Characteristics of Law Enforcement Officers as a ... Ivan OKHRIMENKO et al. 157 orientation to the outside world, sociability, aspiration to leadership, vigor, proactive attitude, and optimism. Moderate compliant behavior indicates sensitivity, benevolence, conformity, orientation towards cooperation. Tendencies towards rationalism, stress resistance, endurance, calm response and attitude to events, etc. are also observed. Hence, it can be asserted that the common individual characteristics that determine the psychological suitability of an individual for police activities include: -strong or average-strong type of higher nervous activity; -high or moderately pronounced lability of nervous processes; -sthenic or mixed type of response; -high or moderately expressed indicators of substantive and social vigor, substantive and social tempo; -high or moderately pronounced indicators of conscientiousness and openness to experience; -high emotional and stress resistance; -high communication potential; -average indicators of compliant behavior; -low level of neuroticism. Regarding the differences in the manifestations of individual and psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers of various types of law enforcement activities, it should be noted that the highest indices of strength and lability of nervous processes were recorded in criminal police officers, patrol police officers, and investigators. The highest indicators of spontaneity and aggressiveness are characteristic of employees of criminal police units, as well as investigators. The highest indicators of temperament according to the scales of ergicity and tempo were found by criminal police officers and investigators, as well as patrol police officers. The most emotionally stable are representatives of the criminal police units and security police officers. Confidence, straightforwardness, independence, rivalry, leadership in interpersonal interaction are most pronounced in patrol police officers, investigators, and employees of criminal police units.
The largest range of indices of behavior in interpersonal interaction was recorded among patrol police officers, which can be explained by the wide scope of their functional duties and requirements for professional communication. Representatives of criminal police units demonstrate high rates of fixedness, which is due to the specifics of their professional activities (conspiratorial nature of activities, measures to combat organized crime, etc.).