Law Enforcement psych evals include "Have you played D&D"?

[Dogbrain]

During the Satanic Panic of the 1980s/90s, a private "consultant" to law enforcement put out a pamphlet with a question of the nature "Do you play Dungeons and Dragons?", with a "yes" being considered diagnostic of "satanic" or some sort of "antisocial" tendencies. It was not incorporated into any law enforcement for real, as far as I know. So, yes, "the question" did exist, but it was from a private source with an axe to grind.

 

[Macbeth]

Gen. Ay: Alright, gentlemen...
...
Gen. Ay: Goddamn hippies.

That was HILLARIOUS! Funniest thing I've seen in a while...

 

[Ranger REG]

How many Law Enforcement Officers are here on these boards?

Although I'm not one, IME I have played RPGs and wargames with those in the law enforcement field.

I am planning on attending the law enforcement academy here in Orlando, FL in a couple of weeks and I heard a disturbing rumor from a friend whose father is knows someone in the FBI. My friend plays with me in my weekly campaign I run and he is interested in possibly going in to the FBI and knows I plan to become a local police officer. He said his father was talking to his FBI friend who informed his father that on their pysch eval / polygraph the FBI asks if you "Have ever played D&D". Apparently role-playing is a serious character flaw and can keep you from getting hired. My friend's father came home, and asked my friend about the game he always knew about, but never really understood. Suddenly my friend's father is hearing from an FBI agent that playing D&D is a character flaw and he wanted to know more about it. Unfortunately he wasn't outraged at the stupidity of thinking D&D is a problem, but at his son for playing it. luckily he was reasonable enough to understand it after it was explained to him.

This distresses me, for many reasons. First off, I want to become a police officer and I love D&D and all role-playing games. I also would hate to be judged on a subject that the hiring officers have no real experience or clue about, besides the seemingly everlasting bad press. Worse off, I think being a role-player makes me MORE qualified. I have practiced communication weekly, played many different roles, used my mind to imagine scenes, and then describe those scenes.

So, if any of us ENWorlders are law enforcement, help me out and let me know what to expect for my first couple of applications. Of course I realize that things will be different all over, but it would be nice to see if there is a negative trend.

Well, each county police department have their own hiring procedures, although they do shared some of them with other departments. If Orlando County have a problem with role-playing hobbyists as cops, then perhaps you should look at other police departments in Florida. Talk to their recruiters. If your desire to become a cop is greater than your place of residence, then go elsewhere out-of-state that are willing to accept you.

Orlando's loss shall be another county's or state's gain.

 

[pogre]

Such a question may fall under the Societies Norms of the CIA's psychological profile section - one of the main purposes of the section as I understand it is to test a candidate's honesty and integrity.

Just to give you an example, a guy I coach with had one of his former players applying to the CIA. The agency called him and asked him all sorts of character issues about the player - no real problem - the kid was a stand-up person. The interviewer also asked the coach some strange questions like what position did he play? What was the team's record? Did the kid start every game?

Later the young man came home - after being accepted, and coach asked him about the interview process. He told coach they checked EVERY single thing he told them in the interview out. Fortunately, he did not brag about his senior year in football, he was a standout player anyway.

So, perhaps they might ask you if you play D&D to see if you would cover something potentially embarassing with a lie?

 

[Li Shenron]

This thread makes me think of an experience shared by all the Italian guys at the age of 18, when we have to make the mandatory 2-days visits for national army.

We all have to fill a questionaire of legendary status, with questions like the following:

- do you love your mom?
- do you hate your dad?
- do you like magazines about mechanics?
- do you like flowers?
- would you like to work in a flower shop?
- if you were an artist, would you paint flowers?

I really wish there was a place on the web with the whole test published...

But obviously, you can't really take Italian army too seriously

 

[Dark Jezter]

That explains why they give every soldier a black beret now...

You, sir, have just made my day.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

That has got to be crap. I was in the Air Force for 9 years and had a security clearance. If anything they'd ask about it when doing my clearance background check. Hell, I ran into more people in the Air Force that played RPG's than when I was a civilian. Gives you something to do when you are deployed and you can't do anything else.

 

[shilsen]

This thread makes me think of an experience shared by all the Italian guys at the age of 18, when we have to make the mandatory 2-days visits for national army.

We all have to fill a questionaire of legendary status, with questions like the following:

- do you love your mom?
- do you hate your dad?
- do you like magazines about mechanics?
- do you like flowers?
- would you like to work in a flower shop?
- if you were an artist, would you paint flowers?

I really wish there was a place on the web with the whole test published...

But obviously, you can't really take Italian army too seriously

I wouldn't say that. The Italian Army's not the only crazy bunch out there as far as dumb questions on application forms goes.

The US visa application form I filled out actually asked, "Are you or have you ever been a terrorist?" Followed closely by "Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?" 'Nuff said!

 

[WayneLigon]

Pat Pauling and BADD (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons) also distributed literature to, and held 'training seminars' for, law enforcement. This material would be from the early to mid-80's; I'm not sure myself if BADD still even exists as an entity.

Have any of the officers and law enforement people on the board even seen any of these materials? If so, or if you can find them in whatever archives exist for such materials, I'd be extremely interested in hearing what they say.

Additional reading on 'experts' who conduct law enforcement seminars:

Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend by Jeffrey S. Victor

Satan's Silence : Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt by Debbie Nathan and Michael Snedeker (Concentrates on the so-called 'daycare abuse rings' and 'daycare satanic cults')

Hystories by Elaine Showalter (A look at the concept of 'hysteria' and how it relates to many things, ranging from 'Satanic Panic' to Gulf War symptoms to chronic fatigue syndrome)

 

[francisca]

Pat Pauling and BADD (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons) also distributed literature to, and held 'training seminars' for, law enforcement. This material would be from the early to mid-80's; I'm not sure myself if BADD still even exists as an entity.

Dunno if BADD is still Bothering to be Bothered, but here is Stackpole's "Pulling Report". In it he talks about police troubled teens about D&D.


Pulling Report