Even well selected and trained personnel can experience difficulties once on the job. Fitness for duty evaluations ensure the continuing reliability of personnel. The need for an effective, defendable screening resource is best met by professionals who are well experienced in providing law enforcement services and use procedures that are well proven.
Fitness for duty evaluations use the employee's job task criteria, and the same structured clinical interview and the psychological tests used in entry screening, plus the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory - III. The procedure, however, is designed to maximize the employee's sense of trust and fairness in the evaluation. Care is taken to assure that the evaluating psychologist is provided written information by the Department that defines and details the concerns that had arisen. Yet this information is not examined until after the employee has first had the opportunity to tell his/her side of the story. After they are satisfied that the evaluator understands the concern from their perspective, the doctor opens the envelope containing the Department's presentation of facts and circumstances. Taking care to ensure the employee's sense of fairness using this procedure has often proven to contribute to the employee's adjustment when returning to work, and confidence in the action taken by the Department when kept from the job. Recommendations of the fitness for duty evaluation follow the essential questions that are dictated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and when applicable, The Adjudication Guidelines for Determining Eligibility for Access to Classified Interpretation, or as implemented by Executive Order 12968.