Controversial Test for Police May Be Revised

A widely used but controversial psychological test that asks Los Angeles police recruits whether they are attracted to men or are interested in becoming florists is under re-evaluation for possible discrimination against homosexual applicants.

Mayor Tom Bradley said Wednesday that the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) test is being reconsidered because of complaints from gay activists that the test has served to weed out gay and lesbian recruits.

Bradley, flanked by gay leaders and city officials, made the disclosure at a City Hall press conference to announce both the formation of “hate crimes” unit in the city attorney’s office and a task force to improve relations between the homosexual community and the Los Angeles Police Department.

Questioned by reporters, the mayor also said he would support aggressive, targeted recruitment of gays and lesbians to the police force--a concept advocated by gay activists.

Police officials, however, promptly said they believe that such targeted recruitment is unnecessary. Meanwhile, officials in the city Personnel Department, which administers the nationally standardized MMPI exam, said they are confident that the test does not discriminate but are nonetheless studying possible revisions.

The MMPI is “blatantly discriminating,” said Eric Rofes, director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in West Hollywood. “It is outrageous in 1988 that it’s still on the books.”

Dr. Sheldon Kay, the Personnel Department’s lead psychologist, confirmed that the 566-question, computer-graded test includes questions that ask men whether they have ever been attracted to other men or are interested in becoming florists. Those are two of “a handful” of questions that are being considered for elimination.

Kay said discussions have been started with the MMPI test officials at the University of Minnesota to determine whether the omission of some questions will alter the validity of the test. The MMPI test is one of a variety of tools used to evaluate applicants, the others including life histories, background checks and personal interviews.

Kay stressed that the city does not use the MMPI exam to evaluate a person’s sexual orientation. A “masculinity-femininity” scale included in the MMPI results is ignored by city psychologists in their interviews, he said.

“We don’t look at that because it’s not a relevant issue,” Kay said. What are relevant, he said, are scales measuring such factors as emotional stability, anxiety levels, stress tolerance and perception of reality.

Kay said that the MMPI test’s masculinity-femininity scale was originally intended by researchers to measure “homosexual tendencies and sexual identity.” However, he said, “it is well documented that the scale does not measure what it is intended to measure. . . . What it seems to measure are stereotypical masculine or feminine interests.”

Despite complaints from gay activists, Police Cmdr. William Booth said that the department considers targeted recruitment of homosexuals unnecessary because the issue of sexual preference is “irrelevant.”

Bradley and City Atty. James Hahn predicted that the newly formed “hate crime prosecution team” will succeed in putting perpetrators of bigotry-inspired crimes in jail for long periods. A prosecutor in each of eight regional branches of the city attorney’s office will specialize in hate crime prosecution, Hahn said.

The county’s Human Relations Commission last month reported that racially and religiously motivated crimes hit a record high in 1987, including 79 incidents blamed on racial hatred and 115 based on religious hatred. Many such crimes are unreported, the commission said.