Investigation: Unlicensed psychologists perform assessments of NYPD candidates.

Marquis Anderson, a member of the New York City Police Academy’s October 2022 class, passed his written and psychological assessments administered by the department’s Candidate Assessment Division. Three weeks after starting his training, he tested positive for COVID-19. Instead of referring Anderson to a physician, the department’s sick desk sent him to a medical psychological evaluation unit where he was seen by Vanja Radoncic. Radoncic identified herself to him and in court papers  as “Dr. Radoncic, Department Psychologist for the NYPD in the Psychological Evaluation Section,” he said, and she would go on to recommend his release from the department in June 2023. Anderson filed suit challenging his discharge.

“What I didn’t understand is why they sent me to be seen by someone who was not even a medical doctor  when I was out sick with COVID?” Anderson said in a telephone interview with City & State. “And for them to claim I was suddenly mentally unfit based on her evaluation – after I had already passed another psychological exam just a few months earlier – shows how arbitrary their evaluation process is.”

City records show the NYPD has employed Radoncic with the title of “psychologist” since Sept. 29, 2019, but the state Department of Education’s  verification portal does not display a record of anyone with hers, or a similar name, holding a license or permit to practice psychology.  

State statute calls for only “fully licensed” or “board-permitted” psychologists in police psychological assessment roles. Additionally, the state Municipal Police Training Council guidelines require only fully licensed psychologists be permitted to evaluate the psychological fitness of potential police candidates.

When asked, the NYPD said via email that Radoncic and others were exempt and didn’t need any licensure, citing a clause in New York’s education law that allows state, federal and municipal employees working toward their degrees to work as school psychologists or to assess students in approved educational settings using the title “certified school psychologist,” as long as they did not use the title “licensed psychologist.” Radoncic did not respond for comment to City & State.

Assembly Member Manny De Los Santos, a member of the state Assembly's Education Committee, told City & State that he had “never heard the Education Law’s exemption for the Board of Psychology's credentialing exemption used in this way.” “It is disrespectful to the profession to have students who have not yet  finished their graduate degrees making these important assessments and this practice needs to end,” De Los Santos added.

Other police departments across the state adhere to the statute and only hire fully licensed or board-permitted psychologists for these roles, such as in Nassau County and Albany.

Anderson is not alone. Thousands of other candidates have been flagged and denied entrance into the police academy, according to public records, because of poor psychological assessments, a process which critics and advocates allege has been purposefully used to promote bias toward certain candidates, and to uphold norms that some have called structural racism. 

“The NYPD has knowingly allowed unlicensed individuals to pose as ‘psychologists’ – conducting evaluations, disqualifying candidates and making career-altering decisions in direct violation of New York State Education Law” civil rights attorney Eric Sanders, who represents Marquis Anderson, said in a statement to City & State. “They can’t go work somewhere else and are left beholden to the department for licensure and vulnerable to pressure.” 

Sanders added that the department “weaponizes the psychological screening process to control who gets to serve.”

A spokesperson declined to comment when asked if the NYPD tracks the demographics of candidates who pass or fail its candidate evaluation tests or if the NYPD accounts for any disparities among demographic groups adversely affected by the psychological assessments.

A City & State review of the NYPD psychological assessment unit data focused on the credentials of individuals conducting evaluations of potential recruits and officers in the field after shootings and traumatic events and found that 55 out of 74 individuals doing the psychological assessments over the past decade did not have a license or permit to practice psychology. Currently, only six of the 14 psychologists employed in the psychological assessment units are unlicensed and unpermitted. 

The City & State analysis also found a high turnover of all people working to do psychological assessments, licensed or not, who have only worked an average of 2.53 years over the past 12 years before leaving the department. Twenty-six out of 74 psychologists in the department’s assessment units have spent a year or less on the job since 2012.

The 55 psychologists who have worked for the NYPD’s psychological assessment units since 2012 without licensure or permits have also  accumulated a combined 50,000 hours in overtime, according to City & State’s analysis of overtime records.

City & State’s data analysis also found the average number of days uncredentialed psychologists have worked without a license in the NYPD psychological assessment units is approximately 780 days. Fourteen were found to have worked uncredentialed for three years or more. One has worked without a license or permit for 2,076 days, or almost six years. City & State found four other unlicensed psychologists, including Radoncic, currently doing assessments in the medical unit, which is separate from the Candidate Assessment Division.

Students are allowed to accumulate clinical hours required for their Ph.Ds without a permit as long as they are closely supervised and identify themselves as “interns” or “psychological assistants.” However, the NYPD does not use either to refer to any of its psychological staff who assess candidates, on its roster filed with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the City Record, in professional titles, court filings, paperwork sent out to candidates notifying them of psychological evaluations or on department phone lists obtained by City & State.

No matter what title they have or what exemption they may claim to be credentialed under, psychology students working to attain clinical hours to complete their degrees require supervision, under the laws. State statute outlines they must have a mandated hourlong one-on-one meeting with supervisors per week, and another hour of mandated group time with the same supervisor. There has been 1 supervisor for every 5 uncredentialed students in these units over the past decade, according to Department of Citywide Administrative Services’ City Record. When asked how effective that ratio was, a department spokesperson said in an email, “The NYPD meets the requirements for licensed supervision of its psychologists, and supervisors review all cases.”

Unlicensed psychologists assessments flagged

Earlier this year, the NYPD tried to force the resignations of 31 officers whose psychological disqualifications were reversed by a NYPD personnel division inspector, Terrell Anderson. The inspector had discovered 80 improper psychological assessments made over the past three years. The 31 officers responded with a lawsuit and won a temporary restraining order preventing the department from removing them from duty until the results of a hearing in September.

Rev. Kevin McCall, a social justice activist and founder of the Crisis Action Center, a Brooklyn-based organization that advocates for Black and brown law enforcement officers, expressed concern that the psychological assessments might have been used to promote bias. He noted that most of the 80 assessments that were reversed were done by one unlicensed psychologist. “What is missing from the narrative surrounding Inspector Anderson's reversals of 80 psych assessments he supervised out of 6,200 is that they were all approved by (his superiors in the department),” McCall added. 

The NYPD’s psychological assessments have raised questions within the police academy. 

“We saw candidates at the academy and wondered how they passed their psych assessment,” said Dr. Robert Gonzalez, the NYPD’s former assistant commissioner for training from 2014-2015. “And by everybody I mean not just the academy staff but the other recruits too. At some point we started doing a blind questionnaire and asked, ‘Who in your company isn’t fit to graduate?’ And it would always be the same names. There were one or two in every company of 30.”

A former officer at the academy confirmed the existence of the questionnaire to City & State and said those recruits were sent back to the medical division for further psychological review.

“We would usually see those people back at the academy after being cleared a second time. In one case a recruit admitted that he couldn’t attend morning muster (roll call) because he had a fear of crowds. Can you believe it? A police (officer) with agoraphobia?” said the former officer, who asked not to be identified because of the confidentiality of the assessments. The former officer added that the recruit with a year on the job, “had a panic attack and crashed a police van he was driving, endangering the lives of other police riding with him and injuring civilians who sued the department and won a money verdict.”

City & State verified the lawsuit details but is not disclosing the name of the officer who is no longer a member of the department City records show.

NYPD data obtained by City & State shows that since January 2015, more than 23,100 candidates graduated from the police academy.

Former psychologists speak out

City & State spoke with 16 former NYPD psychologists who performed assessments and all but three reported a lack of adequate guidance and supervision. They also noted poor working conditions and that they were uncomfortable with such uncertainty on the job. Each asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.

“There are two different kinds of support, there’s the kind where leadership does enough to check the box showing they did the work to offer assistance and then there is the kind where you fully feel supported without pressure,” a former psychologist who is now licensed after working for the Candidate Assessment Division while finishing their clinical hours needed for their degree told City & State. They added they felt overwhelmed by the amount of work required.

Another former psychologist who did have their licensure was more positive about their experience working in the candidate assessment unit. However, they did complain about long hours. “Suffering through six months of back-to-back 12-hour days was a reminder that I was working in a paramilitary organization. That was the only part of the job I didn’t like.”

Advocates for police of color said the results of City & State’s findings were not surprising. Patrick Gordon, president of the NYPD Guardians Association, a Black fraternal organization, told City & State that his organization has long scrutinized the department’s “arbitrary nature” when it comes to psychological assessments.

“It is deeply concerning to learn that many of our suspicions are correct regarding the unit,” he told City & State. “The high turnover, lack of supervision and dependence on nonlicensed psychiatrists to make assessments confirms our suspicions, and reaffirms that an overhaul of that process is required immediately.” 

He added, “It’s fair to say that there are potentially thousands of candidates who have been unjustly disqualified by unlicensed, untrained, overworked psychologists over the past decade.”

NYPD Capt. Derby St. Fort, who works on police reform efforts with the Justice Ambassadors Youth Council at Columbia University, told City & State that the screening and hiring process used by the department needs to be more equitable and inclusive and credited Anderson for seeking to change the process. 

“He pushed for reform by implementing procedures to support a more diverse pool of candidates and worked to address discriminatory and unbalanced patterns, many shaped by a lack of cultural awareness and implicit bias,” Derby told City & State via text message. “He also recognized how past quota systems and over-policing strategies led to the disqualification of individuals who aspired to become officers and serve the very communities they grew up in.”

Clergy members from across the city have united behind Anderson after he was removed from his command in the personnel unit and brought up on department charges. Earlier this week they sent a letter to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch documenting their support.

“The NYPD’s psych assessment process has been and continues to present serious and substantial issues that cry out for systemic change,” said civil rights attorney Norman

Siegel who brought about the creation of the Civilian Compliant Review Board , the NYPD’s oversight board. “This could be the time for that long overdue change.”