Public safety talent management
Hire, promote, and develop the people your community counts on. We build exams that hold up to the task.
Public safety agencies make some of the highest stakes hiring decisions of any employer. You make them with fewer applicants and more scrutiny than ever before. Talogy helps police, fire, and EMS agencies build hiring and promotion exams that find the people who can really do the work. And when someone challenges a result, our exams hold up.
Talogy has worked in providing talent assessment solutions for more than 75 years. Public safety has been its own practice here since 1984. In that time we have delivered more than 500 public safety testing contracts. Many ran under federal court or Department of Justice oversight. That record is the difference between an exam that looks rigorous and one that is.
Supporting better talent decisions in public safety
Fewer people are applying. Budgets are tight. Retirements are speeding up, and the leadership bench keeps getting thinner. Officer and firefighter wellness matters more than it used to. The rules keep changing. And the public is paying close attention to who you hire, who you promote, and how you decide.
These are not just HR problems. They are operational risks, and they feed each other. One open position turns into forced overtime. Overtime turns into fatigue, then people leave, and now you have two open positions. A promotion you cannot explain turns into a grievance. A grievance can turn into a lawsuit, and a lawsuit can turn into a court order that limits your hiring for years.
We help you take the guesswork out of those decisions. In the last ten years we have:
- Tested entry-level candidate pools as large as 45,000, and promotional pools as large as 3,500, without losing consistency or test security
- Several testing formats are available to our agencies, including paper-pencil testing where required
- Run computer-based exams that predict job performance well and keep candidates engaged so fewer drop out along the way
- Built fair, reliable ways to score a candidate’s experience, so you can consider more of what someone brings to the job
- Made our exams shorter, which protects your staff’s time, your command staff’s time, and your candidates’ time
We work with first responders, law enforcement, fire and more
Law enforcement
City police departments, county sheriff’s offices, state police and highway patrol, transit and campus police, and special investigative units
Fire service
We test every rank. That starts at entry-level firefighter and runs up through driver-engineer, company officer, fire marshal, battalion chief, division chief, and fire chief
EMS professionals and emergency response
Paramedics, EMTs, and the supervisors above them, in both fire-based and third-service departments
Civil service commissions and public sector HR
The commissions, HR divisions, and merit boards that run competitive exams on behalf of public safety agencies
Solutions for every stage of a public safety career
Every process we build starts the same way. We study the job as it is done today, in your agency, under your policies. That study is called a job analysis. Everything that follows comes back to it: what goes on the exam, how it is scored, where the passing line sits, and how we document it all.
Entry level hiring
Find the people who will make it through the academy and do well in the field with an entry level hiring process built around the demands of the job. Our entry-level assessments can measure thinking skills, work style, and personal history. We also offer structured interviews and writing samples, along with speaking samples, physical ability tests, psychological and medical screening, and structured background checks.
You can use our ready-made batteries, including the Law Enforcement Aptitude Battery (LEAB) and the Fire Service Aptitude Battery (FSAB). Or we can build a process from scratch around your role and your community. Either way, candidates receive a prep guide for every part of the exam, helping widen access and giving everyone a fair shot to show what they can do.
Promotion exams and assessment centers
Promotion is where the process is truly tested by those who matter to you most: internal employees who rise above the rest. The candidates work for you. They all know each other. And every point matters. We build promotional processes for front line supervisors, command, and leadership ranks. A promotion process can include technical knowledge tests, situational judgment tests, and in-basket exercises, as well as tactical and administrative exercises, oral boards, career review boards, and full assessment centers.
We recruit and train assessors, standardize the scoring, handle appeals, and document every step. A typical promotional exam process takes about six months from kickoff to the final eligibility list.
Leadership development and succession planning
The retirement wave is not really a hiring problem. It is a readiness problem. We help you spot high-potential law enforcement officers and firefighters earlier, see where their gaps are, and develop them on purpose. That way you are not finding out about any leadership gaps after someone has already retired.
Succession planning is an always-on process. Talogy helps you to identify and develop tomorrow’s leaders today. Leadership development is a core competency for Talogy so no matter the reason your leadership changes, we can make sure you also have bench strength.
Building fairness and validity into every assessment
Validation is evidence an assessment really measures what the job requires. We are experts in all three kinds of evidence – content, construct, and criterion-related validation evidence – which go to support the job-relatedness of the assessment. And we have spent over four decades refining how we gather it. We work regularly under the eye of the Department of Justice, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and court-appointed monitors. In some cases, hiring Talogy as the outside expert is, itself, part of the court order.
We treat fairness as something you build in, not a line you add at the end. That means keeping every question tied to the job. It means using other proven ways to measure a candidate when a written test alone would screen out good people unfairly. And it means reviewing content for bias, bringing a mix of voices to the table, designing assessments people can easily access, and giving every candidate real preparation material.
A major value of Talogy is to protect and defend against legal ramifications in high profile public safety positions.
Litigation support and expert witness services
When a discrimination case ends in a ruling or a settlement, agencies often have to fix something. Our psychologists serve as expert witnesses and as consultants. We review and rebuild selection processes to meet settlement terms, and we work directly with your attorneys, regulators, and court representatives. We also audit hiring tools for bias, including tools that use artificial intelligence. New York City now requires that kind of audit every year, and more states and cities are adding similar rules.
Regina Caggiano
Director of Civil Service, Human Resource Division, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Assessment technology built for high-stakes testing
TalogyTech
TalogyTech, our secure testing platform, formerly called True Talent™, handles scheduling, delivery, scoring, and reporting in one place, and gives you a live view of where every candidate stands. More than 98% of users say it is easy to use. Assessments can run in more than one language; candidates can view approved reference material on screen, and many agencies have moved old paper exams onto it.
Virtual Assessment Center
A realistic job simulation that runs on a computer. Candidates work through email, video messages, voicemail, calendar items, documents, and organizational charts, then respond the way they would on the job. Assessors can score the work right away, and everything is run centrally. That puts assessment centers within reach of departments that could never staff or fund one before.
Why public safety agencies choose Talogy
75+
years in talent assessment, with a dedicated public safety and civil service practice since 1984
150+
psychologists across the business
500+
public safety testing contracts delivered
20+
public safety specialists, each with ten or more years in public safety testing
#1
the world’s largest assessment library
Talogy is a highly trusted asset for our agency. I believe they represent the best the industry has to offer in terms of technical and procedural guidance and facilitation.
Captain Alice J. Brumbley
Former Director of Human Resources, Delaware State Police
We are not an off-the-shelf vendor. Several of our agency partnerships have now run for more than twenty years. That is the clearest proof we can offer that the work holds up, because no agency renews a testing contract for twenty years out of habit.
The people behind the brand
You will not be handed off to a call center. Every project is led by named consultants who will still be on your account in five years. They are psychologists, testing experts, and project managers who have spent their careers in police, fire, and civil service testing.
Our practice is led by Dr. Joseph Abraham and Dr. Penny Palmer. Dr. Abraham is a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Dr. Palmer has directed hundreds of job analysis and validation projects, many of them under federal court oversight. Our chief psychologist, Dr. Scott Stubenrauch, is board certified in police psychology. Behind them is a deep bench of psychologists and public safety testing specialists with extensive experience in psychological and fitness-for-duty assessment, physical ability testing, exam design, workplace safety, and expert witness testimony.
“I cannot overstate the professionalism, competence, knowledge and attention to detail exhibited by the Talogy staff. Their performance under intense pressure was absolutely flawless.”
Captain Alice J. Brumbley, former Director of Human Resources, Delaware State Police
Proof, not promises
FDNY: Firefighter hiring under court oversight
Since 2010, Talogy has helped the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) build and maintain its entry-level firefighter exam. The work began after a court ordered the department to reform its hiring. We worked alongside FDNY, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Vulcan Society, and a court-appointed Special Master to build an exam that was tied to the job and could be defended. We then built new versions of the exam in 2015 and 2023 to protect test security and keep hiring moving. We also have validated the department’s skills tests for recruits and validated a stair-mill test that sets the minimum fitness level needed to get through the academy safely.
Delaware State Police: 28 years of hiring and promotion testing
The Delaware State Police chose Talogy in 1998 to build, validate, and score its entry-level Trooper exam. In 2006 they added promotion exams for Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Captain. Over nearly three decades we have tested about 10,000 Trooper candidates. We also have tested 1,300 Sergeant, 400 Lieutenant, and 200 Captain candidates. We refresh the job analysis on a regular cycle, so the exams keep up with the work. That also gives DSP the records it needs for CALEA accreditation. In candidate surveys, most people say the promotion exams are run fairly.
Frequently asked questions about public safety talent management
Talent management is everything an agency does to attract, hire, develop, promote, and keep its people, both sworn and civilian. It covers recruiting, entry-level hiring, academy and probation reviews, promotion exams, leadership development, and succession planning. What makes it different in public safety is the stakes, the civil service and union rules you work within, and the level of public and legal attention few other employers face.
Because a bad decision costs more than money. A bad hire can put the community at risk, expose the agency to liability, and damage trust that takes years to rebuild. A poor promotion puts an unprepared supervisor in charge of people making life-and-death calls. A structured, validated assessment process improves your odds of getting those calls right. It also creates the paper trail you need to explain and defend how your decisions were made.
Job analysis turns up the same core competencies again and again when working in public safety: good judgment under pressure, ethical decision-making, clear speaking and writing, problem solving, emotional resilience, teamwork, safety awareness, and a community focus. Above entry level, the focus shifts toward managing people, making tactical and administrative decisions, coaching, and representing the agency in public. The exact mix changes by role, rank, and jurisdiction, which is why we measure it rather than assume it.
Workforce planning turns a predictable retirement wave into a schedule instead of a crisis. It shows you how many openings are coming and when, where your supervisor bench is thin, which people develop now, and how often you need to refresh eligibility lists. Public safety agencies that plan this way hire ahead of the gap instead of scrambling behind it.
Validated assessments predict job performance far better than an unstructured interview or a resume review, and they do it the same way for every candidate. Assessments allow you to screen a large applicant pool quickly, hold everyone to the same job-related standard, reduce the effect of personal bias, and keep a clear record of how each decision was made. A well-designed assessment process also feels better for candidates, which matters when good applicants have other options.
For entry-level hiring: written tests of thinking skills, work style, and personal history; structured interviews; writing and speaking samples; physical ability tests; psychological and medical screening standards; and structured background investigations. For promotion: technical knowledge tests, situational judgment tests, in-basket exercises, oral simulations and presentations, career review boards, and full assessment centers. We can deliver in person, remotely, or both.
We build promotion processes that measure what a rank requires, not just time served. We then use the same tools for development: spotting high-potential people early, telling them plainly where they stand, and giving the agency a solid basis for succession planning. Assessment centers and virtual simulations work especially well here because candidates show leadership behavior instead of just describing it.
Build a public safety process you can stand behind
Maybe your exams need to be updated. Maybe you are building a new hiring or promotion process, responding to a change in your workforce needs, or working through the terms of a settlement. Whatever challenge your agency is facing, our public safety experts can help you find a fair, defensible approach that works for your people and your community.