Purpose Police executives and criminologists alike have advocated for the incorporation of emotional intelligence (EI) in the hiring and training of police officers. Despite general consensus that EI is important for a variety of outcomes in policing, most published studies on the topic have relied on crude measures, such as self-report assessments. While self-report tests are validated for many uses, their applicability as an objective measure of skills is limited.

Design/methodology/approach Using three studies, this paper outlines the development and validation of an emotion recognition test specifically intended for policing. The first study outlines the construction of the test focusing on expert responses and an item response theory analysis of responses to a prospective emotion recognition test. The second study utilizes the Geneva Emotion Recognition Test-Short Version and two survey collection methods to demonstrate the newly constructed test has convergent and concurrent validity. The third study uses a separate data collection effort and use of force records from a large police department in the United States to examine predictive validity.

Findings The emotion recognition test demonstrated convergent and concurrent validity. While there was some evidence of predictive validity, the relationship between emotion recognition and uses of force was reduced to non-significance with the introduction of contextual factors in the analysis.

Originality/value This study advances our understanding of EI in policing by examining the utility of an objective, context-specific measure of emotion recognition. As police departments and policymakers push for EI to be integrated into the hiring and training of police officers, objective tests of specific abilities in EI are necessary. This study, however, provides only limited support for the impact of emotion recognition ability on officer behaviors such as the use of force.