Why Was OBIS Developed?

OBIS was originally developed to efficiently collect background information for pre-employment psychological evaluations of police officer candidates. Psychologists use background information, in combination with psychological test data and interview data, to make determinations of psychological suitability of candidates for law enforcement positions. In fact, background information has been found to be a strong predictor of future job performance and job related problems for police officers.

However, we quickly learned that background investigators found the background information obtained by OBIS to be extremely useful for jumpstarting their candidate investigations. The OBIS Background History Report contained detailed and extensive information about candidates’ life history in important dimensions including: education, work, military, legal, financial, family, interpersonal relationships, aggression, alcohol and drug use. In fact, we found that background investigators often did not want to begin their investigations without first getting copies of the OBIS-Background History Report because it would save them time and would point them in the right directions to focus their efforts. In the departments that use OBIS, it has become an integral part of the hiring process.

As a result, we have made OBIS available directly to departments to be used by their 1) background investigators, 2) polygraph investigators, and/or 3) in combination with the department psychologist.