APCAT APCAT - Alberta Police Cognitive Ability Situational Judgement Scenarios 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: You stop a vehicle for a minor traffic violation. The driver informs you they are a city councillor and suggests that 'we can work this out'. What is the most appropriate response?
- Let the driver go as a professional courtesy
- Issue the ticket or warning as you would for any driver and remain professional (Correct answer)
- Contact your supervisor before deciding
- Ask the councillor for a business card and follow up later
Correct answer: Issue the ticket or warning as you would for any driver and remain professional
All members of the public must be treated equally under the law. Professional status does not exempt anyone from traffic violations.
Impartiality is a foundational policing value. Granting exemptions based on professional or social status constitutes preferential treatment and undermines public confidence. Process the stop as you would for any citizen.
Question 2: You witness a fellow officer making a derogatory comment about a person's ethnicity during a call. What should you do?
- Ignore it as it did not affect the official outcome
- Laugh along to maintain team cohesion
- Address the behaviour with the officer privately after the call and report it through proper channels if it continues (Correct answer)
- Post about it on social media to raise awareness
Correct answer: Address the behaviour with the officer privately after the call and report it through proper channels if it continues
Addressing discriminatory behaviour through appropriate channels is the ethical and professional obligation of all officers.
Under Canadian police codes of conduct and Alberta Police Act obligations, officers are required to challenge and report discriminatory behaviour. Ignoring it condones the conduct. Private counselling followed by formal reporting is the professional standard.
Question 3: You are off-duty and a friend asks you to access police databases to look up information about their neighbour. What do you do?
- Help your friend — it's a minor favour
- Politely decline and explain that accessing databases for personal matters is a serious breach of policy (Correct answer)
- Look up the information but do not share all of it
- Access the database and then delete the search history
Correct answer: Politely decline and explain that accessing databases for personal matters is a serious breach of policy
Accessing police systems for non-authorised personal use is a serious breach of privacy law and police policy, regardless of off-duty status.
Unauthorised database queries violate FOIP in Alberta and police information governance policies. Officers have been charged and dismissed for such misuse. The correct response is to firmly and politely decline and explain the legal and policy reasons.
Question 4: You observe a supervisor telling a junior officer to falsify the time on an incident report to cover up a response delay. What is the most appropriate action?
- Follow the supervisor's instructions — rank must be respected
- Refuse to falsify the report and report the supervisor's direction through appropriate channels (Correct answer)
- Falsify the report but anonymously report it later
- Do nothing as it is not your report
Correct answer: Refuse to falsify the report and report the supervisor's direction through appropriate channels
Falsifying official records is a criminal offence. You have a professional and legal duty to refuse and to report the direction.
Falsifying police records is a criminal offence under s. 137 of the Criminal Code. Officers have a duty to refuse unlawful orders and report misconduct through the integrity or professional standards unit. Doing nothing creates complicity.
Question 5: During a search of a home with a valid warrant, you discover a large amount of cash hidden behind a wall. The homeowner is not present. What do you do?
- Pocket some of the cash — there is no one watching
- Document and seize the cash in accordance with the search warrant and have it properly logged as evidence (Correct answer)
- Leave the cash where it is as it was not listed specifically in the warrant
- Send photos to your supervisor and wait for instructions before touching anything
Correct answer: Document and seize the cash in accordance with the search warrant and have it properly logged as evidence
All items discovered during a lawful search must be documented and seized following proper evidence procedures.
Officers must document and properly handle all evidence found. Items in plain view reasonably related to criminal activity may be seized under the 'plain view' doctrine. Taking any portion of the cash would be theft. Doing nothing fails the evidence integrity standard.
Question 6: A member of the public aggressively demands that you arrest someone on the street, claiming that person 'looks suspicious'. The person has done nothing observable to justify detention. What do you do?
- Arrest the person to satisfy the complainant
- Explain to the complainant that you cannot arrest someone without grounds and offer to take details if they have specific concerns (Correct answer)
- Ignore the complainant and walk away without any response
- Detain the person for a short time to check their identity, just to be safe
Correct answer: Explain to the complainant that you cannot arrest someone without grounds and offer to take details if they have specific concerns
Arrests require reasonable grounds. Detaining someone based solely on 'looking suspicious' without specific, articulable facts would violate Charter rights.
Section 9 of the Charter protects against arbitrary detention. 'Looking suspicious' without specific observable behaviour does not meet the legal threshold. Officers must politely but firmly explain this and take details if a specific offence is alleged.
APCAT APCAT - Alberta Police Cognitive Ability Situational Judgement Scenarios 2
You stop a vehicle for a minor traffic violation.
The driver informs you they are a city councillor and suggests that 'we can work this out'.
What is the most appropriate response?