Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel will soon be required to clear a new psychological assessment before they can be deployed to protect VIPs, officials aware of the matter have said, calling it the first time such a test will be expanded for use outside of the elite Special Protection Group (SPG).
The CRPF’s VIP protection wing gives personnel for Z and Z+ category security, which dignitaries such as former prime ministers, the President, incumbent home minister Amit Shah, and prominent opposition leaders such as Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi have been accorded by the government.
“Only those who are in dignitary protection teams will have to take the test. We have started using it,” a CRPF officer said, asking not to be named. “The current officers are also taking the test.”
The test is based on the Vienna Test System, a suite of psychological assessment developed by a private company that is used as the basis for assessments by SPG and other elite forces around the world.
The test assesses a person’s stress level and ability to handle tricky situations, decision-making abilities and other issues related to protection of dignitaries, he added.
“In the SPG, the VIT test is mandatory and only people who clear the test get inducted in the PM’s protection team. The CRPF will follow a similar pattern.
Physical fitness is an important aspect in the security protection teams but with the emerging challenges, we decided to adopt this module to get a psychological profile and review mental health of the officers,” the officer said. “This is the first time that the CRPF has adopted such a module. It will help us select the best candidates for the highly sensitive job.”
According to the person quoted above, DRDO has handed over the necessary software — called the Computerised Psychological Screening System (COPSYSS) — to the central paramilitary force.
“COPYSS is a psychological evaluation of an individual. The test was prepared by the DRDO’s Defence Institute of Psychological Research. It will help us analyse the mind of the person we have posted to protect people with high levels of threat,” the officer said.
“The SPG has been using the Vienna Test System, believed to be one of the toughest psychological tests in the world, for almost a decade now.”
The training will apply to the roughly 1,100 CRPF personnel on VVIP duty at present.
The CRPF has seen its VVIP protection responsibilities rise significantly since 2019, when the government changed protocols to whittle down the number of dignitaries protected by the SPG — these responsibilities then fell on the CRPF.
