The Pennington County Sheriff’s Department is one of few law enforcement agencies in the nation with a full-time clinical psychologist on staff. Dr. Roger Belisle is in his first month on the job, and he plans to bring something new to his position.
Roger Belisle has plenty of responsibilities in his new role. He’s a shared resource for the Pennington County Sheriff’s Department…the Rapid City Police Department…Fire and EMS teams and more. He’s in charge of pre-hire and return-to-duty screenings and other training opportunities. But he’s also excited to bring a new skill to area law enforcement.
Belisle specializes in zero-acquaintance personality assessments, in which an observer determines an individual’s basic personality type in a limited timeframe. Belisle says this is an underdeveloped area in psychology that’s practical for officers in the field.
“Providing a way for them to be able to quickly read a person, identify a personality type, kind of know what their tendencies are and be able to have that go smoothly as possible, really," he explains. "Avoid a physical altercation and have sticky situations go in their favor.”
Belisle also intends to be a resource for the officers’ own mental health needs. He says he hopes to destigmatize the mental health treatment process and let officers know it’s okay to ask for help dealing with emotional challenges.
“I’ve already spoke with several individuals who just say, ‘Hey Doc, lemme ask you something.’ And so it begins," he says.
Belisle says this is job a rare opportunity that he’s spent his career to find, and he looks forward to the variety of responsibilities.