Following a discussion of the importance of psychometric testing as a screening tool for policing agencies, the article explains that cynicism and alienation are primary concerns for police administrators because these conditions may result in abhorrent behavior by police officers who are unable to cope with the policing environment. The knowledge that police officers who cannot achieve the goals that they set for themselves as police officers have a greater likelihood of experience apathy, frustration, despair, and alienation has led researchers to develop scales for assessing cynicism among individuals. At present no research has been conducted comparing the MMPI-2 and Niederhoffer Cynicism Scales (NCS) with each other. The article describes the research sample of Louisiana-based male and female police academy trainees used in this study. Assessing the results of the MMPI-2 and NCS, administered during the first few days of academy training, the study found that the NCS reliability values were marginally smaller than the MMPI-2 values and that construct validity correlations between both scales were significant for minority and majority males. The sample size was too small to determine reliability or validity for minority and majority females. The authors maintain that the NCS is a less costly alternative to the MMPI-2 in assessing cynicism among minority and majority police academy trainee males. References, tables