With a thirty-year record of performing psychological evaluation services to law enforcement and related organizations, AVS Consulting, LLC, dba Stone, McElroy & Associates, is a leading provider in the field of police and public safety psychology with a strong local and national reputation. At present, AVS provides psychological screening and other services to many municipalities, universities, and state and federal law enforcement agencies, including Georgia Bureau of Investigation, City of Atlanta, Cobb County Police and Sheriff’s Departments, Sheriff’s Departments of Forsyth, Cherokee, and Oconee counties in the Atlanta metro area, and a number of cities and other organizations and jurisdictions (client list can be made available upon request). Outside the metro Atlanta area AVS provides contract psychological screening services to public safety and law enforcement agencies in Suffolk County (New York), including Police and Sheriff’s Departments as well as all local jurisdictions within this county. We also provide psychological screening services to the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority Police and Columbus, Georgia Police Departments. In addition to screening services, AVS provides training and post trauma services for these and many other organizations and Fitness for Duty evaluations for law enforcement, fire, and other private and public sector organizations nationwide. Our staff psychologists are licensed in Georgia, Florida, and New York, and we have contract psychologists licensed in Colorado, Louisiana, California, Connecticut, and Oklahoma.
Unlike most organizations providing law enforcement screening services, AVS’ practice focuses on public safety psychological services. More specifically, our mission is narrowly focused on providing state-of-the-art forensic risk management psychological evaluations to law enforcement and other safety-sensitive organizations. In that regard, we strongly believe that the implementation of a successful and legally defensible psychological screening and Fitness for Duty program requires knowledge and abilities well outside the scope of traditional psychology or psychiatry practices.
Psychologists at Stone, McElroy & Associates are therefore carefully selected and highly trained to provide effective semi-structured psychological evaluations that are probing at a depth appropriate to the position but within legal and humanitarian guidelines and which are not intended to arouse adverse reactions. Psychological test instruments are also selected for their probative quality as well as for their technical characteristics, legality, and ease of administration. All tests are validated for use in law enforcement and public safety selection, and three of the tests have norms specific to police and firefighter candidates.
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Dr. Stone, the President and a partner of Stone, McElroy & Associates, has been a Police and Forensic Psychologist for more than thirty years and is one of the pioneers in the field. He holds board certifications in Police and Public Safety Psychology from both the American Board of Professional Psychologists (ABPP) and the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology (SPCP). He is considered a leading expert on Psychological Risk Management and Fitness for Duty Evaluation. He has performed more than 30,000 pre-employment evaluations, mainly for public safety organizations and well over 2,000 Fitness for Duty Evaluations for law enforcement, military, and hundreds of private sector organizations. Dr. Stone has testified as an expert in some of the country’s major Fitness for Duty legal cases (e.g., Brames v. City of Tacoma, Washington, Denhoff and LeClear v. City of Grand Rapids, Michigan). He authored the first book ever published on Fitness for Duty (Fitness for Duty: Principles, Methods and Legal Issues CRC Press – 2000). Dr. Stone has lectured widely in the area of psychological risk management and fitness for duty at such venues as the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, the National Security Agency in Maryland, the National Internal Affairs Investigator’s Association and a number of International Chiefs of Police Association (IACP) meetings. Dr. Stone has served as member of the IACP Committee that developed the 2004 Fitness for Duty Guidelines and was co-chair of the 2008 Committee charged with revising these guidelines.
Dr. Stone received his undergraduate degree in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of South Florida, Tampa. He was subsequently a post-doctoral fellow and later earned a post-doctoral Master's Degree in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Stone underwent law enforcement training and received Georgia POST Certified Peace (Police) Officer certification in 1987 and has served as a Reserve Police Officer. He holds membership in the Police Psychology Section of the IACP and many other organizations concerned with forensic and risk management psychology.
Dr. Stone has developed and implemented evaluation programs for many municipalities, including those that require high volume and rapid turnaround. As chief provider of thousands of psychological risk-related psychological evaluations – pre-employment and fitness evaluations -- to hundreds of organizations over three decades, Dr. Stone has an established record of implementing programs that are effective, well-managed, and user-friendly for both client organizations and examinees, all of which are able to withstand legal scrutiny.
Dr. McElroy, the Vice President and managing partner of Stone, McElroy & Associates, is a Board Certified Police and Public Safety Psychologist through the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). After completing her undergraduate degree at The Ohio State University, she attended the University of Alabama where she received a strong forensic background that she applied during her internship at University of South Carolina School of Medicine prior to relocating to Atlanta. Here she completed her post-doctoral training requirements with Stone and Associates and has now been a member of the professional staff for more than ten years, and a partner of the firm since January 2010. As do all psychologists working with our firm, Dr. McElroy underwent an extensive training program in public safety psychological assessment supplemented by training offered at the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and other venues specific to police psychology as well as selected law enforcement training programs. She has been a sworn Reserve Officer since 2011, first with the City of Woodstock Police Department and member of the Hostage Negotiation Team and currently a member of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Smyrna Police Department.
She is an active member of the major national organizations of Police Psychologists and has written articles for Police Chief Magazine and other publications, has presented at various professional meetings and is the past chair of the International Association of Chief’s of Police Psychological Services Section. Dr. McElroy has also proven to be an excellent manager and trainer as evidenced by her having chaired national meetings, heading up the education committee of the IACP, and having co-trained all psychologists who have joined our firm since her hiring.
Dr. Rosenblatt is a contract psychologist of Stone, McElroy & Associates, who provides risk-management psychological screening services for police officers and public safety. She is a Board Certified Police and Public Safety Psychologist through the American Board of Professional Psychology. She conducts pre-employment screening and participates in fitness for duty evaluations, particularly those requiring neuropsychological assessment.
Following completion of her undergraduate training at Florida State University, Dr. Rosenblatt completed a psychology doctoral program at Florida Institute of Technology followed by clinical internship at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. She subsequently completed a postdoctoral program in forensic and child psychology prior to joining our firm in 2009, and since that time has been exclusively involved in providing risk-management psychological evaluations. Upon joining the firm, Dr. Rosenblatt underwent an extensive training program in public safety psychological assessment supplemented by training offered by the national organizations of police psychologists. Dr. Rosenblatt has also undertaken ride-alongs with various police agencies and has completed a number of relevant law enforcement training programs.
Dr. Arcement is a staff psychologist of Stone, McElroy & Associates, who provides risk-management psychological screening services for police officers and public safety. Following completion of his undergraduate training at Louisiana Tech University, Dr. Arcement completed a master’s degree in marriage and family counseling from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary followed by a master’s degree in counseling and guidance from Louisiana Tech University. He participated in a pre-doctoral internship at the University of Memphis’s counseling center before earning his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Louisiana Tech University in 2013. He acquired his postdoctoral work experience in psychological assessment, most of which was to determine disability qualification. Dr. Arcement has provided clinical services in two community counseling centers, two college counseling centers, an adult correctional facility, and in a private practice setting. Over the course of these experiences, he developed greater interest and competency in psychological evaluation. He joined our firm in 2016, and since that time has been exclusively involved in providing risk-management psychological evaluations under the supervision of Dr. Heather McElroy. He completed training in statement analysis with the Georgia Internal Affairs Investigators Association and has conducted over 1000 public safety pre-employment evaluations, risk management assessments and fitness for duty evaluations.
Tim Franklin is a retired law enforcement official that served at the local, federal, and military levels. During his 23-year career, Mr. Franklin served as a special agent and criminal investigator for the US Secret Service, worked street patrol, criminal apprehension, served on specialized details with the Anaheim Police Department as a senior reserve officer, and was a supervisory federal police officer with the Department of Veterans Affairs Police.
During his service as a special agent with the United States Secret Service, Mr. Franklin was assigned to investigate counterfeit currency, fraud, identity theft, and fraudulent financial instruments. Mr. Franklin also supported the presidential protection mission, where he protected every US President from former President Ford to GW Bush. In this role, he was experienced in body language detection, interview, and interrogation. He was assigned to an advance detail for presidents Clinton and GW Bush while they were in office, implementing countermeasures against explosives, chemical, biological, radiological, and weapons of mass destruction. He also served as an emergency manager for disaster contingency planning for the White House. His final assignment was protecting former President and Mrs. Reagan.
Mr. Franklin also served in the US Air Force, 11 years between active duty and reserve service, achieving the rank of Major. His primary duties were as a satellite operations officer, working with both the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation as well as various research and development systems.
Mr. Franklin holds dual master's degrees in Forensic and Clinical Psychology and is currently a doctorate intern for clinical psychology specializing in community mental health. He teaches both psychology and criminal justice at Southern New Hampshire University, Mesa Community College, and Arizona State University. He also teaches counter-terrorism in Israel, consulting on explosives and attack techniques. He is a also frequent guest lecturer at other colleges and universities around the nation and is a published author in the areas of criminal justice and trauma psychology. He has been recognized because of his triple specialties in law enforcement, military, and psychology. He consults for local and national news organizations (CBS, NBC, and FOX) on matters of terrorism and serial criminal activity.
Mr. Franklin will be joining StoneMcElroy and Associates as a post-doctorate fellow specializing in police and public safety psychology.
