Police Demeanor

Name

Institution

Abstract

The fact that the public surrenders its right to use force to the police force means that such authority must be used with discretion. As such, a good command of one’s temper is of paramount importance, more so considering that police officers are exposed to various challenging situations. Further, the demeanor of a police officer also matters, considering that it massively influences public opinion and as a result the goodwill police officers enjoy from the public. The need for proper demeanor and self control can, therefore, not be understated and as such a number of measures can be employed to improve demeanor.

Police Demeanor

In any profession where human interaction forms a huge part of the day to day activities, effective communication and self control are very important towards maintaining what can be considered acceptable demeanor. This applies even more to police officers, as the need to obtain the goodwill of citizens is of particular importance, and proper demeanor goes a long way towards securing the goodwill necessary for a collaborative relationship necessary for effective policing to exist (Banks, 2009). Further, public opinion according to a study carried out by the United States Department of Justice (2003) is very important, as positive public opinion results in a situation whereby the community feels they share responsibility with the police when it comes to law enforcement. Positive public opinion therefore results in a safer and more orderly neighborhood, and considering the fact that demeanor plays an important role in shaping public opinion, maintaining proper demeanor through self control is very crucial.

In addition, considering the stressful and provocative nature of police work, command of temper as well as self control, are very important traits a police officer must have. This is more so considering that police officers have not only been given the power to deprive individuals of their freedom, but also the right to use force, at times even lethal force. This means that the kind of authority and power bestowed upon them must be used with utmost discretion and objective judgment, which is impossible without proper command of one’s temper or self control.

Personally, I do not think that enough has been done to develop proper demeanor amongst police officers. Even though a number of police and law enforcement agencies have tried to put in place various programs that are aimed at improving the officers’ capabilities of dealing with conflict, and therefore by extension stressful situations, these programs alone are not enough, more so considering that most training curricula do not incorporate such training. Further, the conditions within which police officers are forced to operate serve to heighten the difficulty of the tasks, putting them under greater pressure and in most cases without clear guidelines on how to approach unique and challenging situations. The amount of scrutiny they are under also makes matters worse, as the lack of clarity makes exercising discretion objectively difficult (Fyfe, 1979), creating volatile situations in which exercising self control becomes more difficult. In addition, not enough effort has been put into highlighting how important demeanor is when it comes to dealing with members of the public, not just when making arrests, but also when interacting. Demeanor is important in the sense that it fosters informal relationships with members of the public, which is an asset to law enforcement, as it leads to greater cooperation and a sharing of responsibility when it comes to maintaining an orderly and safe environment. The level of awareness amongst police officers as to how their behavior affects their potential to establish helpful relationships also needs to improve if the informal relationships are to be exploited considering the findings of the survey by the United States Department of Justice (2003).

As a police chief, the first step towards ensuring the development of good demeanor amongst police officers would be to ensure that training on observing good demeanor and the importance of having good demeanor is incorporated into the training curriculum. By training new recruits on how to deal with conflict and difficult situations, they would be better prepared for such situations and, therefore, be better prepared for environments that demand good command of their temper (Todd, 2008). In other cases where only harmless interaction with the public is taking place, the awareness of the officers to such opportunities to improve informal relationships would be heightened, as their training would highlight how beneficial such relationships can be. The second step would be to institute refresher courses as well as anger management classes aimed at instilling greater self control amongst police officers, and reducing the number of forceful arrests which were found to be lower in officers taking anger management classes (Abernerthy, 1994). Finally, establishing clear goals and guidelines on when to use force and when not to use force, would definitely go a long way towards not only guiding police discretion, but also reduce the stressfulness of having to make tough choices while worrying about the scrutiny that will undoubtedly follow such decisions (Cohen, 1986).

As a police chief, my focus when it comes to training and recruitment would be on psychology, criminology and sociology. These areas are quite important in law enforcement because they equip an individual with the skills to not only understand the reasoning behind criminal behavior as well as predict criminal behavior, but they also inform the police officers own conduct, which as seen from the results of the survey by the United States Department of Justice (2003) is very important considering that the goodwill of the public is very important in law enforcement.

References

Abernerthy, A. (1994). Anger management training for law enforcement personnel. Journal ofCriminal Justice 22(5), 459-466

Banks, C. (2009). Criminal Justice Ethics, Theory and Practice. Sage Publications.

Cohen, H. (1986). Exploiting Police Authority. Criminal Justice Ethics 5, 23-31.

Fyfe, J. (1979). Administrative Interventions on Police Shooting Discretion: An EmpiricalExamination. Journal of Criminal Justice 7(4), 309-323.

Todd, C. (2008). Interpersonal Conflict Management Training for Police. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://angeronmymind.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/interpersonal-conflict-managementtraining-for-police/” http://angeronmymind.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/interpersonal-conflict-managementtraining-for-police/

U.S. Department of Justice (2003). Factors That Influence Public Opinion of the Police.Retrieved from HYPERLINK “https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/197925.pdf” https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/197925.pdf