Verbal and Non Verbal Skills in Law Enforcement

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In my life I strive to be the best person I can be, I find myself always wanting to learn and grow. This comes from myself never wanting to become stagnate in life. If I can learn and grow from the people and the places around me I will become a well-rounded and efficient person in society. I have come to realize that t I have my fault in my communication and so do others. I think one of the biggest things I have to work on is transferring “You” statements into “I” statements. Working in law enforcement the “You” statement can get people fired up very quickly where as if I used an “I” statement it would probably make the situation allot better for everyone and make things move quicker. I find that after reading chapter five, sic and seven I realize how much listening and responding skills play a role in my career of law enforcement. When I started this career I was forced to become a good listener and had to obtain many different styles of verbal communication. I had to learn how to develop these skills on my own as I was thrown into this life long career. Listening is key to being able to understand and help people with their problems. When I show up to a call and people are all wound up and everyone is trying to talk at once, it can be difficult to decipher ever word and hear the stories of both parties. By separating the parties and let them know that I’m hearing what they are saying and processing all the information. It’s a major role to defusing situations in the field. A week ago today I was called by my dispatch and she told me that I needed to respond to a car accident on Mill Plain Ave and 163rd. I notified dispatch that I was on my way. As I am making my way to the call the dispatcher calls me about two minutes lat... ... middle of paper ... ... I conclusion, I have learned that the communication skills I need to work on are really simple fixes that wont take much to correct on my part. I hope by addressing my issues of communication along with others it will become easier. I also noticed that when others use the “I” statement I am way less likely to use the “You” statement. I also learned that compassionate listening is almost second nature in most case for me. The other piece I learned from this section is that I am able to read body language better then most. I hear this from my wife all the time “how can you read me so well and I don’t have to say a word.” Its scary but my job has taught me to read every situation as it presents itself. Works Cited Beebe, Steven, Susan Beebe, and Mark Redmond. Interpersonal Communication. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc. , 2014. Print.

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