Timothy W. Turner, Police Chief Magzine - The law enforcement community faces daily challenges and stress that few other professions understand. According to a study of police shift work, “Few occupations require the intensity of constant alertness, proper mood and demeanor, short term memory, and physiological stamina that police work requires.” To be an effective and efficient law enforcement officer in today’s environment requires intelligence about and control of emotions to meet the demands faced on the streets....
Law enforcement officers with low self-regard are unsure of themselves, lack self-respect and self-esteem, and do not garner the respect necessary to be effective officers. ...
Officers with low emotional self-awareness may have a hard time acknowledging and verbalizing their own emotions and thus may experience difficulty in recognizing how their emotions affect interpersonal interactions, decision making, and overall functioning. Low self-awareness can cause an officer to avoid emotional ownership and instead externalize what are really internal problems, a situation that prevents them from asking for support when needed most. Likewise, low emotional self-awareness may result in inaccurate projections of emotions and the misinterpretation of others’ emotions. In either case, judgments and decisions can become compromised.
Too often, officers with low emotional self-awareness take themselves too seriously and add self-induced stress. In the worst-case scenario, low emotional self-awareness can cause denial of personal feelings, thereby jeopardizing well-being. Such circumstances can cause an officer to overreact verbally or physically....
By contrast, officers with high emotional self-awareness are able to relate their own feelings to appropriate causes, thereby establishing good self-awareness... These officers have an understanding of how and why others affect them and are able to express these emotions and feelings in a positive way. They know what they are feeling and why and can read other people; similarly, they allow others to read them clearly. They are able to prevent simple incidents from growing out of proportion and to bring calm to a chaotic situation. Law enforcement officers strong in emotional self-awareness are able to withstand and adequately deal with what behavioral scientist Kevin M. Gilmartin calls “emotional survival.”
Most law enforcement personnel are taught and understand the importance of assertiveness and the significance of taking charge of critical situations. Assertiveness includes the ability of officers to express themselves easily yet defend their rights in a nondestructive or nonabusive manner. Strength in assertiveness allows officers to take control of situations by expressing their beliefs or thoughts openly; to voice opinions; and to disagree and take a stand in a forthright, nonabusive, nonthreatening way. However, at the core of assertiveness lies the potential for an officer to overuse this strength, permitting assertiveness to progress into aggression. On the other hand, a lack of assertiveness can lead to passivity, shyness, and quickness to compromise, which could lead to more aggressive behavior from subjects, suspects, or witnesses, making the officer an easy target for the con....
The competency tied to emotional intelligence that can have the greatest impact and meaning both within and outside the profession is empathy. Empathy is the ability to be aware of, understand, and appreciate the feelings of others. Officers who demonstrate a high level of empathy can read other people’s emotions and pick up on social cues, which allows them to show concern for others...
With many departments incorporating some form of community policing, the importance of developing emotional intelligence is extremely important. Officers well versed in interpersonal relationships have not only the ability to establish and maintain mutually satisfying relationships but also a positive outlook toward social exchange. Intimacy, giving and receiving affection, and feeling at ease in social relations are some of the benefits of highly developed interpersonal relationships. Officers who have difficulty with interpersonal relationships will not show intimacy, will not be giving, will be seen as uncaring or unable to share feelings, and will be unable to develop and maintain relationships, ultimately leading to social isolation. Enforcing the law is a team effort, and loners are counterproductive to creating a vision and building teams...
Law enforcement officers are under constant pressure to resolve issues and problems quickly and effectively; therefore, they need to have good problem-solving skills. Competence in problem solving enables officers to identify and define problems while generating and implementing practical solutions. Officers skilled in problem solving use a systematic approach to making decisions, starting with gathering information and then weighing pros and cons. Officers without this skill depend on assumptions and have a tendency to jump to solutions and conclusions, flying by the proverbial seat of their pants and failing to use a structured strategy or process. Too often, officers with minimal competence in problem solving depend on short-term solutions to address symptoms of a problem rather than looking at the big picture to get at the source of the concern.
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