The primary duty of a police officer as we all are well aware of is to protect the general public and property. Typical duties of policemen incorporate managing traffic, guarding neighbourhoods, responding to emergency calls, writing citations, delivering warrants, arresting violators and submitting incident reports in a timely manner. As part of law enforcement, police officers have four major responsibilities: enforcing laws, preventing crimes, responding to emergencies, and providing support services.
The traditional recruitment criteria of policemen include skillsets such as honesty, reliability, financial responsibility, stable employment history, and a clean police record, and still hold importance and thorough consideration.
But the skills that today’s police officers need and should be sternly trained in are enlisted below:
- Mindfulness- Practising a mindful behaviour and meditation for a calmer and clearer mindset is helping policemen to be fully present in the situation, act promptly and take wise and necessary actions for the successful police department. Mindfulness is helping police officers to de-escalate these stressful situations and improve their own prosperity in personal and professional life.
- Emotional Intelligence- Emotions are central in every related aspect of our lives, including family, friendships, and the workplace.Training police officers on this essential life skill of Emotional Intelligence which will lead to Emotionally Intelligent Policing. This is what will help them to develop a better understanding of the public and their emotions in certain situations. Mounting pieces of evidence suggests emotional intelligence(EI) is a factor in regulating interpersonal contact with publ which is the cornerstone of the law enforcement profession they have.
- Stress management- Physical exercise is one of the most important preventative measures you can take against stress and burnout. But the strict and tight schedule of the police job always does not allow them to indulge in physical activities. So a training program that assists the police officers with different ways to curb their everyday stress is very necessary.
- Communication Skills- How policemen should communicate with the general public, their empathy, their patient listening about the public’s situation ( bizarre or small), the manner of their response to the public all counts a big deal for improved public engagement. The other aspects of their communication skills that are important are treating them with respect, courtesy and etiquette.
- Civility- Civility has been described as a willingness to sacrifice personal desires for the betterment of the community.4 In policing, the proper use of civility is crucial to overall success. Officers who have appropriate civility with citizens avoid many of the verbal and physical hazards prevalent in policing. Civility is not a sign of weakness for the policemen, and, properly exercised, it can enhance officer safety.
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