Unit 7: Communication Skills

Effective Communication

In your role as a law enforcement officer you must interact daily with others in your agency, with elected officials, media representatives, agents and officers in other agencies, and citizens. You will have to give instructions, issue orders, interview witnesses and suspects, give verbal reports and testify in court. Sometimes you will be performing these functions under great stress and sometimes when others are tense and scared. Great demands will be placed upon your communication skills and, at the same time, it is critical that you are sensitive to the needs of others. The following information will also be helpful in those situations where you are the interviewee.