Criminal Justice Training Job Aid

Posted: August 5th, 2013

Criminal Justice Training Job Aid

            For a police officer to perform his work well, he has to have great communication skills. In their daily activities, they meet people of all races and in some instances make public announcements. In order to communicate with them effectively and pass the correct message to the public, they should possess great verbal and non- verbal skills.

Public announcement to the press

When making a public announcement to the press, the police officer should observe certain verbal and non-verbal communication. He should,

• Give a clear and brief speech.
• Be ready to communicate on different levels.
• Use the correct vocabulary.
• Focus on specifics in his communication, as this will save him from public and departmental embarrassment.
• Have a good choice of words to avoid sending a wrong message to the media. The media may misinterpret a message wrongly when a wrong choice of words is used.
• Pay attention to his facial expression as it speaks louder than the verbal communication. The people receiving the message will be studying his facial expression. They will not only pay attention to his message.
• Maintain eye contact with the people. This will help the media understand the message. They will also be convinced with the message and not doubt it.
• He may use gestures to explain and avoid sighing or grunting when a question is asked as this sends a wrong message to the public (Schmalleger, 2012).

Communicating with peers and inmates in a juvenile correctional facility

            Juveniles are young people who are eighteen years and below. When communicating with them, the police officers should,

• Use simple language that the young people below the age of eighteen will understand. Some of these young people may not have enough knowledge to be able to understand sophisticated words.
• Be authoritative in his communication to build respect from the detainees. The police officer should be commanding to avoid room for disrespect.
• Understand the juveniles’ language in order to build communication between each other. When this is achieved, he may be able to understand their needs and actions.
• Practice non-verbal skills such as nodding and clapping to command the juveniles to do something (Hanser, 2010).