By Emma Noah
Effective communication is important in all aspects of life, whether it be in personal relationships or in professional careers. People coordinate with each other, form relationships, and get things done through communicating. It’s difficult to imagine a world wherein people cannot share their thoughts and ideas. In fact, there’s a possibility that all these developments and innovations wouldn’t be here today if people could not communicate.
But it is easy to be misunderstood. Our ideas may be different from the perceptions of other people, hence the possibility of miscommunication. In avenues where effective communication is critical, it’s important to make ways to improve it. In police departments, for instance, different officers work together and get directives from higher-ranked officers. Without effective communication, it would be hard for them to function and do their jobs. Here’s how to improve police communications.
Use a reliable medium
Police officers are always put in different environments on a day to day basis. Different projects or missions would call for officers to be onsite, while others remain in the station. No one can be all together all the time, which is why there needs to be a medium where everyone can communicate. Information and reports are detrimental to the success of police operations, so everyone must have a platform where they can communicate with essential people in real-time.
Satellite walkie talkies are a great idea for a communication medium for police officers. But everyone should also be ready for a backup plan. This is in case there’s a frequency problem, an issue with the signal, or it is not possible to communicate through the walkie talkie by any means.
Transparency
In police departments, there can be instances that not everyone gets along. But even so, there is a high level of trust among officers. All of them trust each other with their specific missions, knowing that everyone will do and pull off what is asked from them.
Trust is an essential factor in a police department. Without it, operations will run riot, and plans will fail. That’s why captains or commanding officers must help keep that trust intact through being transparent with the team.
Be clear, concise, and direct
Time is always of the essence in a police operation. And this rush may sometimes cause ambiguity in communication. All the more is it important to be straight-to-the-point when communicating with team members. Ideally, the instructions or directives should always be given in the least amount of words and in the shortest time possible.
Remember that police officers can sometimes be put in high-stress and adrenaline situations. When this happens, high are the chances that their cognitive processing and focus are somewhere else. When communicating directly, clearly, and concisely, they can respond more abruptly and appropriately.
Uniformity
In the setting of an important police operation, there’s no time to make-do with new information or discuss matters. More often than not, these things are planned and strategized beforehand. Giving a different directive that wasn’t part of the initial plan can make things confusing for the police officers on site.
That’s why it’s important to have uniformity in communication. Police officers must know exactly what you mean and what to do about it. This can be achieved by adhering to guidelines and sticking to it. Familiarity and mastery will make it easier to relay information and conduct the required actions.
Effective communication amongst police officers is crucial because time is always of the essence in their profession. Not to mention that the job requires exposure to high-stress environments. In these scenarios, police officers cannot run the risk of miscommunication.
