Law Enforcement Interpersonal Communication and Conflict Management

The IMPACT Model

Brian Douglas Fitch

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781506303390
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

Law Enforcement Interpersonal Communication and Conflict Management: The IMPACT Model provides law enforcement professionals with a comprehensive, easy-to-follow model designed specifically to improve communications with victims, witnesses, subjects, and other members of the public. Harnessing 30 years of front line law enforcement experience, author Brian D. Fitch outlines practical strategies in a six-step model, IMPACT, which asks professionals to:

• Identify and master emotions
• Master the story
• Promote positive behavior
• Achieve Rapport
• Control your response
• Take perspective

When used correctly, this model will help readers communicate and connect more effectively with people in virtually any law enforcement environment.

1 Introduction to the IMPACT Principles

Communication works for those who work at it.

—John Powell

On the evening of September 21, 2010, Iraq War veteran Brock Savelkoul decided to end his life. Brock was one of more than 2 million troops who had deployed to Iraq since 2001. During his two deployments, Brock survived two bomb blasts. The first occurred early in his first tour; the second took place in January 2009, when an enemy rocket exploded near his trailer. The blasts left Brock the victim of both a concussion and traumatic brain injury, and the aftershocks left him struggling with a difficult mix of psychological and cognitive problems. Over time, Brock’s behavior became increasingly bizarre. Eventually, he was picked up by U.S. embassy and military officials and admitted to Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, where he was diagnosed as suffering from a psychotic breakdown. Brock was again admitted for treatment later in 2009, this time to Fort Riley Medical Center in Kansas. Doctors now labeled him as suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In March 2010, Brock was honorably discharged from the army and placed on temporary disability due to PTSD. His military awards included the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Army Achievement Medal.

Brock returned home to Minot, North Dakota, but his problems continued. He had trouble sleeping at night, often waking while thrashing his arms and legs. He even found himself panicked by the explosions at a local July 4 fireworks show. Brock struggled to regain control of his life. He wanted to continue his psychological treatments, but the nearest Veterans Administration Hospital was 271 miles from his home. By this time, Brock was unable to remember birthdays, anniversaries, or the date his mother died. Finally, it all became too much for him to bear. On the evening of September 21, Brock sent his father and sister a message: “I love you guys more than anything. Never forget it. I can’t do this anymore.” His father rushed to the family home, only to find another note from Brock: “No hope for me. Love you so much.”

Brock armed himself with six guns—a DPMS AR-15, two hunting rifles, and three handguns—and several hundred rounds of ammunition. The next time anyone heard from Brock was around 6:20 p.m., when he walked into a convenience store about 120 miles west of Minot and pointed a rifle at one of the patrons. “Do you want to die?” Brock asked before fleeing the store. A Watford City police officer responded to the scene. The officer spotted Brock’s vehicle a short time later and activated his vehicle’s lights and siren. Rather than pulling over, Brock sped up, ultimately reaching speeds of 105 miles per hour. He continued down the highway, across the river, and toward the North Dakota badlands.

Back home, Brock’s father and sister had told a friend from the local police department about Brock’s past, that he was a veteran suffering from PTSD and heavily armed. The friend relayed the information to the police.

Eventually, Brock’s truck ran out of gas. He pulled over on a farm road. Within seconds, he was surrounded by sheriff’s deputies, police officers, and highway patrol troopers. “Drop the gun,” the officers yelled. “Drop the gun.” Over the next two hours, Brock engaged in a tense standoff with law enforcement. He paced, smoked, brandished weapons, and even went so far as to fire a round into his truck. At one point, Brock walked within a few feet of a patrol car, raised a 9 mm handgun to his side, and yelled, “Go ahead, shoot me!” But the officers, demonstrating tremendous discipline, held their fire.

Throughout the incident, Megan Christopher, a junior officer with no real training or experience in crisis negotiation, talked to Brock non-stop. She tried to put herself in Brock’s shoes and to empathize with the former staff sergeant. She worked to identify what Brock was feeling and thinking, listened carefully to his concerns, and monitored her words. As Trooper Christopher remained safely behind the door of her patrol car in the cold, the rain, and the sleet, she never stopped talking. Finally, she said, “Brock, I’d like to meet you. Please put the gun down so we can meet.”

At around 9:30 p.m., more than three hours after the incident began, Brock fired his gun into an open field. Christopher promised to give Brock a cell phone if he put down his weapon. Brock laid his gun on the ground in front of him. The trooper walked toward Brock holding the cell phone. As Brock turned to face her, another trooper, fearing that Brock was spinning to attack, fired a Taser. Brock stiffened, fell to the ground, and was quickly handcuffed by officers. When it was all over, Christopher knelt down next to Brock, put her hand to his cheek, and said, “I’m Megan. I’m glad to meet you.”

Interpersonal Communication in Law Enforcement

It is impossible to say what might have happened that evening if Trooper Christopher had failed to pick up the public address microphone in her cruiser and start a dialogue with Brock. Certainly, all of the law enforcement professionals on scene that day demonstrated exemplary discipline and courage. Nonetheless, it was Trooper Christopher’s abilities to identify and manage emotions, listen actively, promote positive behavior, build rapport, control her response, and empathize with Brock that helped bring about a peaceful resolution to what might have otherwise been another statistical tragedy.

All law enforcement officers have one thing in common: We are in the problem-solving business. People don’t call the police when everyone is at their best. They request our assistance when someone is hostile, angry, frustrated, aggressive, intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, or emotionally or psychologically disturbed. In other words, people request law enforcement’s assistance only when someone is at his worst, when he has lost his ability to think logically about his behaviors or the consequences of his actions. To make matters worse, many of the people we contact have histories of violence. As any veteran officer can testify, there is no such thing as a “routine” call for service. Every call and every contact has the potential for violence. Fortunately, criminal justice professionals throughout the nation are very good at managing people in crisis. While this is hardly news to anyone serving in law enforcement, it has only recently been validated empirically. A survey conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (2001) found that less than 1% of all calls for service result in a use of force. Rather, officers are able to gain compliance by demonstrating command presence, building rapport, and communicating effectively.

As Trooper Christopher’s encounter with Brock illustrates, officers’ abilities to connect and to communicate effectively are critical to their success in virtually every aspect of law enforcement. Officers’ success at everything from vehicle stops to homicide investigations hinges on effective communication. Yet many officers fail to recognize the impact of their words and behaviors on others. To complicate matters further, few law enforcement agencies offer comprehensive training in communication skills, emotional management, and conflict resolution.

Even those officers who understand the importance of communication often dread the idea of attending a course on interpersonal skills. Being lectured on the value of nonverbal communication and practicing listening drills are not high on the “to do” lists of most officers. Most criminal justice professionals are doers. They believe that learning is best accomplished on the job. Law enforcement officers interact with peers, supervisors, victims, witnesses, subjects, and other members of the public on a daily basis, and many officers operate under the assumption that communication skills are something they develop naturally during the course of their normal job experience, without the need for special training. While it is certainly true that officers acquire a number of unique and valuable skills during the course of their daily activities, there is always room for improvement, even among the most expert communicators. It can also be argued that while many officers function competently in the absence of formal training, they never realize their full potential as communicators.

Regardless of how skilled, or unskilled, an officer may be, with the right attitude and process, everyone can learn to connect and to communicate with others more effectively. By building the right process, any officer has the potential to calm even the most irate, frustrated, or difficult person. Every law enforcement encounter consists of both process and outcome. The outcome is our goal, what we hope to accomplish. It may be calming an emotionally distraught motorist, reassuring an irate citizen, or convincing a suspect to surrender peacefully. The process consists of the tactics, strategies, and behaviors that we use to accomplish our goal. Too often, we focus only on achieving a particular outcome while overlooking the importance of process. Rather than concern ourselves with the long-term outcomes of good process, we emphasize the short-term benefits of satisfying our immediate needs. This approach, however, is shortsighted. The simple truth is that process matters.

Anytime we can create good process, we are more likely to get more of what we want—and less of what we don’t want. Creating a successful process is not always easy, especially when time and resources are limited by staffing shortages, unfinished reports, and pending calls for service. Good process requires listening, patience, and empathy. And, while taking the time necessary to create good process might not always be the shortest distance between two points, in almost every case it will dramatically improve our chances of soothing strong emotions, resolving conflict, and gaining voluntary compliance.

Benefits of Effective Interpersonal Communication

The abilities to communicate and to connect with others have meaningful impacts on virtually every aspect of law enforcement. For those officers who are willing to invest the time and effort, better interpersonal effectiveness offers a number of advantages, including improved officer safety, heightened investigative awareness, fewer complaints and lawsuits, career advancement and recognition, better relationships (both on and off the job), and decreased stress and anxiety.

Improved Officer Safety

The abilities to communicate and to connect are vital officer safety skills. Angry, hostile, and emotionally distraught people can be dangerous people. By learning to recognize the messages that others are sending, officers are better able to detect and evaluate strong emotions before they spiral out of control. Similarly, by better understanding and monitoring their own words and behaviors, officers can avoid the hostilities that may arise when they unintentionally send the wrong signals. Officers are often unaware of how even the simplest behaviors can escalate a contact into a physical confrontation. Learning to pay attention to the behaviors of others, as well as to monitor their own words and actions, is an important step toward better officer safety.

Heightened Investigative Effectiveness

Good investigators recognize the importance of communicating and connecting with victims, witnesses, and subjects. They understand better than most the significance of building rapport, listening actively, and reading nonverbal behaviors. Good investigators realize that everything they do and say has important consequences. They realize that obtaining confessions, closing cases, and improving the safety of the communities they serve can be accomplished only through communication. In addition to being tactically sound, familiar with case law, and physically fit, interpersonal skills are among the most important abilities that any criminal justice professional can possess.

Fewer Complaints and Lawsuits

Regardless of the agency, location, or demographics, the most frequent complaint against officers involves “discourtesy.” Time after time, it is not what officers say but how they say it that people find offensive. Complaints and lawsuits against officers and their agencies have been on the rise for years—a trend that shows no sign of slowing. In short, perceptions matter. While many of these complaints may be unfounded, the simple truth of the matter is that complaints, even meritless complaints, can damage an officer’s reputation, career, and promotional opportunities. One way that officers can reduce complaints is by better monitoring and managing their words and behaviors. The more skilled officers are at managing perceptions, the better their chances of avoiding frivolous complaints and lawsuits.

Career Recognition and Advancement

Regardless of officers’ job knowledge or experience, they must be able to work well with others if they are to have any hope of recognition or advancement. When given a choice between two employees, one who is a “competent cop” but skilled with people and a second who is an “outstanding cop” but lacks interpersonal skills, most supervisors and managers will opt for the former. This is because few supervisors and managers want to work with officers who cannot communicate effectively, empathize with others, or manage their own emotions. This is especially true in specialized units, where one “difficult” personality can create an uncomfortable environment for everyone. Interpersonal skills have a greater impact on career opportunities than many officers realize. The better officers are at monitoring and managing their behaviors, at communicating, and at connecting with others, the better their chances of recognition and advancement.

Better Relationships

We rely on interpersonal skills to develop and maintain our personal and professional relationships. The relationships that we develop with the significant people in our lives are important to all of us. Our relationships help us celebrate our victories and overcome our defeats, and they give us something and someone to look forward to at the end of the day. Officers who have poor interpersonal skills—those who, for example, are unable to recognize or manage emotions, are poor listeners, and have low empathy—can find it difficult to build lasting relationships, both on and off the job. The better officers are at communicating and connecting with others, the more successful they can be at developing and maintaining the important relationships in their lives.

Decreased Stress and Anxiety

Law enforcement, like life in general, is full of stressors. Traffic, bills, kids, supervisors, illness, taxes—all create stress and anxiety. The inability to communicate or to control emotions can add unnecessary feelings of stress and anxiety. Officers who have received a number of frivolous complaints, been passed over for opportunities, or have difficulty developing and maintaining relationships can suffer from the psychological, physical, and emotional effects of stress and anxiety. Building and maintaining important relationships, receiving deserved recognition, and avoiding frivolous lawsuits can significantly improve the quality of officers’ personal and professional lives while reducing or, in some cases, eliminating unnecessary stress and anxiety.

Communication Myths

While the ability to communicate with others effectively is a critical law enforcement skill, communication is not capable of solving every problem. The idea that talking more will always make things better is one of several common myths. In many cases, people understand each other just fine—they simply disagree. Their disagreement may center on values, beliefs, cultural issues, assumptions, or experiences. Officers often accept myth over truth because they do not know the difference. To make the most of our interpersonal skills, we must first understand what we can and cannot accomplish using communication.

Myth 1: Logic Makes Communication More Effective

While we like to think of ourselves as rational, analytical beings who make decisions based solely on logic, this is simply not the case. As the eminent psychologist Donald Hebb (1949) observed, man is the most emotional of all animals. Effective communicators recognize that every decision they make and every action they take is somehow influenced by emotion. Problems often occur when we forget the importance of emotion and focus instead on constructing logical arguments. Effective communicators look beyond words and logic to focus on emotion. They recognize that persuasion is not a logical process but an emotional one, and they construct their messages accordingly.

Myth 2: Learning Communication Makes You a Better Communicator

It is not true that ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Publisher Note
• 1 Introduction to the IMPACT Principles
• 2 Identify and Manage Emotions
• 3 Master the Story
• 4 Promote Positive Behavior
• 5 Achieve Rapport
• 6 Control Your Response
• 7 Take Perspective
• 8 Putting the Impact Principles to Work
• References
• Index