If you like the idea of a career where you can help others and play a proactive part in keeping your community safe from crime, a job as a police officer might be an ideal choice for you. However, the decision to enter a career in the police should never be one that is taken lightly.
Working in the police can be a very stressful and sometimes dangerous career path. While you will receive initial and ongoing training from your employer to ensure that you are always up to the demands of working in this role, police officers will often require a certain unique set of characteristics in order for them to be successful.
The truth is that working as a cop is not for everybody, and since it is such an important role with a huge amount of responsibility, figuring out whether or not you are right for this career path is one of the first things that you should do if you have decided that working as a cop might be ideal for you. Here are some of the vital skills you will need to succeed.
Communication
The ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of people is one of the biggest skills you’ll need as a cop. Getting your point across clearly is crucial when you are speaking with members of the public and being able to convey information might be essential to keeping others safe by making sure that they understand what you are requesting of them. Excellent communication skills will not only help you keep others safe, but can also play a role in your own safety when you’re dealing with potentially dangerous individuals. A policing degree from Wilfrid Laurier University Online can be a great way to get started with learning more about communication in the police.
Decision Making
As a police officer, your decision-making skills are often going to hold a lot of weight. You will need to make quick decisions in an informed and sensible way and act on your logic and expertise to make the right decision for any given situation. Since working in the police is a job where no two days are the same and you could end up being thrust into different situations at any point, the ability to make decisions quickly, even if you are in a dangerous or unpredictable situation, is crucial for this role.
Leadership
Police officers are often seen as leaders in community. Even the police officers that hold the lowest rank in the station are seen as having a position of power in the community, so it’s important that you know how to use this authority for good. Developing strong leadership skills is not only important for the development and improvement of your relationship with the community as a cop, but it will also be necessary if you want to move up the ranks in your policing career and eventually become a sergeant or a detective.
Observational Skills
Successful police officers are typically people who have keen observational skills. To do well in this career, you will need to constantly be aware of what is going on around you and have the ability to notice small signs and signals that might indicate something bigger is going on. While this is a skill that you will often develop much further once you have started working and are able to put it into practice, most police officers are people who are naturally curious and tend to observe a lot. For many police officers, the ability to notice details that others might overlook is often a crucial part of working in this career.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is a skill that will help you take your police career to the next level. The everyday work involved in your role as a police officer will often be about communicating with and dealing with people from a range of diverse backgrounds and circumstances, some of which you may not be able to personally relate to. Emotional intelligence will help you understand the behaviours and motivations behind why other people act the way that they do, even if you cannot personally understand it based on your own life experiences. EI is key for police officers who tend to display more empathy and officers with high emotional intelligence tend to be the most effective, having a more positive impact on the people that they work with.
Problem-Solving
The ability to approach different issues and problems with a solutions-based mindset will be something that you’ll need for a successful career as a police officer. In this role you are likely going to be faced with different problems every day and you will need to come up with quick and logical resolutions to them in a safe manner. Whether you are solving disputes, helping conflicting parties to resolve issues before the situation becomes unsafe or figuring out how to best approach a suspect to put them at ease and encourage them to talk to you, your problem-solving abilities might be the answer to breakthroughs in criminal investigations.
Conflict Resolution
Police officers need to be tough in the fact of conflict, while also understanding the viewpoint of either party. In this role, you might be called out to help in situations where conflict has escalated to the point where it has become a crime or is at risk of turning criminal. Whether the dispute is being carried out in public or in private, a good police officer should be able to help both parties involved diffuse the situation before it becomes explosive, or quickly take charge to calm the situation down if it’s already crossed a line. You will need to be skilled at approaching people in states of high emotions and use diplomacy skills to help them calm down. In some cases, you may need to firmly separate the conflicting parties.
As a police officer, you’ll be on the front line of tackling crime in your community. To do this effectively, a wide range of skills is necessary.
