Effective Professional Communications

Directions: Please answer each of the following questions.  Ensure that your responses are at least 1 to 2 paragraphs in length and contain supportive evidence.  Please use proper APA citation.  For concise guidelines on APA, please visit the Academic Resource Center.

 

1.In an oral one-on-one communication with an officer under your supervision, you reprimanded her for her failure to follow orders.  You find out later that you failed to communicate the orders to the officer.  What steps should you take to correct the error?

 

2.You reprimand a police officer because his handout to a community group contained numerous misspellings.  His comment is that, while there are misspellings in his report, the content of his report is understandable.  How would you respond?

 

3.How would you, as a police officer, handle a situation involving a citizen who is using profanity and making threatening gestures against you when you stop him for speeding?

 

4.As a police chief, how would you handle the counseling of a police officer regarding his apparent lack of self-confidence?

 

5.As police chief, you are required to counsel an officer who has a habit of refusing to accept feedback from others, has a large ego, and continually explains to others how issues should be handled.  Using the Johari window model, analyze this officer.

 

6.A fellow police officer complains to you that his supervisors don’t understand him and are out to fire him. Using Lasswell’s classic statement “Who says what in which channel to whom with what effects?” How would you analyze this communication from your fellow officer?

 

7.You have noticed that, during arrest incidents, often there are issues as to what were the exact comments of the suspect. Why?

 

8.As a police chief, you are aware that most citizens do not provide the department with feedback unless they are upset and thus the feedback is generally negative. How to you get representative feedback from the community?

 

9.What actions should you take when approaching a person on the street who appears to have a hearing impairment?

 

10.You are appointed chief of police in a city that has many individuals who speak only Spanish. You discover that only two of 124 officers can speak Spanish. Is there a problem, and if so, how do you work to solve it?

 

11.A reporter arrives at a crime scene before the police. When the police arrive, the reporter is taking pictures and contaminating the crime scene. As the commander on the scene, what steps should you take?

 

12.As the police chief, you decide that you must go to the media and discuss the actions of your police department in failing to arrest an individual who killed a minority youth. When choosing the correct media type to give your message, what should you consider?

 

13.A review of a random sample of police reports submitted by your agency indicates that there are some serious deficiencies in reports developed by your officers. What steps should you take to improve the overall quality of the reports?

 

14.As a police chief, should you take steps to provide more uniform forms for the various police reports submitted by your officers?

 

15.While testifying in court, you discover an error in the crime report. When the defense attorney questions you about this aspect of the report, should you admit the error?

 

16.When you are notified that you are to testify in court about a case you investigated, what actions should you take?

 

17.During the interviewing of an apparent crime victim, you discover that the interviewee is an offender rather than a victim. What actions should you take?

 

18.The victim of a domestic abuse refuses to provide you any information regarding how she was injured. What steps should you take?

 

19.The chief requests your opinion on the feasibility of establishing a death notification team in the department. How would you advise her as to this question?

 

20.Susan witnessed the murder of her partner about four weeks ago. She did not appear to suffer any major reactions until about a week ago on the deceased partner’s birthday. On that day, she becomes very agitated and disorderly in a local church. Your team is called to respond. How would you handle the situation?

 

21.The police have arrested a murder suspect.  How would you go about preparing to interview her regarding the crime?

 

22.Recently in your community, there was a shooting which resulted in the death of a young male. The shooter, a middle aged male, claimed that he shot the deceased in self-defense. There were two witnesses to the incident. Each has given completely different accounts of the incident. You are assigned to question both witnesses and make an opinion as to whether either witness is untruthful. Both witnesses have refused to submit to a polygraph examination.  What are your next steps?

 

23.While acting as a hostage negotiator, the hostage taker demands that you give him five million dollars and an airplane to leave the country. How would you respond to his requests?

24.During a negotiation session, the hostage taker demands a television so that she can understand what type of media coverage she is receiving. How would you respond to her demand as the negotiator?