Effective Communication Paper
Elizabeth A. McCoy
CJA 304
January 28, 2015
Glenn-Anthony Canonizado

Effective Communication Paper Every person has their own way of communicating with others. Some may have effective communication skills other may have ineffective communication skills. The more effective you are when communicating, the faster and easier you can get the job done. This is also true, for personnel that work in the criminal justice system. The police officer wants to make sure that they effectively report all the correct information so the prosecutor can make an effective decision as to wanting to press charges again the defendant. If the officer leaves out an important piece of information or evidence, it could blow the case for the persecutor. What exactly is verbal communication, according to Live Strong states the following “ Verbal communication encompasses any form of communication involving words, spoken written or signed. The conversation we have with our coworkers at lunch, the morning news or the sports page we read in the morning- even the text message you send to your spouse telling him to pick up some milk is a form of verbal communication”(Live Strong 2014). Making sure that you have effective verbal communication skills in your everyday life is very important. You can make sure you are able to express whatever it is you want the listener to hear from you. Lieutenant Brian D. Fitch, PH.D, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Departments, and Randolph Means from North Carolina created what is called the IMPACT Principles for Law Enforcements. What this article states is “this article offers public contact professionals an easy-to-follow formula for dealing with difficult people, soothing strong emotions and managing conflict. While the example are given between officers and citizens, the lessons can apply to any contact such police supervisor to subordinate executives to boards. The IMPACT model of interpersonal communication is built around six simple principles that can be applied to virtually any type of law enforcement contract. The I, recognizes the need to identify and Manage emotions. The “M” is for master the story. The “P” stands for promote positive behavior. The “A” is for achieve Rapport. The “C” focuses on the need to Control Your Response. The “T” is for Take Perspective. This principle can be applied to our everyday lives, not just for Law Enforcement Agencies. If every citizen applied this model into their lives, we would be able to have effective communication. The Con to this type of communication is Non-verbal communication. According to Andrews University, Non-Verbal Communication is as follows” involves those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source(speaker) and his or her use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source or receiver(listener). Basically its sending and receiving messages in a variety of ways without the use of verbal codes. It is both intentional and unintentional” (Andrews University 2014). Now eve though non-verbal may sound negative, there is a positive to this. Body language, facial expressions or even eye contact can be non-verbal. The way the person is acting, can tell the other person that there is a problem. How can you know if someone is hearing what you say, compared to actually listening to what you are saying. They seem like they would be the same thing, but in reality they are two different things. When you are hearing someone means the sound coming from their mouth is going into your ear. This requires little to no concentration from you. Your mind is not processing what is being said to you because you are preoccupied with your own thoughts. Now listening is when you have chosen to actively concentrate on what is being said to you. Your ears and brain are processing all the information being told. This action requires attention, processing, thinking, analyzing and being able to concentrate, all at the same time. Police officers or detectives need to be able to actively listen to what the victim is telling them, so they can have all the correct information, when it comes time to write their report. Without hearing and listening, they may miss information. Now within the criminal justice system organizations, there are two types of channels of communication, these are formal and informal. What is formal channel of communication, according to Written and Interpersonal communication book states the following “the traditional route or method of communication in any police organization usually follows the chain of command. This type of communication channel is typified by formal orders, directives and written memorandums. These types of communication provide a sense of order and security to a police organization” (Written and interpersonal communication). This is when you put in a request, write up a letter and go through the change of command to have it approved, by the proper approving authorities. Now some people will not use this type of communication channel, they may use informal communication channel. The informal channels can cause detrimental to have an effective operations within the police department. This would be considered, the grapevine, or even the department gossip which are unofficial routes of communication in a law enforcement agency. Now because the as considered gossip, they will not appear on an organizational chart. Gossip is everywhere, even within the police department. This is how information can be misread. There are different barriers of communication in a law enforcement setting. The first category is emotional barriers; this is when the sender or receiver has an emotional experience. They may feel uncertain about certain things. They have no confidence in themselves when asked about a certain case, because they may feel some type of emotional connection. Example they have a case about child abuse, and this particular officer was abused them at a young age. Physical Barriers can be if officers are conducting an investigation in two different states, instead of being in the same office or precinct. You are physically unable to see that other individual to have effective communication skills with them. Now Semantic Barriers are when the meaning of the word and the development of it. Now Semantic problems, is defined as the inability to agree on a meaning of certain terms or words, resulting in the loss in the ability to communicate clearly. It’s all how another individual may interpret what is being said. How the mind will process the words or sentence. Lastly is ineffective listening. This is failure to hear or receive what the other individual is communicating to you or the group. In a group, people can be poor listeners. This is because whatever the person speaking is trying to communicate may not be interesting enough for the listeners. Conversation may be boring, and cause the listener to not pay attention. Everyone has their own way of communicating and listening. You just have to find an effect way to be able to hold their attention. Chain of Command should implement an easy and effective way to get information out and down the chain of command. Have SGT’s pass down information. Commanders may even have some type of open door policy for officers, that may have concerns that need to be address.

Reference: www.livestrong.com The Police Chief Professional Voice of Law Enforcement. Andrews University.