Matthew Nestasia Essays (309 words) - Law Enforcement, Prevention

Matthew Nestasia Police Operations What does it take to be a good police officer? In my opinion a good officer should show his or her community that they're there to protect them and aid them. In order for an officer to properly demonstrate this to their community they'll need certain characteristics to back them up. To start, they'll need to be compassionate, most officers have on some level compassion or else they wouldn't have become a cop. When it comes down to it a police officer is a person with the ability and desire to help people when they need it, compassion is a necessity. Having compassion also shows the community that cops aren't just here to write out speeding tickets, they're here to help you. A skill that a good cop needs is attention to detail; officers need to have the ability to think on the fly at a moment's notice. For example a detective needs to have developed this skill greatly, or else they could miss a key piece of evidence and likely end up with unsolved cases or guilty men walkin g out of the court room as innocent. Now paired with attention to detail officers should have critical thinking skills. If you as a cop is out on patrol and drive by a playground when you notice there are a lot of older kids doing something suspicious, cops need to be able to assess the situation and act accordingly. In conclusion police officers require many skills and traits in order for them to be a good cop. It is also important to have good relations with the citizens in the area you, as an officer, will be patrolling frequently. Although situations may come by that require force, cops should not be looked at with hate or anger for trying to resolve to conflict.