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Competent Communication´s one of the most important tools an employee in the Criminal
Justice field will use. Not only does an employee in this field need to have competent oral
communication skills, but also written communication skills are a necessity. Police officers are
taught how to use competent communication as a part of their training. When a Police Officer
arrives on the scene of a crime his/her knowledge of how to use proper communication skills will
decide how well he gains proper information from witnesses and victims, the responding officer
also needs to have proper training to use proper communication skills necessary to answer any
questions the witnesses/victims may need answered. Competent communication will then also be
a necessity when the officer is reporting to the necessary officers of higher rank to him/her.
Having competent communication is key within the Criminal Justice field in more areas than one
may realize. Without the proper education in communicating correctly criminals could
potentially walk free from serious charges, which would prove poor training and lack of effort on
behalf of all people involved in the case. Competent communication is also vital in report writing
in the Criminal Justice field. Dr. Joel Cox said, ¨ report writing is our livelihood. ... We take the
field notes that potentially turn into a case, detectives take that and turn it into a case file ... report
writing never stops. ¨ (Dr. Joel Cox, Liberty University) Report writing is extremely critical since
you are not in person to explain what you are trying to express in your reports, you must learn
how to effectively communicate through your words. An officer without competent
communication skills while on duty can have major consequences resulting in harm to the officer
and others. In the scenario that an officer is called to a scene where a suspect has a weapon, the
officer has been trained to handle this kind of situation, yet the officer arrives on scene and sees
the weapon in the suspect's hand. If the officer shoots the suspect without giving the proper
commands to drop the weapon and slowly lay on the ground face down, the officer is in the
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wrong. In the scenario the officer did not practice competent communication skills in the field,
which could have resulted in a different ending for both the officer and suspect.
References:
Dr. J Cox., M. Milhon. (2016 October 28) The Importance of Writing Skills in the Criminal
Justice Context [video podcast] Retrieved from: httsp://download.liberty.edu/courses/t55oy.mp4
