Police Training: Communication Skills and Conflict Resolution 81roles outside of the traditional clinical and crisis situations. Police departments are
beginning to realize the importance of officers having the necessary communicative
skills (like the second officer in the scenario with Henry) and thus are looking to
increase training in such areas in the future.
With regard to policy implications, Cooper's (1997) work on nonconventional
conflict-resolution methods has particular relevance for the police administrator
and policy maker. Addressing nonconventional conflict-resolution techniques pro-
vides information on how and why these processes are appropriate and effective
interventions for police officers and where and when they are appropriate for
use. Finally, Cooper's work allows us to understand the organizational and pro-
fessional climate which are essential for these tactics to be effectively taught and
administered.
Cooper (1997) addresses more specifically one of the necessary prerequisites for
a successful nonconventional approach to conflict resolution. He states that po-
lice departments must recruit officers who have either had professional training or
are intellectually capable of engaging in professional training in conflict resolution.
The objective, he acids, is "to recruit personnel who possess the intellect to become
conflict/dispute resolution professionals" (p. 97). Officers must be capable of "di-
agnosing the dispute, selecting the appropriate response, and employing it'' (p. 97).
This approach is itself nonconventional, as intellectual capacity of potential police
officers is not typically the primary concern of departments. While education is, of
late, assuming a more significant role, there still exists a tendency to favor training
as more important (Bennett & Hess, 1996).
Turning our attention to why police officers do tun favor nonconventional tech-
niques, we can examine the traditional concept of the "real job" of police officers.
Dating back to the conception of policing, there is a measurement of good policing
based on the absence of crime. This measurement of whether police are doing a
"good" job does not consider the manner, or specific behavioral ways, in which
officers do their job. As a result, many officers view their job as getting the criminal
element off of the streets. Society and police administration have not traditionally
accepted any opposing views. Thus, officer performance is often measured by the
number of arrests one makes, not necessarily how the arrest was made or the ar-
rests one didn't have to make because of "good" policing. Consequently, officers
are not rewarded for the application of nonconventional conflict resolution skills,
as the defusing of a dispute without arrest is not measurable by traditional means
(Cooper, 1997).
These considerations may impede the development of nonconventional ed-
ucational and training programs for police officers. They may further dissuade
officers from using such techniques, even if the officer is capable of using
them. Though not traditionally practiced in law enforcement, nonconventional
conflict-resolution tactics provide police officers with a "toolkit" of sorts for ap-
proaching the various kinds of disputes and conflict they may encounter in the
field.