Samson Jeremiah Vizgaudis
Communications
CJA / 304
Mr. Steven M. Holloway
University of Phoenix
July 14, 2015

Communication in the criminal justice system is one of the most vital processes that are in the day to day operations of law enforcement. Beginning with the interactions between a police officer and comrades, to the interactions within the community, not just by being able to speak and get a point across but also to listen. Within the criminal justice system, individuals must be able to not just speak clearly and professionally. Also one must be able to write detailed reports and or statements to use, possibility in court. Many barriers must be over came before be for one can master these select set of skills. Lastly one must be able to use formal and informal communication skills while in the presence of certain individuals. One can infer that communication is just one meaning; talking. Communication has a wide spectrum of different meanings, everyone interprets it a bit different. “The imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs” (communication, 2015). The process for communication is said to have five parts, “transmitting an idea, sending information through a medium, receiving the message, understanding the idea, and providing feedback to the message sender”(Wallace, 2009, p. 3). With that said, communication can happen one of two ways, verbally, and non-verbally. For a verbal communication or conversation to take place, at least two persons must be involved. Feelings, ideas, and or thoughts must be presented during the transmission of data from one person to the other. Not all conversations are just one on one accouters, police officers for example can deal with a wide range of communication situations. Throughout the typical day of a law enforcement officer one can witness the officer engaging in conversations with groups of individuals. Also a police officer can be seen giving speeches to the public regarding recent cases or breaking news, such as child abductions, or newly discovered evidence on a case. Lastly a law enforcement officer can be commonly seen engaging in one on one conversations with a suspect or person of interest. While it is very simple, and the easiest form of communication sometimes talking face to face or on the phone is not always an option. In these cases one must resort to the written method of communication. Although this will still get the point across, this method is not preferred due to the face that the response time for an answer or thought could take longer. The majority of the time one would much rather talk face to face or over the phone. One may ponder the question throughout communication, “Am I being listened to”, or “Are they hearing what I am saying”? One may feel that the two questions are the same and just being asked in different ways. The fact is, hearing someone and listening to someone during a conversation are two separate things. The only exception to not hearing someone is if one is hard of hearing. Hearing is something that just occurs naturally in all species (Hellesvig-Gaskell, "The Difference Between Hearing & Listening Skills"). On the other hand one may assume that the other party in the conversation is not listening to what is being said. For one to listen to what is being heard it takes concentration within the brain to process the sentences and words. For example when a student is in a new core subject class, that they have no prior knowledge about, they must listen in order to retain information that they are hearing. In order for a person or group of people to have successful communication amongst each other they all must listen and hear what is being said to them. Within any structure where rank or seniority is involved, just like the military, where you have the newest private that is just getting into basic, to the Sargent Major of the Army rank is always in play. Just like the military the law enforcement runs on a rank structure. The most vital part of a rank structure is the communication within the ranks. When something needs to be put out it is the one with the highest rank that holds that responsibility to formally or informally put out that information. When information is being communicated through a formal channel, the information is being passed down the ranks starting with the highest and working down from there. In many cases getting the information formally is the best way to insure that no issues or miscommunication is going to happen while the information is being passed down. Granit the downfall to a formal way of getting information passed down is that it can take a long time to get all the information out. When time is limited and information has to get out quickly the highest in command might make an informal announcement. When informal channels are used to pass along information any one person can come up to another and tell them what needs to be said and let them know to keep passing it along (Wallace, 2009, pp. 6-7). One great upside to this is that the information could be passed along very fast considering anyone can tell anyone the information that needs to be said. With any person being able to tell anyone the information the communication that started could end up being all jumbled up by the time it gets to the last person. For example, the Oreo Cakester commercial where one kid tells the next that Billy has an Oreo Cakester, and it goes down the table and the last kid hears that Billy has his first chest hair. This is just one example of how communication can me misinterpreted through an informal channel. In the criminal justice system one can come into contact with just about any person on a daily basis. Law enforcement must be able to adapt to any situation that they come in contact with, not just dangerous situations, but ethical ones as well. The officer must be able to get over any sort of barrier that is in the way of properly communicating with the suspect. The four key barriers that an officer must overcome to be a successful communicators are, emotional barriers, physical barriers, semantic barriers, and ineffective listening (Wallace, 2009, pp. 2-4). Everyone goes through rough patches in their lives, that life. Emotional barriers within law enforcement can have a potential negative side effects. For example if an officer gets written up for doing something wrong, and proceeds to go out on patrol. The possibly that he may have an emotional barrier that is going to keep him from preforming his job is high. This officer might be more vocal than normal or the officer might take the anger that is inside out on a civilian just because of the emotional state of mind. Another barrier that could keep an officer from effective communication could be a physical barrier. Law enforcement uses a variety of high tech electronics, if a piece of the officers communication equipment fails then the office will not be able to talk with other officers. Also an officer could be doing a foot patrol in the dark and drop his radio and not know it till his slows down to call for back up. In addition, semantic barriers are the use of a phrase that can have two or more meanings to them. Without prior knowledge of the situation another officer can misunderstand what he was told and need further clarification on the issue. Lastly and most importantly, ineffective listening. An ineffective listener in law enforcement can spell disaster. This is a barrier that is developed over time, and forms into a habit. An ineffective listener is someone who while growing up was always able to talk and be listened too rather than giving someone else the time to talk. As this person aged over time they were the one who was the loudest and had to have all the attention all the time. The most important strategy to refrain from having barriers put up in the criminal justice system is for officers to be free of any bias. If an officer is bias right from the start the chances of the officer listening to the whole story from the suspect drops dramatically. Regardless of the situation that the officer is placed in, the officer must refrain from expressing certain opinions. In many cases officers are placed in teeth grinding situations that most don’t agree with, but the job has to be done for justice to be served. Everything begins and ends with effective communication. Law enforcement deal with communication on a daily basis, whether it be talking with fellow officers to having a conversation with a citizen. The effectiveness of the officers’ communication skills are a vital tool for success in law enforcement. Many officers have learned that speaking to someone without negative tones, or barriers can deescalate many situations. Also with the proper knowledge of communication skills an officer can effectively communicate with fellow officers, and more importantly the citizens.

References
Communication. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/communication
Hellesvig-Gaskell, K. (2015, April 16). The Difference Between Hearing & Listening Skills.
Wallace, H., & Roberson, C. (2009). Oral versus Written Communication. In Written and interpersonal communication: Methods for law enforcement (4th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.