Archive for the ‘Rank and Leadership’ Category

Police Psychology:  Identity Politics

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D, AABP

 

This is one of those terms that many people in the media throw around, but few in real life understand.  Let me describe it simply as far as what is going on in the media.

Basically, it is about the power of the voice.  The straight white American male has the least voice and sits as the baseline.  Now above the baseline are any persons who belong to a group that can claim they are victimized, or oppressed, or have effects of being victimized or oppressed in the past.  Basically, the white American female makes claim to being victimized because of sex and can be seen as above the American male.  The same is for people of color — Black, Hispanic, Indian, West Indian, etc.  Basically, they are rank ordered even further within this category and depending on how loud they get at the time.  Now if you are a member of more than one identity group you have even more power.  So, a Hispanic female has even more power in identity politics than a Hispanic male.  Now further, sexual orientation gives you a bigger voice in some political circles, so if you are a gay white male you have a larger voice in political identity that the straight white American male.  Religion plays a large role also.  The Muslim is probably first on the identity power list, but Jewish people have a good case because of the Holocaust.  If you are a gay Jewish female Hispanic you have a pretty powerful voice.  Although a Muslim Hispanic female transgender would even trump the voice of the Jewish gay.  Geez, why is this so complicated.  That’s the tongue-in-cheek approach to what is meant by identity politics.  Now let’s apply it to policing…. (more…)

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Police Psychology:  Moments after Parkland:  A Personal Story

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP

 

I went from police psychologist to victim last week.  I’d not been a victim for awhile, since someone stole my tires in my driveway way back in the 90’s.  This one was a little more active.

Some guy who used to be in my wife’s class at Queensborough Community College (she is a college professor) back 25 years ago decided a day after the Florida school shooting that he would find my wife on a Facebook page and start posting.  He posted on four days about ten posts each day.  Some rambling psychotic stuff at first, then a post saying that he was going to rape my 11-year old daughter in the ass and murder her.  Quite a disturbing thing to read as well as post.  He mentioned my daughter by name, so it was a very specific threat. (more…)

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De-escalation vs. Use of Force: Are we sending mixed messages

Dr. Philip J. Swift

 

In 2015, I became involved in a law enforcement reform process that would not only change the way the agency provided services to the community, but would test the resiliency of the agency’s culture. As with most law enforcement reform undertakings, this reform movement came on the heels of a use of force (UOF) incident that resulted in the death of a detainee.  Following this incident community and family members made allegations of excessive force and institutional racism, inferring that excessive force was used because the detainee was African-American. The criminal and administrative investigations into this matter determined that the involved officers had not used excessive force and had not violated agency policy. (more…)

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Police Psychology:  Rock and Roll

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP

 

I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last Monday in Cleveland Ohio.  I had been there before and never saw it as part of police psychology, or psychology at all.  This time I did.

I never knew that The Beatles had 13 original albums and 237 original songs in 8-9 years, Taylor Swift was signed as a songwriter at age 14, or that so many rock singers had country singer Johnny Cash as a major influence on their music.  I didn’t know a lot of what I saw, but there is one thing that stood out to me —  becoming a rock star wasn’t all about talent. (more…)

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Police Psychology | Take the Operational Triangle Home

by Doug Gentz, Ph.D. Psychological Services

The operational triangle was developed to provide a graphic way to represent priorities for officers in the field. At the base operational-triangleof the triangle is Officer Safety which always comes first. The middle level of the triangle is about building Rapport which involves interacting with other people in a way that creates or enhances a relationship and increases your ability to exert the power of influence. Problem Solving is at the top of the triangle and could be as simple as giving someone directions to the bus station or as complex as making a successful case against a homicide suspect.

As opposed to influence, problem solving relies on the power of authority, meaning you can make something happen that eliminates the problem. Your directions relieve the lost pedestrian’s ignorance about the bus station and the case you build against the murderer takes him off the street. Somewhere in between is arresting a drunk driver. When you’re through solving a problem, you can usually go 10-8. (more…)

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