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Emotional Intelligence Training is No Longer Optional 

Roger Buhlis for PSPBL 

An academy student feels the thrill of knowing that he will graduate in a few weeks and begin field training at the agency that recently agreed to hire him. He has worked very hard on his physical training, marksmanship, and defensive tactics skill. He knows he is near the top of his class in academics. On a rare day off from class time and studies, the student enjoys time with some non-law enforcement friends at a county fair. He watches with disgust from a short distance as an obviously intoxicated man aggressively argues with a carnival booth operator over whether or not the man earned the grand prize, an oversize stuffed bear. The student considers whether he should intervene as his friends encourage him to do so.   

An academy instructor is new to teaching students in his traffic enforcement class. Since retiring, teaching gives him a sense of belonging and connection to his former profession. Running through his PowerPoint deck, he believes he is providing valuable information to the students. When he sees that several students appear distracted or uninterested, he feels insecure and offers a joke to lift the classroom energy. This works and he gets several laughs. A few moments later, he decides to interject an impromptu war story to keep the student’s interest. This also works and he feels the students warming to him. He considers telling an off-color joke because, after all, police officers and deputies must have a dark sense of humor to survive a long career anyway, right? 

A deputy in patrol training hears her call sign broadcast over the radio and acknowledges the call, a potential stabbing in progress at a bar fight. Her training officer has been working with her on geography for weeks and is confident his trainee should be able to drive to the bar quickly and efficiently in an emergency response. He will not offer her directions to see if she will take the most efficient route. The trainee switches the emergency equipment on and starts toward the call. She drives at a safe enough speed for the conditions, but makes several wrong turns, delaying her response as deputies assigned to assist arrive to the bar before her. The trainee and her trainer are the last of the dispatched deputies to arrive. Later, as they debriefed the incident, the trainee offers no justification for making wrong turns en route to the call, but acknowledges that the lights and siren are “distracting” to her, and the bar fight call was “intimidating.” 

A police commander examines himself in a mirror to make sure his uniform looks just right. He knows the community meeting he will attend within the next hour will be contentious. Residents are infuriated about an officer’s use of force, broadcast widely in a viral video. The commander is also frustrated by the apparent violation of department policy. His rank allowed him access to the contents of the incident report and his insight is troubling for him. As he looks into the mirror, he recognizes that he simply does not want to face the hostile crowd. He knows he will struggle to balance his responses between delicate diplomacy and appropriate transparency, and he wonders if he can hold back what he would really like to say to the community members. 

Disgust, insecurity, apprehension, and anger are examples of emotions that each of us manage day-to-day, sometimes moment-by-moment. Our ability to recognize and manage our emotions, and recognize emotions of those around us, is called emotional intelligence (EI). EI skill is useful for successful human interaction, but, as the examples above demonstrate, EI is a critical competence for policing professionals. This article describes EI in policing and answers some frequently-asked questions about EI training for policing professionals. 

What is EI? 

The concept of EI was first proposed by Professors Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer. Salovey and Mayer define EI as follows:  

“Emotional intelligence is…the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth.” 

Their model involves four abilities, or competencies, that promote emotional intelligence: 

EI for Policing Professionals 

While Western private industry worked quickly to introduce EI concepts into their cultures, the policing profession ignored EI for almost 10 years. The advent of the Police Training Officer (PTO) model in 1999 rectified this. As with problem-solving and community policing, the PTO model infused EI into post-academy police training. Through introductory EI training, mindfulness, and journaling, police trainers and trainees develop EI awareness and practices that carry them through their careers.  

The benefits in policing should be apparent. The television news and internet are filled with videos showing police interactions spiraling out of control. Many confrontations are rapidly evolving, emotionally charged events. We see fear, frustration, anger, and insecurity play out on our screens, manifested on both sides of the event. EI causes us to be mindful of our emotions, to recognize where others might be, and encourages effective self-regulation habits. Conflict resolution, negotiation, victim support, emergency response, and problem-solving can all benefit from emotionally intelligent policing professionals on the scene. 

As an organization, PSPBL has supported effective, holistic police training that emphasizes EI practices and problem-solving strategies with a community policing focus. Our primary methodology is Problem Based Learning (PBL) and advanced adult learning techniques intended to engage the learner and encourage practice, rather than simple comprehension. 

We are occasionally asked questions about EI instruction, such as the following:  

For EI training to be effective, generally two things should occur. First, whenever EI will be a significant learning outcome in a course, the student(s) should be introduced early to EI concepts and benefits. Depending on the nature of the training (whether in a classroom or in field training), instructors may choose to present, assign reading, and/or use cooperative learning exercises to develop basic comprehension. Regardless of the type of introduction, EI should be prioritized early in the lesson plan so those lessons can be practiced during subsequent class days.  

Second, in accordance with PBL and adult learning practices, student(s) should be afforded opportunities for self-discovery and experiential learning. As with swimming, EI cannot be learned through lectures or readings; the student(s) must practice. Practice is critical to move students from comprehension to application and beyond.  

Instructors can facilitate EI practice by (in addition to other strategies): 

The information above addresses the “how” of EI training. As to the question of “how much,” this is less well-defined and relies on competent facilitators to make appropriate judgements. Introducing the benefits and concepts should generally take about an hour or two of class time. This has been true for the 40-hour PTO course, as well as the 80-hour PBL Instructor Development course. Once the introduction is complete, instructors should spend the amount of time that they think necessary, offering sufficient experiential opportunities to anchor the learning. We suggest one thing is clear – following the introduction, EI should be practiced intermittently during each subsequent day of training. 

For example, sometime after the EI introduction, 15-20 minutes might be spent introducing and practicing a meditation to build self-awareness and self-regulation practice. Following any other classroom activity where EI concepts become apparent (e.g., social interactions demonstrating poor – or positive! – conflict resolution strategies), the students should be prompted to make journal entries regarding those teachable moments. In their journal entries, students should be asked to describe what happened, how they felt, what they learned about their own EI, and what they might do in the future to be more effective. As students work through small group projects, facilitators should check in and ask about their process, focusing on EI, in addition to asking about their product (where they are in the project). 

Response: 

From our perspective, the answer is simple – EI training should occur at all of the levels mentioned in the question. As the vignettes at the start of this article demonstrated, everyone at every rank and in every assignment is subject to emotions and emotional behavior. Emotions can no longer be considered the sole concern of hormonal adolescents. The science of emotions and their impact on our brains are now well-documented. No one can escape emotions or their influence. Self-awareness and self-regulation are life skills for everyone. 

On a related topic, we suggest that EI skill does not automatically grow as a person rises through the ranks. You may be able to think of a supervisor, manager, or senior command staff member who fails to demonstrate self-awareness, empathy, or relationship management skill. For this reason, we advocate incorporating EI into the policing profession as an organizational culture shift, rather than a simple one-off course presented to one group or another. 

In an ideal world, we see a consistent flow of EI training introduced to academy students and then expected in the post-academy field training program. EI should be considered in the hiring process, in the promotion process, and during the selection process for any specialty assignments. As you consider the importance of EI, you can imagine how these skills would be useful in specialty assignments such as training officers, child abuse and domestic violence investigators, special response teams, and so many others. Even dispatchers, given the high-pressure environment of the communications center, can benefit from EI training. 

As for the roll-out, the response to the first question (above) applies: we recommend introducing the concept and its benefits, facilitating practice in real-world settings, and then integrating the practices by making them part of the organizational culture and expectations. 

The first point we would make relates to the power of teaching EI. As you learn about EI (so that you can teach and practice it yourself), the immediate temptation is to start “diagnosing” the EI issues of others. We strongly encourage you to avoid this temptation. When considering EI, it’s best to work on yourself first – we’ve all found plenty of work to do there. You might also. 

But teaching EI requires that you engage with others as they explore EI and its practices. One of the most important things we’ve learned is that teaching EI is not intended as therapy or to “fix” people. As your students learn about EI, their triggers, past influences, and underlying scars may surface. Unless you are a licensed counselor or psychotherapist, please avoid feeling compelled to address their issues. Surfacing these issues is a positive – for your students to learn what they should work on – however, it can be an uncomfortable development for you and your student(s). You must learn to be comfortable in your discomfort as you sometimes watch students struggle with EI as a concept, as well as their own EI issues. 

In fact, you may even see students attempt to reject or block EI instruction because they find it too painful. In other words, students may literally go into “fight or flight” mode, the most primitive of emotional responses, when they begin to explore their own EI. This is another area where experienced facilitators must hold true to the goal – introducing the concepts and benefits of EI, and creating opportunities for practice. 

The second area for discussion here involves journals and journaling. If you have some experience with journaling, or are familiar with journaling in the PTO program, the following discussion may be an update for you. If you are unfamiliar, this discussion is intended to set you on the right course. 

First, we have to acknowledge that policing professionals often try to dismiss the concept of journaling out of hand. There are a number of reasons offered for this resistance including, “It’s a diary – unicorns and rainbows aren’t what we do,” and unsupported fears about courtroom discovery. As a result, one of the single, most effective tools for teaching and learning about EI is rationalized away and set aside, usually very quickly. We have tried a number of strategies to make journaling palatable to policing professionals including renaming the process to “Learning Journal,” or a “Core Competency Logbook.” We have tried “playing the game” to enhance the appeal and ease the unwarranted fears of journaling in effort to coerce learner participation. 

After 20 years of trying, we are done cajoling, catering, and compromising the concept of journaling. The simple fact is that the purpose of journaling is self-discovery, learning, and developing self-awareness. Students who want to succeed must be motivated to learn. For academy students and post-academy trainees, learning journals should be made a compulsory component of the curriculum. Learning journals are a tool to document learning, and an excellent strategy to facilitate learning about EI. We strongly encourage policing professionals to journal, but recognize we do not have the influence that academy programs, training programs, program supervisors, and instructors have. Regardless of what journaling is called, we refer to the Nike motto, “Just do it.” 

And finally, when the PTO program was first published there was some confusion as to whether journals should be reviewed by instructors or trainees. To be clear, we believe journal entries should be considered conversations. Instructors or PTOs should intermittently review their student/trainee journal entries, respond in writing and consider initiating in-person conversation later as well.  

Responses can come in many forms and practice helps when reviewing and responding to journal entries. Responses should not be judgmental or condescending, and often, the best responses are phrased in the form of further questions such as, “How did you feel when this occurred?” “What was your most significant takeaway from this?” “What will you do differently in the future as a result of this?” Remembering that the point of the journal is learning, responses should be geared toward extending the student’s learning. 

Conclusion 

I have been writing this article in April 2021. Just as I finish up, a former Minnesota police officer has been found guilty of the murder of his arrestee. Setting aside comments regarding tactics and the justice system, for us, this incident is a matter of EI. If we could ask the officer one question, it would not be, “What were you thinking?” but instead, “What were you feeling?” This question cuts to the heart of what likely happened at the scene a year before.  

Disgust, insecurity, apprehension, and anger are examples of emotions that we ourselves experience, and see in others every day. These emotions are not limited to the examples of overzealous academy students, diffident instructors, apprehensive trainees, and incensed commanders we used early in the article. We now know that self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skill is critical for all policing professionals. Without these competencies, we can become what Goleman labels “Passions Slaves.” It is well past time to stop ignoring EI in policing and we no longer have the luxury of considering EI training optional. 

The Police Society for Problem Based Learning 

Roger Buhlis 

April 20, 2021 

Resources 

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. Bantam Dell. 

Salovey, P. & Mayer, J. (1990). Emotional intelligence: Imagination, cognition, and personality. 9 (3), 185-211. Baywood Publishing Company, Inc. 

Salovey, P. (1997). Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Educational Implications. Perseus Books. 

Saville, G. (undated). Conquering the hidden dragon: Emotional intelligence in 21st century policing. PSPBL online publication.