I just want to start this post off by saying how excited I am to be back at TRU, completing my 2nd and finale year in the Police and Justice course ! This past week has already been eventful, from starting new classes and getting a taste of what we will be doing in our two Policing classes. Through out the semester we will be learning hand to hand training in our police skills class located in the gym, there will also be some drill throughout the class that will help the class with a little bit of discipline. While our intro to policing deals with more text material and what police have to deal with such as; criminal code, police codes, rights and also writing down in a police notebook. I am extremely excited for this year and hope to make the best of it. also welcome back Brian.

Date

Time 24 hr

Location

Statement of ________ (B: year/month/day)

Street address, city, province, phone number

Q: Tell me what happened

A:____________

Q

A

Q

A

Q

A

Q: Is there Anything else you wish to add and is the above statements true to the best of your knowledge ?

A:________ 

Signed by victim/witness                                                                                              Witness (You)

End time 24 Hr

to end it off Z'd out bottom then sign it so nobody can add stuff 

Tonights class we learned all about Teamwork, we discussed what components are involved in teamwork such as:

- Co-operation
- Leadership
- Respect
- Skills
- Motivation

In order for a team to suceed all the members must work together in order to accomplish a goal.

Brian then got us to take part in a teamwork exercise where we had to get into groups of 5 and build the tallest tower possible only using spaghetti and marshmallows. For each team a member was assigned to be the leader, I was one of them.

I will be 100 % honest, I believe that I did not perform the best I could at being a successful leader. Looking back on the exercise, if I had the chance to redo it, I would completely change my strategies and tactics in order to be a successful leader. Although, this was a great chance for me to learn and practice skills I never had before, being the youngest member in the program I can be intimidated at some times when working with some of the older students. I should not become accustomed to this, wanting to be a police officer I will be dealing with people that are twice my age, so it is best that I get used to it now and practice in order for me to become better.

One last thing when the teams were done building the towers, I realized what the best architectural design would have been in order for my team to win. Next time !

Conflict

Definition: A disagreement that is expressed in the form of an emotional or physical struggle.

Top 4 reasons for conflict for police

- Drugs
- Alcohol
- Fear
- Anger

Two basic types of conflict

NEGATIVE OR DESTRUCTIVE

- When the parties involved resort to accusations, threats and personal attacks

POSITIVE OR CONSTRUCTIVE

- When the parties listen to each others point of view and work together to bring about mutually beneficial solution

4 basic propositions

1. Conflict is a magnified difference of opinion
2. It takes two to tango
3. Each party in a conflict has the choice to end it
4. An invisible third party lies at the heart of many disputes

Dangerous Behaviours

1. Victimizer
- Intimidation
- Overwhelm people in their path with
   - Abuse
   - Accusations
   - Anger

2. Bomber
- Short fuse
- Loose control even during small threat
- Tantrum = Great equalizer
  - Reduces other adults to silence or surrender

3. Mini Bomber
- Take post shots from behind cover
-Favorite weapons
  - Not-to subtle digs
  - Innuendoes
  - Sarcasm
  - Painful Teasing

Contact & Cover Officers when arresting an individual 

Contact- Talking

Cover- Protecting

Nelson Mandela 

1918-2013

For those of you who don't know, this is Nelson Mandela, he was the president for South Africa from 1994 - 1999.  Nelson Mandela was a leader in South Africa who opposed apartheid, the racial segregation of black citizens. He served a total of 27 years in a South african prison for sabotage. Many world leaders vouched for his release, and countless South African civilians admired him. Mandela was the first democratically elected president of South Africa on the 10th of May 1994. Nelson Mandela shows many great leadership traits, due to the fact that in my opinion he was the greatest most inspirational leaders of the 20th century. For instance he was defiantly courageous, not only did he abolish black racism in his country but he also led his people against the white apartheid. Mandela was very strong willed he set goals and got them accomplished and for that people looked up to him, through his presidency, during his imprisonment and still to this day even though he has past away. He also wasn't afraid, while he was younger he had the guts to rise up against the government, unfortunately this resulted in him being imprisoned for almost a quarter of his life but he did not give up. On the day of his release from prison, Mandela gave a speech in Cape Town addressing the African community, if you wish to see the video of his speech here is the link 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qj4e_q7_z4

Tonights class was very inspiring, we learned all about leadership and what its is. To start off the class Brian had us get into groups of 5 and amongst the group discuss and define what leadership is and what kind of people are defined as being leaders.

There really is no exact definition to leadership but in my opinion I believe that leadership is:

"The ability to make quick and effective decisions in certain situations that influence a group of people or an organization in order to make drastic measures to resolve a conflict"

We then finished off the class by learning about the 5 propositions of leadership, they are:

1. there are very few people born leaders
-people make people leaders

2. a leader must be trusted
-a leader must also trust its followers

3. a leader must always remember the bigger picture

4. leadership can be a lonely place

5. leadership and management are not the same thing

*these five points are very important to remember*

to finish off the night we watched a twenty minute video about a music teacher that is very knowledgeable about leadership skills.

This class was very enjoyable, I would really enjoy more classes or workshops about great leadership skills.

Id like to welcome Brian back to the class after three weeks to start off, tonight we talked about various subjects that related to making an arrest. We first learned how to make a proper arrest, there are 4 steps to make a proper arrest such as;

-why the person is under arrest
-right to remain silent
-to obtain council without delay
-a toll free # to call

*when an officer states all of these he or she should ask the person if they understand, if not, ask again.

When making an arrest the officer's position should be taken into account, for officer safety, the officer should be positioned in the interview or escort stance at a 45 degree angle.

After learning all of this Brian had us all practice with partners to get a feel for the process.

We then talked about verbal and non verbal communication in policing such as object communications. Some object communication are:

-The most common form of object communication is clothing, wether it be a police officer or a patched hells angels member.
-The types of clothing that people wear are often used to determine their personality, though this is considered a form of stereotyping.
-Another form of Object communication is certain tattoos for example; gang related tattoos are a key indicator ( tear drops, gang colours or emblems )

To finish the class off we learned about 6 very important definitions to remember

1. Oculesics-Oculesics, a subcategory of kinesics, is the study of eye movement, eye behaviour, gaze, and eye-related nonverbal communication. 
2. Para-language-the non-lexical component of communication by speech, for example intonation, pitch and speed of speaking, hesitation noises, gesture, and facial expression.
3. Chronemics-Chronemics is the study of the use of time in nonverbal communication. The way that one perceives and values time, structures time and reacts to time frames communication. Across cultures, time perception plays a large role in the nonverbal communication process. Time perceptions include punctuality, willingness to wait and interactions.
4. Kinesics-Kinesics is the interpretation of body motion communication such as facial expressions and gestures, that is, nonverbal behaviour related to movement of any part of the body or the body as a whole. 
5. Proxemics-Proxemics is one of several subcategories of the study of nonverbal communication. Prominent other subcategories include haptics (touch), kinesics (body movement),vocalics (paralanguage), and chronemics (structure of time). 
6. Haptics-Haptics is any form of interaction involving touch.

Use of Force

Use of force in Policing

I would just like to start my post off by thanking Cst. Rupert Mainke for talking the time for teaching the class about when and how to use reasonable force in policing.

Tonight was interesting for all of us, Rupert began by introducing himself to the class and gave a brief overview of his careers in policing, corrections, probation and the military.

Rupert is very knowledgeable when it comes to how to deal with situations when an officer has to apply a certain degree of force in a certain situation. He talked about two sections of the criminal code such as; section 25 and section 495.

Section 25 of the Criminal Code of Canada provides police officers with authority to use force.

It says that “everyone who is required or authorized by law to do anything in the administration or enforcement of the law is, if he or she acts on reasonable grounds, justified in doing what he or she is required or authorized to do in using as much force as necessary for that purpose”.

We then continued on to a debatable question like “What is excessive force”?

Force is excessive if:

1.     It is grossly disproportionate to the need for action

2.     It is inspired by malice or over aggression

3.     If it shocks the conscience of the courts

An example would be force that is not reasonable or necessary.

A case that we went over in class was Cluett V. the Queen (1985) a somewhat interesting and controversial case that ended in a mentally ill man being killed by police because of the man interfering with traffic.

“It is not possible to lay down any hard and fast role, except the test of reasonableness. If the police officer carry out his own authority acts on reasonable and probable grounds, he is justified in doing what he is required to do and in using as much force necessary”.

One of the most interesting topics (in section 25 of the criminal code) I found to be was “when is it reasonable to shoot someone in the back”It is reasonable to shoot someone in the back when:

1.     Someone who is fleeing after causing or trying to cause fatal injuries to an officer

2.     Someone who is fleeing and is believed to cause serious even fatal harm to the public.

We then discussed section 495 of the Criminal Code; section 495 discusses when a police officer can make an arrest without a warrant.

1)    A peace officer may arrest without a warrant

a     A person who has been caught or has just committed an indictable offence

b        A person whom he finds committing a criminal offence; or

c     A person, in respect of whom he has reasonable grounds to believe that a warrant of arrest of committal, in any form set out in part XXVIII in relation thereto, is in force within the territorial jurisdiction in which the person is found.

After discussing sections in the criminal we then moved on to the six basic principles that underlie the National Use of Force Framework, Use of force options and subject behaviors and how to asses both topics together when dealing with a situation.

The six basic principles that underlie the National use of force framework are:

1)    The primary responsibility of a peace officer is to preserve and protect life.

2)    The primary objective of any use of force is to ensure public safety.

3)    Police officer safety is essential to public safety.

4)    The National use of force Framework does not replace or augment the law: the law speaks for itself.

5)    The National Use of force Framework was constructed in consideration of (federal) statute law and current case law.

6)    The National Use of Force Framework is not intended to dictate policy to any agency.

When an officer is confronted with a situation that must be dealt with extreme care and discretion that officer must go through a 3-step assessment process that involves:

1)    The situation- environment, number of subjects, perceived subjects abilities, knowledge of subject, time and distance, potential attack signs

2)    Subject behaviors- Co-operative, resistant (passive), resistant, (active), assaultive, grievous bodily harm or death

3)    Officer’s perception/tactical considerations- 2 separate factors that may affect the officers overall assessment.

We then ended the class by talking about the 5 Use of Force Options available to police when handling a situation, the options are:

1)    Officer presence

2)    Verbal communication

3)    Physical control

                    Soft

                     Hard

4)    Intermediate Weapons

5)    Lethal force

The officer can apply any one of these “Use of Force Options” to the assessment process, officers are taught when and what to use concerning the situation through the National Use of Force Framework model below.  

Tonight Brian had us begin the class with a exercise where a scenario of a police officer telling a civilian that someone dearest to them has passed away suddenly, whether it be a mother, father, etc. He then turned our attention to a very interesting lecture about how to detect a lair. Some of the key indicators to look for in a liar were:

-Physical expression
-Body language
-Emotional gestures & contradictions
-Interactions & reactions
-Verbal context and content
- and they use "just kidding" after stating the confession that is actually what happened believe it or not.

We than participated in another exercise where a police officer got a statement from one of us who pretended to be a car jacker that was caught in a bait car committing multiple offences. I enjoyed the class tonight and I look forward to the class next week with Rupert, on use of force.

I really enjoyed the class tonight, Brian brought in the shirts for us to try on and order how many we want. We started the class by finishing off lesson 1 learning about how to defuse challenges from a citizen in policing such as Ignoring and blocking. We then finished the class by performing scenarios such as telling someone that there most precious item was destroyed. Practicing the bonding, purpose and resolution tactics. We then learned how to write and take proper statements of a witness. Each class is getting more and more interesting for myself, I could sit there all day and learn how to perform police procedures and tactics. I look forward more and more everyday to becoming a member of the RCMP or any police force.

Like Brian had us assigned to do, I have talked to 3 people since last class. All the people I talked to were friendly and very nice to interact with. I talked with 2 gentleman at the gym, and a girl from TRU. All the conversations where not long they mostly where introductions of one and other and how thier day has been going. This assignment was a good way of interacting with new people, and I hope to use these skills for the future when meeting new people.

Tonight's class was very enjoyable Brian taught the class effective verbal and non verbal ways of communication, listening, hearing and active listening. He also taught us how to apply the three tactical communication strategies which are Bonding, Purpose and resolution. At the end of the class Brian made the class adventure around campus and just talk to people who were sitting around, this was an excellent way to practice communication skill I look forward to next class. REMINDER! make sure to talk to at least three people around campus and make note of it here.

Tonight our group started the Tactical Communication skills class taught by Brian Cassell, so far he has given us a brief overview of what we will be doing in the current semester. Also he made us participate in a short activity where we introduced a fellow classmate to the entire class. I look forward to what Brian has to teach us, and the skills we will be developing that relates to police and justice.