1. What specific communication skills do you think are key for a law enforcement officer to have in
order to do their job effectively and why?
Some communication skills that I believe would be very important to have as a law
enforcement officer are empathy because it’s necessary to be able to understand someone’s
situation, volume and clarity because officers need others to understand their words and cannot be
mumbling or not speaking loud enough to either civilians, suspects, or criminals, confidence
because they need to have to not show any weakness in some situations and also be confident
enough to trust their instincts in a lot of situations where split-second decisions are very
important, lastly I believe they need to have good listening skills because there are some
situations I have seen where officers do not listen to what people are saying and either become
endangered or endanger other people because of it.
2. Describe an encounter that you have had with a law enforcement officer (if you haven’t had a
direct experience you can use a hypothetical or fictional example). What were your perceptions of
the officer? What do you think his or her perceptions were of you? What stereotypes do you think
contributed to each of your interpretations?
One time I have had an experience with a police officer and it was where I accidently
pulled out in front of him. I was surprised I got pulled over, but I was also saying “Woops I kinda
pulled in front of that guy” to my friend who was also in the car. He went through the usual
motions of show me your ID, insurance, etc.. My perception of him was that he seemed like a
nice person that just wanted me to be careful and pay a little more attention when I was driving
which was completely fair given the circumstances. I think his perceptions of me was that I was
just your usual highschooler who doesn’t pay attention when driving which was basically point
on at that time, but he probably also thought I was a good kid because of my mannerisms and
how I spoke to him. Our perceptions were also the way they were because I’m from Pierre which
is a pretty small town, so he was probably a little more lenient than he would be elsewhere. The
stereotypes that I had was the one I had from previous times I have interacted with law
enforcement officers, not in a bad way but just speaking to them about hobbies and also talking to
my uncle who is a law enforcement officer. I think the stereotype or schemata he put me into was
the highschooler group which has all types of people, but in the end we’re all just kids in his eyes.
3. Differentiate between the internal and external attributions made in this encounter:
I attribute him being stern to the external attributions because he felt like he needed to
pull me over, check my ID, insurance, etc. He seemed like a nice person though and it showed
through the way he treated and spoke to me which is an internal attribution.
4. Explain how one of these two common perceptual errors, fundamental attribution error and
self-serving bias were involved in this encounter.
I don’t want to make excuses, but I had a self-serving bias during this encounter. I
thought he was in the turning lane which was the excuse I told him and he just told me that it was
a common mistake and to be careful next time. If I had just been paying more attention I
would’ve waited a second more and seen whether he was driving straight or turning, so this was
definitely a case of self-serving bias.
5. Discuss how this encounter might have been different had you done a perception check after your
first impression.
At the time that I was getting pulled over I did a fundamental attribution error and I
blamed the officer a little bit when he was doing his job. I did, however, somewhat do a
perception check afterwards and realized he was just doing his job and I realized that during my
talk with him. So I feel like I did do a perception check after my first impression and not much
would have changed.
6. Discuss how the physical and environmental factors influenced your perception in/of this
encounter.
I’m not sure whether physical and environmental factors had A LOT of influence on my
perception in this encounter. I definitely had my perception that the officer seemed a little
intimidating and not very nice just because of the way he got out of his car, was walking, facial
expressions, etc. a combination of those physical factors I guess. So that was the main thing that
affected my perception was his physical features and the way he held himself, but even then that
had a small affect on my overall perception of the situation.
7. Were either the horn or halo effects involved in this encounter? If so, how?
Yes I believe the halo effect was involved in this encounter. I have only really had
positive interactions with police officers before this, so I believed all police officers were nice and
empathetic people and this case the halo effect turned out to be fine, but I know now that not all
police officers are nice people just as how not all criminals are bad people.
8. Please comment on the roles that culture and personality played in the perception of those
involved in this encounter.
The roles that culture had in this was that the Midwest itself has its own culture and also
there is kind of a smalltown culture that there is and that affected both me and the police officer I
feel. Personality also affected the perception of me in his eyes because I feel I handled the
situation well, was friendly, helpful, and had good mannerisms the whole time.
9. Finally, please discuss what perceptual errors create potential ethical challenges in law
enforcement? For example, how should the organizing principles of proximity, similarity and
difference be employed?
One perceptual error that is tough to really pull or push one way is the proximity error.
Police officers often assume that any person in close proximity to a criminal is also guilty, which
is a fair assessment, but can also lead to some bad situations. I feel like, being a police officer,
you need to have some social awareness and be able to perceive whether someone seems guilty or
not, but should also assume that not all people in close proximity are guilty but also be very wary
at the same time. Similarity is also a perception error that is very dangerous when it comes to
police work. For example, there seems to be a very common situation where police officers place
African-Americans in the same stereotype because of similarity which is just wrong and a
horrible practice and perception error. Officers should try to get rid of this similarity error and
treat each person as well, a person and not as someone who is a part of a ethnic group or race.
Lastly is difference, I feel this perception error could be very helpful in some cases because an
officer should always be aware of things that are different in their daily lives, but also police
officers should not automatically assume people are guilty of something or immediately question
them just because they are different.
10. Now that you have had an opportunity to reflect on this encounter, do you perceive it differently
than you had previously? Why? ;)
Yes, I do perceive it a little differently now because I feel like I had some time to reflect
and do some perception checking on the situation and feel like I removed the fundamental
attribution error that I had beforehand.