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POLICE BOOKS
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Verbal and Non-Verbal Indicators to Assault
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By Tracy E. Barnhart
When we
speak about the “use of force,” I notice
more and more that officers either need or
want the green light to be given to them
before they act. Correctional officers deep
down have an intimate fear when it comes to
the use of force of either reacting too
soon, or too late resulting in injury of
someone, or not at all. They have a natural
ingrained fear of the criminals themselves,
their administration not backing them for
their actions or decisions as well as their
peers not having their backs because of
those very same reasons. They have terms
thrown at them such as, “Reasonable,”
“Excessive,” and “Liability,” with no clear
cut explained definitions as well as no
clear cut directions or leadership by the
administrations. It is often said that it is
easier to ask for forgiveness than to
request permission, but in today’s litigious
society this may be true, but painfully
unforgiving on your career.
In this article I will attempt to give you
those “green light indicators” as well as
behavioral indicators that you may be
assaulted or attacked. If all inmates had a
green light indicator above their heads that
when activated meant you could immediately
utilize force we would all be better off and
sleep better at night. I have gone through
internal and criminal investigations
relating to the use of force I have used and
let me tell you, they are not fun. You lose
sleep; you become irritable towards your
family because of the internal stress and
your mind plays tricks on you as it relates
to the armchair quarterbacking of the
incident conducted by the administration and
your peers. You may even start to doubt
yourself and question your reasoning for
using force before it is all over with, at
the least, your zest toward using force will
diminish after your reasoning and motivation
are questioned. You will start to hear
officers say, “I am not touching anyone!”
In the court case Graham v. Conner the Court
gave no definitive answer for law
enforcement or corrections on what is
reasonable as it pertains to excessive
force. Consequently; it is possible for an
officer to follow his training, departmental
policy, and the standard operating procedure
of the supervisory staff and still be wrong.
In following all of the aforementioned steps
the officer can still be charged criminally,
sued civilly, and find that the judge and
jury will find that his responses to the
resistance still deemed inappropriate. This
can prompt the responses to incidence of
force by officer such as, “They are going to
screw me anyway so I’ll make it worth my
while.” Officers will make the use of force
vengeful and vindictive. Officers may even
choose to not get involved in the incidents
or look the other way as it is occurring. Of
course either course of actions is
inappropriate.
No matter what you have done during your
shift you can pretty much bet that your
agency will not be disbanded for your
actions or the actions of others. But you on
the other hand are a dispensable entity, and
your career may end because of your
decisions. You may lose your credibility
with your peers, your supervisors, and the
administration. You may be disciplined and
even terminated and that may not be the end
but just the beginning of your issues.
Depending on the incident you may be
criminally charged, or at the least, civilly
sued for that thirty second decision to
place your hands on an individual. During
this emotional and stressful time your
marriage may fail only adding to your
anxiety and turmoil. Sounds like fun, don’t
it? Makes you wonder why we do what we do
for a living doesn’t it.
The current Supreme Court legal decisions
and judgments that have been made regarding
the use of force state clearly that you are
to be given a fair amount of latitude in
your reasons to utilize force. Those
allowances are to be made for the fact that
the split second judgments that you make are
in circumstances that are tense, uncertain
and rapidly evolving. Armchair
quarterbacking should not be utilized in the
investigation phase as hindsight is 20/20 as
well as the application of others judgments
for consideration of criminal charges but
yet we all know that you will definitely be
judged by others from the onset of the force
that you use.
With all of this on your shoulders your own
personal safety and survival mentality must
be always on your mind. I see video tapes of
officers who were assaulted by inmates and
those inmates, prior to the assault, clearly
exhibited verbal and non-verbal signals of
their aggressive intentions that were either
missed or ignored by the officers. The
prevalent attitude exhibited by those
officers was that, “It will never happen to
me.” This mentality is observed throughout
the institution in some officer’s daily
routines. I want to give you some verbal and
non-verbal indicators that you can place
into your use of force reports and use by
observations throughout your daily
activities which the inmates may exhibit
prompting you to utilize force or request
assistance before the need for force arises.
Inmates will rarely attack you without
letting you know what they plan to do. Their
aggressive statements are meant to prompt
some sort of a fearful submissive response
from you, hopefully fear and intimidation.
Their ultimate goal is to have you fear them
and hold you as their pawn to move and place
across the board as they want. Possible
inmate verbal and non-verbal behavior
indicators to attack need to be constantly
observed and documented in your reports as
they will save your butt and prevent your
surprise injury.
Assessing behavior and preventing a physical
assault should be accomplished whenever
possible. It is critical for an officer to
recognize and assess aggressive verbal and
physical actions of a person. Recognizing
verbal and nonverbal aggressive behavior
signals will aid the officer in preventing
and de-escalating situations. Also, it
prepares the officer mentally and physically
to take immediate counter actions should a
physical assault occur. Before physical
action by an aggressor occurs, that
individual usually begins to threaten to
attack, in an attempt to intimidate the
opponent, through a process sometimes called
posturing, ritualized combat, or affective
aggression.
The individual may tell you what they are
about to do, “I’m going to kick your ass!”
Or, they may exhibit: |
-
Visible
overt awareness - visible weapons/unusual
bulges/unusual nervousness/hands in view;
-
Their face
may show tension and will tighten or twitch,
the jaws and lips will tense into a biting
position as well as quiver and mouth
expressions will frown and tighten over the
teeth;
-
Their body
posture will display broadside with their
hands on their hips or clasped behind their
head. They subconsciously will take a bladed
boxers stance and will rock back and forth or
bob up and down on the balls of the feet.
Stands taller, sets head and shoulders, moves
away/moves closer, points, forms fist and/or
loads the arm;
-
Their hands
will pump open and closed and then clench
into a fist so much that their knuckles will
go white. Always look at the hands and what
they are doing with them;
-
They will
deepen their voice tones and the volume
increases. The more threatened or aggressive
an individual becomes the lower, harsher and
louder their voice turns thus the bigger and
tougher they seem. The deeper the voice the
more authoritative they seem;
-
The eyebrows
will come down as if to shield the eyes. This
makes them look more aggressive and
intimidating;
-
The nostrils
will flare and their breathing will become
rapid and deep. Lips separate to show teeth;
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Aggression
redirected to something/someone else, such as
breaking pencils, kicking, chairs, yelling at
bystanders;
-
The
individual will seem to be looking through
you; their eyes become glazed over with an
empty stare. The individual will take on an
uninterrupted stare with alternating eye
stares and the eyelids will tighten down.
They may attempt to get chest to chest with
you;
-
They may
start sweating and beads of sweat will form
on the forehead.
-
Eye blinking; the blink rate reflects
psychological arousal. The normal blink rate
is about 20 closures per minute.
Significantly faster rates may reflect
emotional stress.
-
Individuals will show exaggerated movements
such as pacing, finger pointing, and
threatening fists with bent arms. Their
verbals will be relentless and rapid to get
you to change your mind or change your last
orders that have sent them over the edge.
They want to win the confrontation.
-
The individual may shed clothing such as
taking off their shirts or jackets bend down
and tighten their shoes or remove items of
value such as watches and hats and set them
aside.
-
The individual will start to look around to
assess witnesses, back-up available, escape
routes or will start to target glance at the
places they want to strike on your person.
-
Vasodilatation and vasoconstriction or
flushing of the face will also be evident at
the tops of the ears by a darkening redness
due to the release of adrenaline and
noradrenalin into the bloodstream.
There is an inherent danger associated with
the corrections profession. Whether an
officer is in a county jail or a closed
security segregation facility, wearing a
uniform will put them in dangerous
situations. Threat assessment is the act of
becoming aware of a situation directly
through the senses, including hearing and
seeing, thereby making a reasonable
determination about the risks involved. Any
inmate potentially can be assaultive and use
deadly force. However, approaching every
inmate in a high-risk mode would be
unreasonable. There can be many articulable
facts that support threat assessment. Some of
the facts used in this judgment decision are
listed above; it is not a comprehensive
complete listing.
How the Officer Should Respond to the
aggression Nonverbally
Nonverbal indicators are probably the most
important aspect of dealing with potentially
aggressive inmates. When dealing with an
agitated inmate, even more is conveyed
nonverbally by the officer and less verbally.
1. Respect personal inmate space - Personal
space is the area around a person in which
he/she feels safe. For most inmates and
situations, it is about 2 to 3 feet. Entering
an upset inmate’s personal space intensifies
their emotions. As a general rule, keep at
least one arms length away, about 36 inches,
to prevent escalation and to increase your
own safety.
2. Maintain an open stance - Slightly turn
your body at an angle to the other person.
Keep your hands open and in plain view in
front of your chest or at waist level. This
stance is less threatening and offers a great
advantage to stop an assault. Do not cross
your arms or point your finger.
3. Eye contact and facial expression should
be appropriate to the situation - Your face
and eyes convey a direct message to the other
person. Maintain general eye contact, but do
not stare through the other person. Know
inmate cultural habits. Some ethnic groups
consider it inappropriate to directly look at
another when upset or being disciplined. Your
facial expression should be serious but not
angry or fearful. You want to convey concern
and control.
The bottom line is that you need to do your
job, keep yourself and other staff members
safe, while making good decisions that you
will be able to defend legally. Use these
examples of inmate’s threatening statements
and behavior make the right decision and to
justify your use of force response. Remember,
it is often not enough to do the right thing
– you must be able to explain in your reports
and testimony why your actions were the right
thing to do. Win the fight or force encounter
and then win the war, court decision... Do
not take the interaction personally because
it may not be. Think of the interaction as a
game, they are on a team where they will be
attempting to circumvent your commands and
resist your authority in every way. It is
your job during this game to remain
professional and apply just enough pressure
to accomplish the task without introducing
personal vendettas, abuse or attitude toward
the individual.
Your response should be well documented and
planned for your safety. You need not wait
until you have been assaulted to gain control
of the inmate. These indicators are presented
subconsciously and if you watch and
understand the arousal stress indicators you
will be less likely to be assaulted out of
nowhere. You will be prepared and ready for
the assault before it happens.
About the
Author
After
completion of a Marine Corps combat tour of
duty in Iraq in 1991, I completed the National
Registry requirements as an Emergency Medical
Technician. I responded to calls of emergency
medical nature for over three years until I
became a police officer for the City of Galion,
Ohio. I attended the Ohio State Highway Patrol
Academy where I attained my Ohio Peace Officers
Certification. After three years on patrol I
was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant where I
was in command of the patrol first shift
motivating, stimulating and educating over 10
patrol officers under my supervision. I
established active community oriented policing
concepts and strategies that promoted a
stronger law enforcement / community
relationship. Later leaving the City of Galion
I was hired as the Chief of Police for the City
of Edison, Ohio for the next three years. With
a total of ten years experience in a law
enforcement capacity I changed careers leaping
into the realm of corrections where I am
currently employed at the Marion Juvenile
Correctional Facility and have been since its
inception in 2000.
I have attended
countless continuing educational courses
through the P.A.T.C., Ohio Peace Officers
Training Academy and the Ohio State Highway
Patrol. I currently instruct law enforcement
and correctional courses for the Ohio Peace
Officers Training Academy as well as the Ohio
Department of Youth Services. I am the Law
Enforcement coordinator the Tri-Rivers Public
Safety Adult Education where I coordinate and
conceive continuing educational courses for law
enforcement and correctional officers. I have
established courses on verbal de-escalation,
Criminal behavior analysis, Use of force, and
ground fighting and take down techniques for
law enforcement. I am currently training in
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to further my knowledge and
combative base so that the information and
techniques I instruct are tested and proven to
work. I not only train proven techniques in
the academy, I test them on a daily basis
inside my facility.
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