My husband and I, both police officers, love to people watch. It's easy enough to recognize a working cop, but he and I can even spot an off-duty cop a mile away. The way they walk, stand, sit, and talk. The way they observe their surroundings.
Next time you see a group of cops walking together, take a good, hard look at them. Ignore their uniforms and really look at the person inside. They may be of different sizes, shapes, or colors, but there's that undefinable something, above and beyond the uniforms, that makes them resemble each other. It's hard to put a finger on, but you can't miss it. It's how they look and how they act. It's who they are and what they do. It becomes so ingrained, the officers do it off duty as well as on.
So what exactly is it? What causes a cop to move and act in a certain way both on duty and off? It all boils down to one thing: officer safety.
Officer safety--going home at night--is the police officer's number one goal, way over and above serving and protecting (sorry to disappoint). Officers learn behaviors and mindsets to help them stay alive. Soon they become second nature. Understanding the motivations behind your police characters' actions will make them infinitely more realistic and increase your credibility with your readers.
Command Presence.
Command presence is acting, appearing, being calm, cool, professional and in control regardless of whether you feel calm, cool, and in control. It is our first and omnipresent level of force in a situation. An officer's air of confidence can mean the difference between being challenged or not being challenged. Command presence is taught from day one in the police academy. You must hold your head high, back straight, feet wide. Look people in the eye and speak in a strong voice. Walk with a purposeful stride. Wear clean, pressed uniforms, keep your weapon belt and shoes clean and shined. Command presence is the first step in keeping an officer alive. After awhile, it becomes automatic to look as though you control the world. Your police characters must display some command presence both on duty and off. Remember, however, that showing a police character without command presence could symbolize a lot of different things...
Stance.
There's a lot behind the way an officers stand. Legs wide with one foot back, chest out, arms out and hands free. Do we stand that way just to look cocky? No! Try pushing a person down who's standing with her feet together and then with her feet apart. A wide stance provides infinitely better balance and stability. And when it comes to a fight, balance is the name of the game.
Start observing police officers, and notice, when they stand, which foot is always back. It's the gun side foot. Cops are 100 percent aware of their guns at all times. We keep our gun sides back and away from people. If we walk through a crowd, our elbows are pressed against our weapons. Why? If an officer's weapon is taken from him/her, chances are he/she will be killed with it. Cops know that. We live with it. And many of our movements are in protection of that gun. That's also why our hands, at least our weapon hand, is kept free at all times. We have to be ready to draw.
One thing an officer avoids is squaring off with someone, toe to toe. We are taught to stand "quarter to quarter." That means our left shoulder facing their left shoulder. It provides additional balance in a fight.
Personal Space.
Reaction time can kill you or keep you alive. In order to have more reaction time, you have to stand back. Americans generally require more personal space than many other cultures, and cops need even more. (This goes back to the gun retention issue again.) If you get right up in someone's face, it's more difficult to be aware of your surroundings, and it limits your reaction time.
Cops stand back. Even touchy-feely cops stand back.
I can sense when someone crosses into my "safety zone," off- duty or on, and I am immediately aware and on guard. That intuitive reaction is something to keep in mind when writing about a cop. It can have some interesting effects on intimacy...
Eye Contact.
Police officers focus on what can hurt or kill them. Eyes can't pull a trigger, but hands can and often do. A cop will focus on the hands and center of the body, and this, again, is a safety issue. An officer won't stare intently at someone, usually, but will scan the surroundings. He or she tries to anticipate areas of possible threat. This lack of eye contact is often interpreted as apathy or attributed to the officer not paying attention. Not so. When I'm in contact with a person, I am listening to them, to my radio, to the sounds around me, and at the same time watching them and the surrounding area. This is a vital skill for a police officer who wants to stay alive.
Approaching a building.
A cop will (or should) always park a house or two from his or her destination. We don't want to announce our arrival. More than a few officers have been killed by a bad guy lying in wait at the house/building/business they've been dispatched to.
Along those same lines, the officer will walk through the grass rather than up the walk to approach the house and will avoid walking in front of windows.
When knocking on doors, we always stand to the side of the door rather than in front of it, because we don't know what might be on the other side. If two officers are responding, one will be adjacent to the door, and the other will stand back on the opposite side to get a clear view inside when the door opens. This is a major area that carries over to the rest of a cop's life. (I find myself standing to the side of my Mom's front door!)
While walking around or inside buildings, officers will avoid blindly turning a corner. Rather, we stop just short of the corner, peek around quickly, and proceed only if clear. And if it's dark, we use our flashlights in quick spurts so as to keep our positions hidden. This applies to chasing people around buildings as well. Who's to say the bad guy won't turn the corner and then wait for the officer to follow?
BANG!!! You get the picture.
Approaching Persons.
In general, cops would rather have a person approach them. For example on a traffic stop, if we have wanted people or a dangerous or unknown situation, we would stay behind the safety of our car door and emergency lights and call the person back to us. The person moving is the most vulnerable person. We try not to be that vulnerable person. There are times when calling a person to us is impractical, and then we must simply assume the risk.
The more persons an officer contacts, the farther away he or she will stand. We never, ever, ever, want to get surrounded. On a related note, if two or more officers contact a person, one officer will stand quarter to quarter to him while the other officers surround him while constantly shifting. The more off balance we can keep the person, the safer we will be. And if there's ever a time when we feel off balance, protocol is to back off and wait for cover. No sense being a hero if you're going to be a dead hero.
Compassion and Trust or the Lack Thereof...
Yes, it's true. Police officers have a distinct lack of trust. Cops who have too much trust in people and situations get hurt. If we believed everything we were told, then there would be no drunk drivers, no domestic violence, and everyone in the world would be innocent.
Here's the hard fact: People lie to the police. Every day, 365 days a year, year in and year out. We learn to be skeptical and wary. We second guess everything. That carries over into our daily lives as well.
Police officers always want their back against a wall. On duty or off, we will sit against the wall and facing the door in a restaurant. (My husband and I always struggle to get that seat of safety when we go out to eat.) When we park to write reports, we back against something or park in the middle of a huge, empty parking lot.
Trust is something you can really play with when developing your police characters. Cops who have been victimized in some way often have exaggerated trust issues. And cops who have a Pollyanna attitude.....well, I'll leave the writing to you.
What is often described as police officer's lack of compassion is really a single-minded task orientation combined with the absolute emotional need to stay detached. We have a specific job to do, and becoming too emotionally involved isn't conducive to getting it done. That's why we have victims' advocates. They are experts in hand-holding and providing comfort and emotional support. They take the pressure off of us so we can get the job done.
By the same token, a cop who got emotionally wound up in every trauma, every tragedy, every victim would last about six months. Yes, we joke about crimes and victims. Yes, we laugh at trauma. We poke fun at criminals and minimalize death.
It's called coping.
That doesn't mean we don't cry when we get home or never forget a name or a face. We do. We're human. But reducing something horrid to it's most comical elements lessens the blow. Above all else in your writing about police officers and detectives, remember that we are first and foremost, human beings.
Originally printed in Romance In The Rockies, May '95 issue.
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