Verbal Judo

Published 11:48 pm Wednesday, August 6, 2008

You can attract more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.

That saying, probably heard from your grandmother, is a metaphor implying if you are nice to people, the results may be much better than if you are rude to them. In the case of how police officers do their jobs, being nice is the growing trend in how best to interact with the public.

“The emphasis of the type of training many law enforcement agencies are receiving now is on how best to cut down on confrontations,” said Meridian Police Department Chief Benny DuBose Wednesday morning. “It is an issue of safety both for the officer and the citizen he is dealing with.”

The public outcry that followed the 1995 Rodney King beating by members of the Los Angeles Police Department in many ways has led to law enforcement agencies seeking more refined, less forceful training for their officers. Hence, the development of this type of police officer training.

Verbal Judo is a tactical communication training course. Dr. George Thompson Ph.D. is the President and Founder of the Verbal Judo Institute. He has applied his diverse experience, including 10 years as an English professor, as well as five years as a police officer, to create an internationally recognized training program in Tactical Communication.

The training sessions this week at the City of Meridian Public Safety Training Facility on Sandlot Road has been led by Lee Fjelstad, vice-president of the institute. An international trainer with a professional background that includes more than 18 years of speaking and training experience, Fjelstad has instructed audiences on Verbal Judo in the United States, Canada, Scandavia, the Caribbean, and England. Fjelstad said the goal of the training is to reach a point of voluntary compliance where the people involved actually work with the officer so the incident comes to a peaceful conclusion.

“Police officers don’t receive extensive training on how to verbally deal with many situations,” said Fjelstad. “The verbal skills taught with this program are designed so the officer leaves the situation in better shape than before he arrived.”

Young police officers straight out of the academy quickly find themselves in situations where they have to be multi-faceted. They must be social workers, marriage counselors, psychologists, enforcers of the law and much more. And as any situation has the potential to expand into something much more, the conflict resolution training has built into it a compliance continuum section that goes from verbal to physical responses. But if the correct verbal strategy is employed the majority of situations can be diffused.

A wide variety of situations are covered including traffic stops, how to interact with citizens in various street situations, and confrontations. It includes people skills, conflict resolution, aspects of psychology and communications strategy.

DuBose said this training is now mandatory for all officers of the MPD.

The training sessions were sponsored by the MPD and was made available to local law enforcement agencies.



Training goals

• Goals of Verbal Judo: The course has precisely defined training goals that address concerns of importance, both to administration and to individual street officers.

• Safety: Officers use words to prevent confrontations from becoming violent situations, reducing the potential injury to officers and citizens.

• Enhanced Professionalism: Officers recognize the impact their words have on the public and use language appropriate to each encounter. Officers perform well before the audiences they encounter, thus creating a positive community attitude.

• Reduced Vicarious Liability: Officers who handle citizen encounters skillfully and professionally are less likely to generate complaints and lawsuits. Officers trained in Verbal Judo will be able to describe their reasoning and explain their actions according to professional principles.