Imagine equipping every officer and supervisor with a tactical toolkit for unshakeable personal control and professional longevity.
This article is perfect to share with your entire agency, as it outlines how two vital skills, Emotional Intelligence and Gratitude, which can directly lead to smarter de-escalation, stronger team relationships, and a healthier life off-duty.
Emotional Intelligence: The Foundation of Control
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is not about being “nice” or overly emotional; it is about precision and control. It is the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships sensibly and empathetically. This translates directly to tactical advantage and reduced liability.
Using EI on the Street
Mastering these EI components enhances safety and compliance in the field:
1. Self-Awareness
This is the ability to recognize and understand your own moods, emotions, and drives, as well as the effect on others. Understanding what makes you mad is an important key to self-awareness.
The Early Warning System
Learn to identify the physical signs of stress, anger, or fatigue before they dictate your response. This could be a tight jaw, clenched fists, a sudden quickening of breath, or a feeling of tunnel vision.
Tactical Benefit [more…]
When you recognize your stress level, you can stop an emotional takeover. This self-awareness gives you a crucial moment of control to ensure your response remains professional and prevents the scene from escalating.
Self-aware officers maintain a crucial moment of control.
2. Self-Regulation
This is the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods. It is a core skill of de-escalation.
The Tactical Pause, “Take a breath!” [more…]
When faced with verbal abuse, employ a momentary “Tactical Pause.” This could be taking a breath, a step back, or a simple internal count.
The pause allows us to choose our words and actions deliberately rather than reacting. “Take a breath!”
De-escalation Through Mirroring
Use your EI to match a low, steady tone, even when the other person is yelling. This is a powerful tool that helps lower the emotional heightened temperature.
If someone is yelling at you, there’s no need to yell back.
3. Empathy Communication
Empathy is simply reading people. It helps you see past the attitude to the underlying problem, giving you the edge to de-escalate and take control of the situation without unnecessary force
Empathy is Connecting
Empathy is the capacity to connect with others. It’s finding a better way to connect in order to de-escalate the situation.
See the underlying emotional state of the person you are interacting with. That state may be fear, confusion, or even anger. Stop focusing on what the person is doing.
When you understand why they are reacting that way, you gain immediate insight.
Adjust your approach and tone [more…]
This understanding allows you to adjust your approach and tone. It helps address the core issue, which is the fastest way to de-escalation and voluntary compliance while maintaining procedural justice and reducing the need for force.
Using EI in the Agency
- Relationship Management: EI helps officers effectively mediate conflicts between colleagues, especially after a high-stress incident when emotions run high. It means listening actively and validating a partner’s stress without judgment.
- Leadership and Wellness: For supervisors, EI is crucial for recognizing and intervening early when a team member shows signs of burnout, post trauma stress, or operational stress injury. This fosters a supportive culture that reduces attrition and improves overall performance.
Officer Burnout: Holiday Wellness
Trauma can create internal drama and toxic behavior simply because the person is hurting inside. When officers are suffering from PTSD, it can be difficult to get past their own issues.
Gratitude, the practice of being thankful, acts as powerful psychological medicine. It intentionally shifts your focus from the negative events you witness to the reliable, positive foundations of your surroundings.
A. Gratitude on the Street and at Work
By actively practicing gratitude, officers can avoid allowing the worst 1% of the job to define their perception of the other 99%.
- Appreciate the ‘Inner Stuff’: Shift your focus from the chaos of the day to the reliable systems and people that enable you to do your job safely:
- Grateful for the reliable partner who always has your back.
- Appreciation of functioning equipment that ensures officer safety.
- Thankful for dispatchers, records staff, and mechanics who provide often unseen support.
- Recognize Small Wins: Intentional gratitude helps officers recognize the positive impact they do have, often lost in the rush of incident response.
- Example: A successful, peaceful mediation of a domestic dispute; a simple act of community service; a life saved, even if the follow-up paperwork is tedious. These moments, when acknowledged, fuel motivation and purpose.
B. Gratitude at Home
The difficulty officers face is switching off the high-alert, tactical mindset when walking through their front door. Work trauma and stress often “contaminate” the home environment. Gratitude provides a structured way to transition.
The Gratitude Ritual: Implement a small, structured practice to mentally separate work from home during your commute or immediately upon arrival:
The Rule of (3) Wins [more…]
Make it a rule: Three Wins Before Talking Shop. Before discussing the day’s stress, list three things that went well that day—even if they are small or completely unrelated to police work.
This immediate, conscious shift in focus grounds you in the present and allows you to greet your family as a partner or parent, not just a fatigued officer.
Focus on the Home
Intentionally express sincere gratitude to family members for a specific, supportive action, or for the simple comfort and stability of home.
Focus on the stability of your home life, grounding you in the present moment.
C. Huge Psychological Benefits
Consistent gratitude practice has a measurable impact on long-term wellness:
- Improved Sleep Quality: Gratitude reduces stressful events and makes it easier to fall and stay asleep.
- Reduced Stress Hormones: Studies show that grateful people have lower levels of cortisol, the primary stress hormone.
Increased Optimism: Gratitude is a powerful vaccine against the cynicism that can plague the profession, making officers more proactive and less resigned.
Inclusive Buy-In is the key to agency success. Share this with your entire agency, as the vital skills of Emotional Intelligence and Gratitude, improves de-escalation, stronger team relationships, and a healthier life off-duty.
RITE’s cognitive imprint tools help employees improve the professional workplace and accountability.
About RITE
Since 2015, RITE Academy has trained over 2000 police agencies on Emotional Intelligence. RITE Training uses physical cognitive imprinting tools, giving the officer better control of their own emotions in every situation.
RITE Training helps ALL public service professionals. When you learn to control your emotions, you learn to control every situation, and help others that are in need.
Contact us on how to bring RITE to your agency.
