What skills do police officers need?

AnalysisThe picture most people bring to this question comes from fiction, which selects for the rarest parts of the job because they are the most dramatic. Someone deciding whether the work suits them is better served by knowing what it consists of most of the time.

Start with the curriculum. In the 2022 United States census, criminal and constitutional law, traffic law and juvenile justice law together averaged 87 hours against 73 for firearms skills and 64 for defensive tactics, and over 97% of recruits received legal instruction. The largest single block of measured instruction is about what the law permits.

The professional standards point the same way. The United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials provides that officials perform the duty imposed on them by law, and that force may be used only to the extent required for the performance of their duty. A standard framed in terms of necessity and limits describes a role in which judgement, not capability, is the operative professional quality.

Communication

The skill used most and taught least visibly. Explaining, questioning, calming, and being understood by people who are frightened, angry, unwell or unwilling. Most incidents are resolved through it, and every incident begins with it.

Judgement against a legal threshold

Deciding whether the conditions for an action are met, on the information available, in the time available. The census figures show this is where measured training time concentrates.

Observation and recall

Noticing what is present, what is absent and what changed — and being able to account for it accurately weeks later, in a form that can be tested.

Written accuracy

The record is the durable output of most police work. It is read by supervisors, prosecutors, defence lawyers and courts, months afterwards, by people who were not there. A record that cannot be followed damages a case and the officer’s credibility.

Teamwork and handover

Incidents pass between shifts and units. Work that is not handed over accurately is work partially lost.

Emotional steadiness

Continuing to behave professionally when the other person is not, and continuing to function across repeated exposure to distress. This is a professional requirement rather than a personal virtue.

Physical readiness

Real, and one component among several. Health and fitness averaged 56 hours in the 2022 census — less than legal instruction. See physical readiness in policing careers.

• Common belief: Policing is mainly a physical job.

  In practice: In the 2022 United States census, health and fitness averaged 56 hours while legal subjects together averaged 87, and over 97% of recruits received legal instruction.

• Common belief: Communication is a soft skill, secondary to the real work.

  In practice: Most incidents are resolved through it and every incident begins with it. International standards frame the role in terms of necessity and limits, which is a judgement-and-communication description of the work.

• Common belief: Writing is paperwork, separate from the job.

  In practice: The record is the durable output of most police work and is relied on by prosecutors, defence lawyers and courts months later, by people who were not present.

• Common belief: These skills are the same as what employers test for.

  In practice: No selection process was researched. This page reasons from a published curriculum and international standards, not from any employer’s assessment framework.

• Common belief: Skills lists like this apply to every police service.

  In practice: The curriculum evidence is United States state and local academies in 2022. The standards are international instruments. Neither establishes what any particular service requires.

Measured instruction time, United States state and local academies, 2022, as an indication of emphasis.

• Legal subjects combined — 87 average hours, delivered to over 97% of recruits.
• Firearms skills — 73 average hours.
• Defensive tactics — 64 average hours.
• Health and fitness — 56 average hours.
• Community-related topics — delivered to over 80% of recruits.

AnalysisEvery skill here is also a safeguard. Accurate records make review possible; judgement against a legal threshold is what keeps a power inside its limits; communication is what most often makes force unnecessary. The professional qualities and the protections are the same list read twice.

• No official competency framework for any country was researched. This page reasons from a published curriculum and from international professional standards, and says so where it is reasoning rather than reporting.
• The hour figures are United States state and local academies, 2022, and support a claim about that curriculum only.
• Nothing here should be read as a list of what any employer assesses. Selection processes were not researched.

Related: what police recruits are taught, working life in policing, and the patrol officer role. The means of making the record is issued equipment too: see documentation equipment in policing.