C1 Poll results: What are the most crucial skills a correctional officer should possess?
Law enforcement by nature pushes correctional officers to wear many hats, but which is best?
By C1 Staff
As most correctional officers know, it takes many hats to be a CO. You can be a counselor, a nurse, an accountant, reporter and bouncer all within a single shift.
We asked our C1 Facebook fans to rank these skills most-to-least crucial in the line of law enforcement, and 235 took the challenge. Take a look at the results:
1. The following are proficiencies commonly referenced as skills necessary to be a successful law enforcement officer. Rank them 1-9 (9 being most crucial to the profession).
The above chart shows the total average ranking for each skill. You’ll notice each skill hovers around the 5 mark — meaning there was no single skill a majority of officers thought was most valued in the profession. The biggest outliers, by a hair, were driving/automotive skills, computer technology and medical skills.
More interesting and certainly more opinionated, however, was the next question.
2. Which of these skills do you believe you most excel at?
As you can see, social skills and critical thinking/ problem solving take the cake when it comes to skills most officers feel most confident in saying they excel at. In fact, the other seven skills combined make up only 16.17 percent. It’s no surprise — handling inmates is all about communication, whether it’s de-escalating a fight, getting an inmate to exit a cell peacefully or explaining to medical why your arm is bleeding.
So if your goal is to become a better-rounded officer — it looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you. Better yet, if you’re an aspiring CO, it looks like computer technology might be a great way to make a splash at the agency.