Heather (Veteran Police Officer)

I was so impressed by him.

You know, over the past maybe five or six years, I've really dug into understanding the why behind what motivates everybody, mostly because I needed my own why to define who I was and really motivate me beyond where I was.

And so when I

conduct an interview or an interrogation, regardless of what it is, whether or not it's hiring somebody at my agency or meeting a victim that's a crime or interviewing somebody who might be a suspect of a crime.

When you make that connection with them, it makes it easier for them to open up regardless.

And I don't think it was intentional in the way that I did it.

I just read him really well.

And he allowed a vulnerability to come through and he opened up certain aspects of his story that I was able to capitalize on and utilize to really just...

analyze who he was and what he was doing and the why behind it.

You know, you can play words all you want, but words do matter.

And so when he made certain comments and regardless of the way that he manipulated the words, I was able to manipulate them right back to prove my point.

And I think that's why we had such a good exchange because it was the two of us really caring about the other person and not trying to be derogatory and still trying to hear the other person while understanding like your meaning of power and influence might be different than mine.

I think the most frustrating part for me in law enforcement and what's happened over the last couple of years is being lumped into the few bad situations that are reported and incidents.

And

I do believe that there's a rhetoric out there about who we are and what we do that is just not factual.

So I've been really lucky to work for agencies that allow us to go into the community and build those relationships before it becomes an issue.

I think enhanced relationships are one of the key aspects to having a positive community and law enforcement relationship.

Policing should encompass more things than just

holding people accountable under the law.

It should be about making people feel safe, psychologically and physically safe.