Getting used to wearing our uniforms in class
Everyone at full attention in uniform during class
Along with receiving the privilege of wearing our uniforms comes the responsibility of caring for our uniforms and making sure they look good on us. We have talked a lot about command presence, which basically means that our presence including the way we look will have a huge effect on how society perceives us. Sgt. B brought up the example that if a cop looks sloppy, people are going to think that he or she does a sloppy job. Because of this, it is very likely that this cop will not be relied upon by the public or respected. We were told how to clean and iron our uniforms and keep them looking sharp so that we will have command presence right out of the gate. With this, we had our first uniform inspection and will continue to do it periodically.
After our uniform inspection, we could finally breathe sighs of relief
We completed another exciting week of training that included a class about using effective verbal techniques while enforcing laws. The awesome instructor who took time away from her job with the Colorado State Patrol taught us that our goal is to gain voluntary compliance from people we will come in contact with and she showed us how to do this. We also had a cool class about arrest control and the different techniques and levels of force to use during an arrest. I think we all look forward to getting cuffs on our classmates once we get into the hands-on training of this. We have also received some firearms classroom training and are itching to get out on the range. We continue to build foundations in the classroom and will soon develop our skills to add to them. Together these will prepare us for the real world.
