New Police Recruits Take Part In Communication Relations Training

There are 154 sworn in officers on the Duluth Police Department.

DULUTH, Minn. – For law enforcement officers having the right training is a part of the job.

Fifteen of Duluth’s newly recruited police officers are learning what it takes to build stronger relationships within the community thanks to some unique lessons.

These officers are part of a type of training that goes beyond the squad car and flashing lights and focuses on communication.

“We do a lot of in the moment coaching,” said Dale Carnegie Corporate Trainer Roz Randorf. “We’re going to be training on some skills: how to have deeper conversations with people, remembering names, really creating a vision for themselves as far as the officers, they want to be and really working on those.”

The 15 new recruits and five command officers are going through Dale Carnegie Training.

It’s a Global Peace Officer Development Course that focuses on communication skills.

“A lot of that is dealing with talking to people, getting to know people, diffusing situations and those are all human relations principles. So really at the end of this they’re going to have a deeper sense of that core skill set,” said Randorf. “The one that probably 99 percent of the time they’re going to be using to be able to protect and serve the community at the best level they can.”

Officers are practicing basic skills such as listening.

New recruits will apply this training when they’re out on the street and another goal is to help current officers do their job better.

“A key part of our profession is communication, it’s a skill set that as police officers we need to have to communicate with people in the public, how to help them resolve issues,” Duluth Police Department Officer Mike Jambor. “To explain maybe why we do the things we do and it’s a key part of this profession having effective relationship building and problem solving.”

The course is designed to give officers new skills they haven’t learned previously in their careers.

“One of the best tools that we have as police officers is our ability to talk with people, communicate and use words and effective communication to solve problems,” said Jambor. “It doesn’t always have to be about tactical things and use of force. Because so much of what we do on a daily basis is having simple conversations with people.”

The second day of the two day customized program happens Jan. 31.