By John E. Reid & Associates

What is Mirroring?

Recently I was talking to one of my sons about a possible location to spend our spring vacation. My left hand was in my pocket and I was illustrating with my right hand. My left foot was slightly extended. As my son listened to my ideas and discussed possible activities, his right hand went into his pocket, he illustrated with his left hand and his right foot was extended slightly toward me. His comments and facial expressions appeared positive, but his posture left no doubt that he agreed with the vacation plans, for his posture mirrored my own. Mirroring refers to the tendency of two people to reflect each other's posture when they are relating well to each other or are in agreement.

The opposite phenomenon is also true. When two people disagree or are emotionally distant they often assume different postures. Consider the traffic stop where the driver is asked to step out of the vehicle and talk to the police officer. The officer may stand frontally aligned with the driver with his hands exposed using occasional illustrators. The driver may cross his arms and orient his body away from the officer. These non-congruent postures should alert the officer that the driver may not be accepting the premise for the stop or may be otherwise non-cooperative.

The explanation for mirroring may relate to the fact that a person's posture represents the foundation for other nonverbal communication. An individual's posture reflects their interest level, emotional involvement and confidence. When expressing thoughts, ideas or feelings the one person who will surely accept them is a reflected image of that same person. To say this another way, when we have a conversation with a mirror, the mirror will always agree with our position.

Use of Mirroring During an Interview

During an interview, the investigator should be aware of his own posture and assess whether the suspect's posture is mirroring his own, which would generally support openness and candor. For example, if the investigator is sitting with his right leg crossed over his left leg at the knee and he is leaning slightly to the left, it would be an indication of sincerity if the suspect eventually crossed his left leg over his right and leaned slightly to the right. To test this assessment, the investigator may assume a new posture, for example placing both feet on the floor and leaning slightly back in the chair. If the suspect eventually assumes the mirrored posture, it further supports the opinion that the suspect is being forthright.

Another technique to assess mirroring during an interview is for the investigator to mirror the suspect's posture. In fact, therapists teach the technique of consciously mirroring another person's posture to better relate to that person's feelings and orientation. If a suspect is sitting upright in the chair with one foot extended in front of the other, the investigator could assume the mirrored posture. One of two things will happen. The suspect, if truthful, will be comfortable with the mirrored posture and may start to open up and offer more meaningful information. A deceptive suspect, on the other hand, is likely to experience anxiety when the investigator mirrors his posture and may switch to a new posture.

A caveat is required here which is that if a suspect exhibits a posture reflecting aggression (forward lean, arms crossed or threatening gestures toward the investigator) mirroring this posture is likely to result in an escalation of aggression by the suspect. This is obviously an undesirable situation in an arrest, interview or interrogation. Under this circumstance we teach investigators to act in an opposite manner from the suspect. If the suspect is yelling, the investigator should talk slower and at a conversational level; if the suspect extends his hand toward the investigator in a threatening manner, the investigator should extend one or both arms with the palms exposed upward. In other words, to maintain control of the situation, the investigator must not fuel it by mirroring the suspect's aggressive behavior.

Use of Mirroring During an Interrogation

The primary benefit of mirroring occurs during an interrogation. During early stages of an interrogation the investigator's posture should reflect confidence. That is, he should have his feet flat on the floor, his hands should be extended and there should be a forward lean to his body. This is necessary to respond to the suspect's early denials. However, as the interrogation continues and the suspect starts to mentally debate whether to tell the truth, the investigator should assume the confession posture. That is, he should break gaze down toward the floor, and go into a head and body slump. The guilty suspect, who wants to talk about the circumstances of his crime, will often mirror the investigator's posture and also assume a head and body slump. Once the suspect is in this posture he should be asked an alternative question to elicit the first admission of guilt.

After a suspect has accepted the alternative question, the investigator now needs to bring him back into the conversation to elicit the full confession. Most suspects are reluctant to discuss the details of their crime. This task is rendered much easier if the investigator mirrors the suspect's posture at this stage of the interrogation. Often the suspect will have a forward lean to the body, exhibit very little eye contact and may have hand contact with the face. The investigator who sits up erect in the chair, grabs and pen and paper and, while looking directly at the suspect, says, "Okay, tell me what happened" is apt to get a sketchy account of the crime. On the other hand, if the investigator mirrors the suspect's posture, perhaps by placing his left hand over his eyes, assuming a slight forward lean in the chair and directing his eye contact primarily to the floor the same question is bound to elicit a much more forthright account of the crime.

In conclusion, because mirroring occurs at a preconscious level, it serves as a valuable behavior symptom to assess a suspect's candor during an interview and also as a procedure to allow a suspect to feel more comfortable telling the truth during an interrogation. This principle applies not only with criminal suspects, but in everyday interpersonal communication. The next time you find yourself in disagreement with another person, mirror their posture and there will be a tendency (on both your parts) to seek agreement. An easier task is to observe two conversing individuals. If there is general agreement between the two, their mirrored postures will reflect this.

Credit and Permission Statement: This Investigator Tip was developed by John E. Reid and Associates Inc. Permission is hereby granted to those who wish to share or copy the article. For additional 'tips' visit www.reid.com; select 'Educational Information' and 'Investigator Tip'. Inquiries regarding Investigator Tips should be directed to Janet Finnerty johnreid@htc.net. For more information regarding Reid seminars and training products, contact John E. Reid and Associates, Inc. at 800-255-5747 or www.reid.com.

  

by Stuart Singer

No matter where you are in life or where the people who matter the most to you are in their lives a financial planner can provide you with a broad range of financial planning services that can address your current and future needs and goals. Saving for college. Saving for a home. Starting a business. Preparing for retirement. Planning for the transfer of wealth. Whether it is to-day or tomorrow, for you or your loved ones, whatever is important to you is important to your financial planner.

 

The Financial Planning Process: Getting To Know You – and Your Needs

Whatever is important to you is important to your financial plan—your family, home, children‘s education, job and more. Understanding your finances is one part of the financial planning process. Understanding you is the most crucial. Your financial planner should take into consideration all of the aspects of your life to help you effectively plan to meet current needs while staying focused on your future objectives.

Comprehensive Financial Plan Development – Allows you to develop an overall portrait of yourself as an individual and an investor which will be used to create a financial plan and strategy suitable for your present and future goals.

Wealth Management – Helps you to achieve your financial goals without sacrificing your lifestyle or posing undue risks to your investment assets.

Retirement Planning – Lets you define your retirement goals, learn about plan options and develop a strategy to help ensure a comfortable retirement.

Income Planning – Allows you to create a plan that will provide you with a regular stream of retirement income, manage the distribution of your hard-earned savings and help to avoid outliving your assets by continuing to grow your money during retirement.

Cash Flow Planning – Gives you the ability to determine where your money is currently allocated to uncover greater savings and tax opportunities.

Education Planning – Helps you identify your educational costs and considerations and develop a plan to fund these expenses without compromising your existing lifestyle.

Insurance Review Risk Planning – Assists you in protecting your family and resources by determining the amount of insurance protection and/or long-term medical care you need in the event of illness, injury, disability or death—or against property loss.

Estate Planning – Ensures that your wealth will be transferred according to your wishes and in a timely manner, with mini-mum tax implications to your heirs.

Business Succession Planning – Helps you to identify goals, strategies and actions to safeguard the survival and growth of your business in the event of your untimely death, disability or retirement.

Financial Planning – Five Steps to Your Future

This five-step process allows your financial planner to help you express your needs so you can best address them together.

Research

The first step in setting the course to your financial future is to help you to identify and prioritize your goals, both short- and long-term. Financial planners also consider a number of other factors, such as investment time horizon and risk tolerance. Next, you will take an inventory‘ of your financial resources, including all of your assets, liabilities, sources of income and other pertinent financial items.

Your goals may include:

 

· Preparing for retirement

 

· Education planning

 

· Wealth accumulation

 

· Wealth preservation

 

Analysis

With your goals in hand, your financial planner can analyze and evaluate your cur-rent financial resources and situation, such as investment cash flow, net worth, insurance policies and tax projections. He or she will use this information to determine any areas at issue or of concern, identify opportunities, and develop a plan to help you reach your goals.

This assessment incorporates your future income and investment needs while seeking to potentially reduce your exposure to risk and the impact of taxation. Your planner can assist with, among others, the following areas:

 

· Investments

 

· Employee benefits

 

· Retirement income planning

 

· Estate planning

 

· Retirement planning

 

· Insurance

 

· Special needs, such as caring for a parent or a child‘s educational needs

 

Recommendations

After identifying and evaluating your current financial situation, your financial planner will then design a plan for you that will include a number of specific recommendations, along with prudent alternatives and their benefits and risks. Your goal is to create a plan that is positioned to achieve your objectives with the least amount of potential risk associated with the markets, liabilities and taxes.

Implementation

Once agreed upon by you, your planner can help you to coordinate and implement your financial plan. Implementation can involve a variety of actions depending on the scope and complexity of your plan and may require that you reposition assets, implement certain charitable giving strategies, create trusts or even a foundation to accomplish your estate planning goals. Typically, adjustments are made only after consultation with you, to ensure that that your progress keeps in line with your needs and objectives.

 

Your financial planner can work closely with your existing network of other professionals (or make recommendations, should you need them), including attorneys and accountants, who can assist with the implementation of your plan. This coordination helps to ensure that all documents, services and products related to your plan will be consistent with your objectives and goals.

Managing and Monitoring

It is an unavoidable reality: the markets, your goals and your life all change. Whether it is your priorities or your investments, one, the other, or both may need to be adjusted over time to react to or take advantage of change. To this end, you should continually manage and monitor your plan‘s progress towards your goals. This includes regularly reviewing your current situation, updating the financial plan and implementing any adjustments, if needed, as your life and circumstances change. ILEETA

 

About the Author: Stuart Singer earned his MBA from Tulane University, and is an Ac-credited Wealth Management Advisor.

How much training should law enforcements receive in addition to basic police related skills? In recent years additional training in cultural diversity, anti-terrorism, responding to major terrorist attacks, dealing with weapons of mass destruction have been added. But the question looms, just how much training is enough? Protecting lives is the top priority. Officers need to protect their lives, the lives of other officers, the lives of crime victims and the general public, and even the lives of assailants. Most officers are not EMT‘s or paramedics, but they will probably reach the victims of gunshot wounds before an ambulance can arrive at the scene and treat any victims. So, it seems reasonable for officers to receive added basic emergency medical training in the treatment of gunshot wounds. This training would stabilize wounds until traditional EMS responders arrived on the scene. Consider a July 1, 2008, shooting incident when Wichita, Kansas Police Officer Derek Purcell almost died after being shot once in each leg with a 9 mm round. Normally, a leg wound isn‘t fatal, but this wasn‘t normally. Officer Purcell‘s wound to the right leg hit his femoral artery, which caused profuse bleeding. Unless the bleeding stopped, Purcell would bleed out and die within minutes. Luckily for Officer Purcell, Officer Brad Crouch quickly responded to Purcell‘s radio call for help. Officer Crouch was a US Army Special Forces Medic for nine years, and after looking at Purcell‘s wound, Crouch knew that immediate action was needed and he applied direct pressure to the wound while applying a tourniquet with Purcell‘s pants belt. The tourniquet slowed the bleeding just enough until an EMS crew arrived in their ambulance. EMS staff re-placed the makeshift tourniquet with a direct pressure bandage.

 

The use of a tourniquet has taken a bad rap in recent years, such as causing an unnecessary loss of an extremity. Chief Jeff Chudwin of the Olympia Fields, IL Police Department and President of the Illinois Tactical Officers Association, offers, Tourniquets have been a source of mystery and fear. In our early days we were told that the use of a tourniquet would mean the loss of the limb. While our Docs caution that a ligature type made from a boot lace may indeed severely damage the limb, with current models that are an inch or more wide they tell us such danger is greatly reduced or eliminated. The proper application of a tourniquet can and has saved many lives both overseas and at home. Further, they explain that a tourniquet can stay in place for several hours. The Wichita officer, saved by another officer, had but a few short minutes to live in the absence of the tourniquet. A small item that fits the pocket, the tourniquet is a must have life saver.The use of the tourniquet may have save Officer Purcell‘s life. "I don't think anybody else on scene, or very few in the whole department, would have had his knowledge and ability to assess it that quickly and start treatment," Officer Travis Easter said of Officer Crouch. "I mean, it was just seconds." Senior Police Officer Eric Dickinson of the Vinton, Iowa Police Department, a certified EMT – Intermediate, states, officers should be trained in the treatment of gunshot wounds. It only makes sense given the possibility of not only a felonious assault, but also in case of an unintended discharge or training accident. Sadly, it has been my experience that even many EMS providers are not up to speed on the treatment of gunshot wounds, unless they have experience in regularly violent jurisdictions or in combat. The training needs to cover a wider variety of possible injuries, besides gunshots.

 

Assembling a “Blow Out Kit”

 

Basic Items

1-Compression Dressing ($5-6)

1-Pair of Trauma Shears ($6-8)

2-Pairs of Nitrile gloves

1-Sharpie marker (prefer a mini-Sharpie)

1-small Ziploc bag

1-Tactical Tourniquet ($18-25)

8-Strips of 2‖ or 3‖ Tape (100 mile an hour, duct, or equivalent)

1-Roll of Paper Masking Tape

Advanced Items

2-14 Gauge Angiocath Needles (3‖ or greater in length)

1-Size 28 Nasopharyngeal Airway (NPA)

Hemostatic Agent (Celox or QuikClot)

 

Basic police recruit training programs train officers in a number of different EMS focused programs that can include CPR, basic first aid, an expanded 40-hour first responder‖ training program and recently, in the operation of various portable defibrillators. Although initially trained and certified in these EMS different programs, some agencies fail to recertify the officers. The reasons range from it‘s too costly‖ to EMT‘s don‘t do police work, and we shouldn‘t do EMT work.

So, if an agency wants to include additional training in gunshot wound treatment, what should that training program contain? Dr. Fabrice Czarnecki, from Maryland, states, Bleeding control is the main issue of first aid. The other important element is how (police car vs. EMS) and where (any ER vs. trauma center) to transport casualties. All officers need that training. SWAT, warrant service and firearms instructors may need even more training. 4 to 8 hours of training would be fine for most officers. I think that this is up to each law enforcement agency, or maybe a state‘s POST commission to set the course content. There is no national standard.

 

SWAT officers have a greater chance of losing their lives in training or by friendly fire‖ than by being shot by an assailant, according to research conducted by a Maryland based company, OpTac International, from 2004 to 2008 (www.optacinter national.com). OpTac‘s research shows that suspects killed a total five officers during that 5-year stretch, while accidents and friendly fire‖ killed 12 officers. Perhaps improved safety equipment, relevant safety protocols and EMS training could have reduced both categories of deaths, but especially the non assailant deaths. The FBI understands the importance of having trained medical staff available in critical incidents. According to FBI information, Our Emergency Medical Support Program, headed by Dr. William Fabbri, was launched in the wake of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa. Explains Dr. Fabbri, After that investigation, we realized

that our teams of people working in austere medical environments were at risk. And because operational deployments include a limited number of personnel—situations where even one minor injury or temporary illness could impact our mission we began including FBI medics on our deployment teams.

Today, over 250 special agent medics around the country are fully qualified as emergency medical specialists. These FBI medics support crisis response efforts, special operations, and terrorism and high-risk investigations in the United States and abroad. Their patients are not just FBI employee, for example, FBI medics will render treatment to subjects and civilians involved in a hostage situation where it‘s not safe for local emergency workers to enter the scene.

Having specially trained law enforcement medics has some advantages. Trooper Mark Robbins of the Massachusetts State Police offers, In this newer violent world officers are more apt to be forced to engage an opponent in gun fire or respond to a situation where rounds have been exchanged. With this in mind EMS providers, unlike police officers, are not so willing to rush in to this violent encounter. This only leaves us to start the first aid to save our lives or the lives of our friends, colleagues and the victims.

Chuck Soltys, DEA Special Agent, is a Tactical Emergency Medical Technician (EMT-T), who believes that officers should receive special training. SA Soltys states, Training in the area of Self Care and Buddy Care has long been overlooked in basic law enforcement academy curriculums as well as in-service programs. If you or fellow officers are seriously injured during a hostile at-tack on the street, for an unspecified amount of time, you are on your own! Even the best intentioned EMTs and paramedics will likely not be permitted to come to your aid until the threat has been eliminated. That time lapse could be the difference between life and death. The steps that need to be taken to ensure your survival are simple. But, you must have the training and equipment necessary to accomplish this available when something bad happens.

SA Soltys stresses, You must be men-tally prepared to come out of a critical incident with a life worth living, not mere survival where your quality of life has been irreparably damaged. Training and preparing to prevail and not merely survive is a responsibility that falls squarely on each of us. SA Chuck Soltys recommends, Assembling your own Blow Out Kit (a term used by the US Military) is relatively simple and inexpensive, and should include (as a minimum) all of the items necessary to treat life threatening injuries caused by penetrating trauma such as gunshot or stab wounds. Clearly, proper medical treatment of gunshot wounds proves that, The life you save may be your own!

< < jump to the policetraining.net home page