Elements and Performance Criteria

Situations cover all taskings undertaken by officers, whether reactive or proactive patrolling, undertaking station duties, etc and relate to circumstances in which the officer is in contact with other persons. Such processes may include
face to face
single or groups - with public
suspects
criminals
fellow officers
victims
giving and/or receiving instructions and lawful direction
responding to inquiries
providing verbal reports or seeking information
interviewing persons

Body language may include
the non-verbal characteristics exhibited by each person in response to the presence of police officers or lawful instruction given by such officers. Such characteristics may represent positive compliant behaviour or a negative non-cooperative/aggressive response

A full range of human characteristics/factors that impact on the communication process may include
Gender
Ethnicity
Aboriginality
Age
geographic and demographic impacts
health and physical capacity
self image
personality
family situation/security
peer group pressures
previous experiences/encounters with police/other authorities
impacts of alcohol and legal (recreational and prescription) and illegal drugs

Problem areas for resolution may include
workplace grievance situations
workplace disputes, workplace complaints
domestic disputes, serving summons/orders
disruptive public behaviour
disputes at traffic accident sites
disputes over procedural issues, eg: rallies, demonstrations, processing/charging persons
arrest scenes
crime scenes
life threatening situations, (eg family hostage situations, confrontations with armed persons)
controlling crowds

De-escalation means
reducing a situation to a point where the issue is reduced to a controllable level and the risk to life or property is minimised

Relevant solutions, depending on the actual situation, may include the use of one or more techniques such as
the issuing of lawful instruction/direction
employment of de-escalation processes
the 'use of force' and/or 'use of lethal force'
arresting, cautioning, reporting and detaining
accessing further assistance from either fellow officers/other emergency service/community support agencies victim's/suspect's relations and/or friends
provision of on-the-spot counselling
The development of appropriate response strategies should also take into account the needs and characteristic of factors such as age, gender, cultural/social background

External agencies may include both government and non-government counselling, mediation and support agencies, such as
Dept of Community Services
Local church counselling centres
Ethnic advisory services
Aboriginal liaison centres
Women's refuges
Crisis and sexual assault referral centres
Child Protection agencies
Dept of Health and associated disability support groups, and
Internal police support and counselling services
Negotiation can take place with supervisors, colleagues and members of the public

Interpersonal skills may include
Empathy
fairness
appropriate language
recognition and professional response to cultural diversity

Meetings may include
Formal, informal, pre-planned, and involve functional area/authority personnel, and may be for:
occupational health and safety
operational planning
operations assessment/debriefings

Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate competency in this unit
It is essential for this unit that competence be demonstrated in the ability to effectively interact and communicate with colleagues and clients
Consistency in performance
Evidence of competence will need to be gathered over time and from across a range of actual workplace or simulated situations

Context of and specific resources for assessment
Context of assessment
Evidence should be gathered over a period of time in a range of actual or simulated workplace environments
Specific resources for assessment
No special requirements

Guidance information for assessment
Information that will assist or guide assessment will be written during Phase II of the Review of the PUA00 Public Safety Training Package.