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The Nonverbal Behavior and Appearance of Police Officers in the Police Service

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Police Conflict Management, Volume I

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Abstract

In police operations, nonverbal communication, including police officers’ appearance, is omnipresent and manifold. Indeed, nonverbal behavior includes facial cues (eye movements, facial expressions), vocal features, body movements, gestures and postures, proximity and touch. Additionally, police officers’ physical appearance (uniform, weapons, body modifications and body accessories) seems to play a crucial role. Moreover, environmental and contextual factors may moderate the effects of nonverbal cues. In this chapter, the authors present the most actual and relevant research on nonverbal signals in the police service. Based on a systematic literature review, they focus on both current theoretical approaches and empirical findings. On a theoretical level, they review research on nonverbal behavior and social cognition relevant to the police service, that is the system model of dyadic nonverbal interaction, impression management theory, and communication accommodation theory. These models suggest that police officers may accomplish police operations by systematically adjusting nonverbal behaviors. On an empirical level, the authors particularly focus on research into the relationship between nonverbal behavior and important mission outcomes (e.g. attitudes as well as conflict and cooperation behavior). Finally, they provide future research directions and behavioral guidelines for police officers, conflict managers, and decision-makers.

Reviewer: Edward Maguire

The present chapter is a shortened and updated version of a previous German work (Thielgen & Schade, 2022; Thielgen et al., 2022a).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Police, University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration North Rhine-Westphalia, Aachen, Germany

    Markus M. Thielgen

  2. Department of Education and Research, Brandenburg State Police University, Oranienburg, Germany

    Stefan Schade

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  1. Markus M. Thielgen
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  2. Stefan Schade
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Correspondence to Markus M. Thielgen .

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  1. University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne, Germany

    Mario S. Staller

  2. German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Swen Koerner

  3. Aurora, ON, Canada

    Benni Zaiser

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Thielgen, M.M., Schade, S. (2023). The Nonverbal Behavior and Appearance of Police Officers in the Police Service. In: Staller, M.S., Koerner, S., Zaiser, B. (eds) Police Conflict Management, Volume I. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41096-3_11

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