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What qualifications or skills are necessary to be successful in this field?

The most important skill for a law enforcement officer or federal agent is the ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing with people and build trust in the community.
 
Transcript: "What is the one of the most important skills for law enforcement and police officer federal agent? I think, 100% the most important skill is the ability to communicate, both verbally with people and with the community with your fellow officers and agents and be able to do that. That communication and writing also is very important, but I think the most important skill that we have in law enforcement is the ability to talk with people have people trust you build that trust in the community and just be able to look people in the eyes and have them believe that you're there to help them and if you can do that then you're going to go far in your career as a law enforcement officer because you truly believe in what you're doing and we got to get away from the cell phone texting and get out of your car and talk to people. That is what it is all about. All about communication. So thank you very much and I hope you found this helpful and it helps you communicate in the future."
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Thomas O'Connor

Ret Special Agent FBI - Joint Terrorism Taskforce
What is the one of the most important skills for law enforcement and police officer federal agent? I think, 100% the most important skill is the ability to communicate, both verbally with people and with the community with your fellow officers and agents and be able to do that. That communication and writing also is very important, but I think the most important skill that we have in law enforcement is the ability to talk with people have people trust you build that trust in the community and just be able to look people in the eyes and have them believe that you're there to help them and if you can do that then you're going to go far in your career as a law enforcement officer because you truly believe in what you're doing and we got to get away from the cell phone texting and get out of your car and talk to people. That is what it is all about. All about communication. So thank you very much and I hope you found this helpful and it helps you communicate in the future.
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Donald Soranno

Investigations Subject Matter Expert
What qualifications or skills are necessary to be successful in this field? Well, there are, there are several one, of course, is communication. You have to be able to communicate with your partners with individuals that you're speaking with with your superiors. You got to be able to. It's not just verbal communication. It's written communication. Its nonverbal communication. But I also think something that may be overlooked. A lot is the skills of empathy, the skills of compassion. in the skills of being able to relate to others, because you're being called when somebody's at their worst and you need to be able to empathize with them and sympathize with them and show compassion, you also have to have the skill of remaining your, your composure, you know, holding in your anger, if something terrible happens to a young child and you show up, you know, you have to hold that anger back and that You may just want to scream, but right, then you, you can. So there's a lot of skills that you need to have to be able to control and to be able to use in this profession. And a lot of those, you know, on top of the, you know, defensive tactics and shooting and driving. All that is, is highly important. But some of the quote, unquote soft skills, you know, even though I don't like that term, soft skills because those are just as important or even more important. Than some of the other ones because being able to communicate effectively can save your life can save somebody else's lives. So that is very important. So being able to just relate to others, all these different things, think outside the box of something that you can use to be able to make you a better person.