"I have pretty much covered every situation you could be talking about in my posts. Let me just sum it up:
Regardless of the situation, there is no reason to lose control and swear at the citizen. If you cannot handle every situation professionally, seek other employment.
it's a false assumption that resorting to profanity necessarily equals a loss of control. heck, in some agencies, profanity is even acknowledged in the use of force continuum
under that continuum, the lowest level of "force" (force defined differently in UOF's than in other areas) is one's presence at a scene. Merely standing there, hands off your gun, not saying anything or doing anything other than being there.
verbal commands are farther up the continuum (the edge being deadly force of course), and some agencies and theorists advocate that "profane verbalization " is acceptable if justified for example by inaction. I can think of MANY examples where "sir, please do X" didn't work, even multiple times, but as soon as I upgraded "listen, do f***ing X or you are going to be f***ing sorry" the profane verbal commands DID gain compliance. Obviously, in a perfect world officers would never swear. In the real world, and in some circ's , an officer resorting to a few choice "profane verbalization" can result in compliance, and it's bettter to use a lower use of force such as profane verbalization , then to have to resort to physical force, for example.
Just recognize that there must be substantial justification for the profanity. In these cases, it's not a loss of control, it's a tool to try to accomplish a goal with the least amount of force necessary. Verbal judo has a lot of techniques, and a good street cop will be very skilled at verbally defusing situations and in using their voice to get compliance without having to resort to force. It's a skillset, and an art. It's ultimately a "people job" and imnsho, one's communication skills (to include interview, interrogation, etc) are among the most powerful and the most frequently used tools we have
Example from my Maui PD archives: I recall an incident where I was responding (for the second time), to a no contact order violation. on the first instance, the suspect bolted out the back door and by the time I got to the backyard, he had a 100 yard "jump" on me, and he got away.
On this second occasion, he was outside when I arrived, and he bolted again, as I was exiting my car. I yelled to him that he was under arrest and to "stop" (we don't say 'freeze' like in the movies, since it's not universally understood like "stop" is ... almost).
I used a verbal tactic that included profane verbalization. I said words close to "Hey brah, why you run away like a little wahine? Be a man and stand up for yourself, don't be a f***ing p*ssy! You are such a f**king ***** !"
Guess what? He got PISSED and he stopped in his tracks and turned around , saying "hey, I aint no f*cking P*ssy" as I reached him, tackled him and got him into handcuffs.
He stopped. This is a guy who was notorious for running (career criminal) whenever the cops showed up. Once in a while, we would catch him, but we didn't have patrol canines, and he was fleet of foot. But simply by belittling him and using some choice profanities, I got my GOAL, which was to gain compliance (he stopped). It's better for society, for the victim(s) of his crimes, for the PD, etc.
Profanity worked where OTHER verbalizations did not. Now, maybe if I called him a "darned wimp" instead of a "F*cking p*ssy", he might have complied, but I strongly doubt it.
I take immense pride in my "command presence", which includes proper manners such as always referring to people as "sir" or "ma'am" unless they request otherwise, not raising my voice (unless necessary to obtain a goal), not swearing. and treating people with the respect I'd want my sister treated with if she was contacted by police. And in 20+ yrs I've had exactly ONE complaint for discourteousness . Despite 100's of arrests, tense situations, a shooting, some battle royale drawn out physical struggles, etc etc.
So, CLEARLY I am doing something right.
And in those instances when I choose to use profane verbalization, it is a sober, conscious CHOICE to achieve a goal, and to gain "control" over a situation... and losing control or never gaining it in many situations is where the cop gets hurt, the suspect gets hurt because the cop had to resort to force eventually, etc.
I don't care if you are a BGD, a soccer mom,. a microsoft executive, a teenage mcd's employee, or an armed robber. you WILL get respect and "sir" and etc.
But there are and will be occasional circ's where I will make the conscious sober (no loss of control ) CHOICE to employ profane verbalization and by doing so I very well may be able to make the arrest, contain the scene, etc at that point, vs. having to resort to higher level of force, to include physical force and/or not being able to gain control at all (suspect gets away, people continue to attack innocents etc.)
If this career criminal/woman beater wanted to make a complaint that I used profanity against him, I would have been fine with it, and I could JUSTIFY it, and any REASONABLE police admin etc. would recognize the street reality where it is sometimes necessary (one problem with police admin's in the regard of deciding whether an officers conduct is ok or bad, is that so many are cop-o-crats, often they have little to none experience in PATROL because they have had admin etc. type assignments their whole career, etc.)
Again, this is a tactic that I have used VERY sparingly, but imo this tactic CLEARLY brought far more benefits than cost, not just to me, but to innocent victims (like the victim in the case I just mentioned), and to suspects (because they comply short of my having to use physical force to achieve that)
TO reiterate, I am extremely polite and I take immense pride in my professionalism and manners, but I recognize that there are times and places for judicious use of the vernacular (useful in interrogations and interviews as well to help gain rapport and put people at ease), and even times and places for judicious use of profanity directed towards another
