Laura Motes – Advice For New Police Sergeants

Laura Motes is a former police officer who served with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department for 21 years. She became a Sergeant in 2004, which meant she needed to quickly adapt to the new duties she was expected to take on in the role. These pointers will prove helpful to anybody who has managed to attain the same rank and wishes to do the best possible job.

Develop Your Communication Skills

You will be splitting a lot of time between your superiors and your team of officers on the ground, so you are going to need to develop your communication skills accordingly. You will have to develop a range of approaches so that you can effectively handle discussions with people at all levels of the force, from your new trainees through to your superior officers.

Become a Coach

As a Sergeant you are going to find that more of your fellow officers start coming to you for advice, particularly those who are new to the force. Be confident in your abilities and recognize that you would not have achieved the position in the first place if you didn’t have something useful to offer. Use your own experiences to help others develop.

Admit Mistakes

Laura Motes always took ownership of any mistakes that happened while she was a Sergeant. It is important to continue your professional development once you attain the rank by learning from your mistakes so that you don’t make them again later on down the line. This will ensure your continued development and improve your chances of progressing further up the ladder.

 

Laura Motes – Tips For Improving Your Bedside Manner

As she prepares to start her studies in nursing at Georgia Regents University, Laura Motes has been putting a lot of thought into the skills that she will need to develop in order to excel in the role. The bedside manner displayed by medical professionals is crucial when offering care to patients, so try to keep the following in mind if you work in a medical role or have aspirations to do so in the future.

Focus On The Patient

If you appear distracted when talking to your patients, the odds are high that they are going to be less likely to talk to you and provide information that you may need to provide treatment. This is because you will be giving off the impression that you have more important things to do, rather than speaking to the patient. Pay attention and deal with distractions after the conversation.

Establish Common Ground

By creating a personal connection with the patient, within the confines of professionalism, you can have conversations that extend beyond the treatment that your patients are undergoing. This is useful for building trust in the relationships that you have with patients, making them more likely to talk to you when you need information from them.

Keep Thing Simple

Laura Motes understands that many patients will be intimidated by hospital settings, especially if they are dealing with a new condition that needs treatment. By using too much medical lingo you run the risk of further confusing patients and making them feel even less in control. Keep things simple and explain issues in words patients will understand.

Laura Motes – Tips For Preventing Underage Alcohol Sales

During her time serving with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, Laura Motes spent three years as part of the Alcohol Compliance Unit/Vehicles For Hire Unit, during which time she worked with the Georgia Department of Revenue to deal with alcohol license violations, while also placing much of her focus on the issue of underage drinking. There are a number of things that premises that sell alcohol can do in order to remain compliant and ensure they don’t end up selling alcohol to minors, including all of the following.

Always Check ID

It may seem like a simple tip, but many new store owners or employees often end up becoming incompliant because they have assumed that the people they are serving are of legal drinking age. If you have any doubt at all about a person’s age, ask to see some ID. Be wary of any customers who make a big fuss about showing ID and don’t give into any pressure that may be placed on you by people who haven’t brought a form of identification along. You should also improve your knowledge of the various forms of ID that people can use to purchase alcohol, so that you are abler to spot fakes.

Train Employees

Your store’s employees are essentially representatives of your premises, so if they make mistakes or purposefully sell alcohol to minors the responsibility will usually fall on you. As such, you need to make sure that you are careful when hiring new employees and that you have a rigorous training program in place. Put special emphasis on the consequences of selling alcohol to minors and try to train employees in the best ways to spot when an underage person might be trying to acquire alcohol.

Keep Alcohol Separate From Soft Drinks

In many cases, minors may pick up alcoholic beverages, particularly those commonly referred to as “alcopops,” by mistake if they are on display next to soft drinks or other beverages. As such, it is good practice to create a display specifically designed for alcohol. It may also be a good idea to have that display somewhere that is in the line of sight of employees, so that they can keep an eye on any suspicious behavior.

Assess Groups

If a group of people attempts to purchase alcohol from your establishment, Laura Motes notes that it is important to examine everybody in the collective. In some cases, somebody of age may try to purchase alcohol for minors who are with them, so if you have any suspicions that this is happening you should ask to see the IDs of every individual. Try to keep an eye out for awkward body language, such as a member of the group who is fidgeting or purposefully avoiding eye contact.

Laura Motes – Tips For New Police Officers

Before she made the decision to transition into studying for a career in nursing, with the aim of starting her Master’s degree at Georgia Regents University in the fall of 2016, Laura Motes was a well-tenured police officer who served with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department for 21 years. Even so, she still remembers just how intimidating it can be to start your policing career, so try to keep all of the following in mind if you are a rookie who is looking to make a good impression.

Laura Motes

Be Confident, But Not Arrogant

There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and you must make a point of not crossing it during your policing career. You need to maintain an air of confidence so that you will have authority when working with members of the public and so that your fellow officers will respect you and your opinions. However, if you become arrogant you will cause friction within the team and may end up stunting your professional growth due to an inability to identify weaknesses that you need to work on.

Listen and Learn

Your fellow officers will be an amazing resource for you when you first start your job, helping you to build on the foundation of knowledge that you developed during your initial training. Make sure that you listen to and comply with the orders of your direct superiors, while also treating colleagues who are at the same level as you with the respect that they deserve. In doing so, you will be able to benefit from their experience while also learning more about the procedures you need to follow in order to do your job effectively.

Stay Logical

As a police officer, you must be capable of keeping your cool in difficult situations. Do not let emotion dictate your actions, especially when working with members of the public. Doing so can cloud your judgment and could lead to you making mistakes or acting in an unprofessional manner.

Learn From Mistakes

Most rookies will make a mistake or two while they are still learning the ropes, so it is important that you take ownership of any blunders and learn from them. Trying to cover up mistakes is always a bad move and may land you in trouble with your superiors, while also leading to you failing to work on your weaknesses.

Take Advantage of Training

There will be a multitude of training opportunities presented to you during your career, as Laura Motes can attest to having completed more than 2,000 hours of training during her time as a police officer. You should try to take advantage of any opportunities to learn more so that you can improve as a professional in order to better serve the public.