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 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.

Laura Motes – Former Police Officer Training to be a Nurse

Laura Motes spent twenty years working as a law enforcement officer with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department before she left the force in 2014 to become a nurse. Motes has always been most interested in doing the most good for her community in everything she does. Working as a police officer allowed her to protect and serve her community directly for 20 years with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, but now she wants to contribute to the wellbeing of her community in a different way.

Laura Motes left the force in 2014 as a Sergeant in charge of many administrative and personnel duties with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department’s West Precinct. She earned this position after years of dutiful service supporting her fellow patrol officers and contributing to the protection of citizens and the prevention of crime in many areas in her precinct. Motes has a military background as well. She was an Honor Graduate of the United States Army Police Corps Officer Basic Course. She completed her military police training in 1993 at Fort McClellan, Alabama and was honorably discharged from the Army in 2000.

After the police force, Laura Motes worked for a medical transport company called Managed Medical Transport and the Athens Regional Medical Center for six months. This short stint gave Motes all the experience she would need to know that she wanted to work as a nurse for the next phase of her career. After her stint with Managed Medical Transport was over, she started taking nursing classes. She completed all of her nursing program prerequisites and plans on attending Georgia Regents University in the fall of 2016. Motes wants to continue to make a difference in her community and health is a very important part of her life. She has always worked hard to take care of her body with proper diet and exercise and she believes that hard work is the best way to maintain your health.

Laura Motes already earned a Bachelor’s degree before she joined the Athens-Clarke County Police Department in 1993. She graduated from Georgia Southern University with degrees in Business Administration and Management Information Systems in 1992. With these degrees in hand, Motes decided that the best course of action for her career as a nurse would be to enroll in the Master’s program at Georgia Regents University. She plans on using her education and experience there to bolster her career in the medical field and help as many people as she can with her expertise. She plans on going to work for a local hospital so that she can assist in the treatment and care of as many people in her community as possible. She is looking forward to this next stage in her career.

Laura Motes – Military and Paramilitary Experience

Laura Motes graduated from Georgia Southern University in 1992 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and in Management Information Systems. She graduated with honors as well from the United States Army Military Police Corp Officer Basic Course at Fort McClellan, Alabama in 1993. Her training with the military helped her graduate from the Northeast Georgia Police Academy in Athens, Georgia, recording over 2,000 hours of training. Motes then joined the Athens-Clarke County Police Department later in 1993 and started out as an officer in the Uniform Patrol Division.

Laura Motes

Laura Motes performed many police services in this position, from responding to calls for service, law enforcement, criminal activity investigation, traffic collision investigation, and public safety. She provided judicious and fair police presence in neighborhoods throughout her precinct to discourage criminal activity and to apprehend offenders. After a few years on the job, Motes was made responsible for training and evaluating new officers to the force. She was promoted to Senior Police Officer in 1998.

Laura Motes moved into the Alcohol Compliance Unit and the Taxi and Wrecker Permit Unit as a Senior Police Officer in 2001. She helped ensure that all businesses in her jurisdiction were in compliance with state and local liquor laws and made sure that all vehicles-for-hire (such as taxis and wreckers) in the area were in compliance and had their fully registered permits at all times. Part of her duties in this position also included conducting background checks and criminal history investigations for all applicants for vehicle-for-hire and alcohol permits. She investigated and documented all vehicle-for-hire complaints and reports of infringement of alcohol permit laws. Motes even spearheaded an effort revise taxi and wrecker ordinances in her jurisdiction as well.

Laura Motes earned a promotion to Sergeant in 2003 and the following year, was assigned to West Precinct to help manage it. She actively supervised and monitored shift activities and directed the shift’s patrol activities to reduce criminal activity in the precinct. Already an experienced officer, Motes provided mentorship, assistances, and guidance to all shift personnel on a regular basis to help achieve all departmental and shift goals. On a daily basis, Motes reviewed incident reports for accuracy, timeliness, and thoroughness, reviewed and ensured the comparative and relativity of activity reports, and compiled information for administrative reports.

Laura Motes handled many day-to-day mentorship and operations tasks for the Athens-Clarke County Police Department during her 21-year career there. She left the force in 2014 to pursue other areas of employment. She settled on nursing because it will give her a chance to work directly with patients to create solutions to their medical problems. She’ll be able to help her community even more as a nurse, something she cares deeply about.