Why do cops shout so much when arresting people. I saw so many videos where people clearly don’t have any weapons and like 5 cops come at them shouting to get on the floor. Doesn’t that only make people more stressed out and push them to do stupid stuff?
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There is a reason behind it, you shout louder, act tougher than the person your arresting, couple your bad assery with the force of the law, it typically subdues people. It’s all about over powering without having to get to physical.
Because cops these days are just angry young men who I feel some sort of need to build a neighborhood and who have been given military gear on told they are at war with that neighborhood. Shouting makes them feel like real men. So do the guns.
In the police academy, they teach something called “command presence.” While there is a lot of psychology behind it, it’s just about being more alpha than the guy/gal you’re detaining. You never know how dominant the suspect is, so you amp your voice and actions wayyy up, to dominate that person. It’s usually seen as over compensating.
Like how a drill sergeant does in basic military training.
It’s all shock and awe. Scare the crap out of someone so that they don’t react, then take them down.
It’s because their angry and sad that this is the only job they can do to support their family. It’s also the way they are trained to handle people that could be doing things that are bad for other people.
Adrenaline, stress, fear. There are modern procedures/principles for making arrests, based on a more sophisticated understanding of human reactions and behaviors. But training is expensive and for 95%+ of arrests, old school and instinctual intimidation works pretty effectively.
Cops are trained to escalate or deescalate a situation.
If your arresting someone with small kids you probably don’t want to go in hollering and slamming bodies down when they are getting arrested for a parole violation.
I would pay to see a cop getting a thug to surrender by politely asking him to cuff himself.
Police have to use at the very least the same amount of force as the counterpart in order to be effective. That includes both the physical and mental aspect.
Using it as a hyping mechanism to promote confidence in one’s self and fear into your opposition. Think of war cries, a method of shouting fear into an enemy to render them paralyzed or afraid to attack something so loud and vicious. More like a Chihuahua wrapped in armor.
I’m a security guard, so while I’ll never be as important as the cops, I do know the answer to this—they are trained to do it on purpose, and for 3 reasons:
1) To be sure they communicate clearly. In police confrontations, one false move could mean the difference between life and death, so it’s vital that the subject hears and understands you; likewise in court they can’t argue that they resisted because you didn’t explain what you wanted from them.
2) To control their own breathing. In really stressful, fight-or-flight scenarios, it’s easy to unknowingly hyperventilate or hypoventilate, and you obviously don’t want to risk passing out when guns and handcuffs are in play—and shouting forces you to breathe in and out deeply and in a controlled manner.
3) To establish a narrative. Almost any police incident will have witnesses, who may or may not clearly see what is happening. Should a struggle occur, you want to give commands loudly enough that your side of what happened will be heard by onlookers.
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