Automatically apply for jobs with Zippia

Upload your resume to get started.

Crime prevention police officer skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

1 min read

Quoted experts

Jennifer Gibbs Ph.D.,

Jill Myers

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical crime prevention police officer skills. We ranked the top skills for crime prevention police officers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 28.6% of crime prevention police officer resumes contained patrol as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a crime prevention police officer needs to be successful in the workplace.

12 crime prevention police officer skills for your resume and career

1. Patrol

Here's how crime prevention police officers use patrol:

Document all activities noted during patrol
Provided one-on-one training to academy graduates in basic functions of a Patrol Officer.

2. Public Safety

Public safety can be defined as the well-being or protection of a community, citizen, or nation as a whole. There are 4 basic elements that come under public safety namely: national security, border policy, countering crime, and emergency management.

Here's how crime prevention police officers use public safety:

Conducted Public Safety Lectures covering twenty five (25) topics.
Earned two District Commendations for reducing armed robberies and improving public safety initiatives in high-crime target areas within the appropriate jurisdiction.

3. Emergency Calls

Here's how crime prevention police officers use emergency calls:

Patrolled assigned areas; responded to accidents, emergency calls/incidents and public complaints.
Prioritize and dispatch units to security incidents and emergency calls.

4. Crime Prevention Programs

Here's how crime prevention police officers use crime prevention programs:

Work with department and community to organize Neighborhood Watch and other crime prevention programs.
Evaluate crime patterns and institute crime prevention programs of safety measures to these crimes.

5. Law Enforcement Agencies

Here's how crime prevention police officers use law enforcement agencies:

Assist other law enforcement agencies with theft, burglaries, and robberies.
Interact with other law enforcement agencies when appropriate.

6. Environmental Design

Here's how crime prevention police officers use environmental design:

Utilize Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design concepts to conduct business and residential security surveys; thereby reducing burglaries in the city.
Consulted in regard to commercial security, residential security, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and Crime Free Multi-housing.

Choose from 10+ customizable crime prevention police officer resume templates

Build a professional crime prevention police officer resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your crime prevention police officer resume.

7. Community Relations

Community Relations refers to the relationship-building strategies companies use with surrounding communities. These relationships are often mutually-beneficial, where a company will support local organizations and communities and receive a stronger customer basis. This differs from public relations, as the focus of community relations is building relationships and goodwill within a community rather than presenting a company's work to the public.

Here's how crime prevention police officers use community relations:

Leveraged interpersonal communication skills and intimate knowledge of criminal laws to promote positive community relations and aid investigations and court proceedings.
Provided a strong goal orientated attitude to strengthen a team atmosphere, actively participated in community policing establishing community relations.

8. Public Speaking

Public Speaking or oration, as it is sometimes known, is the act of any one person speaking live in front of an audience. Although in the past the audience was only a physical one, nowadays oration might be done on an online video call, at a digital conference, at an online class, or elsewhere. The art of public speaking is very old, drawing its first established roots from Ancient Greece and likely from before, too. It is an important skill and asset in many industries.

Here's how crime prevention police officers use public speaking:

Organized and conducted monthly regular Neighborhood Watch meetings and community activities with public speaking and presentations.

9. State Laws

Here's how crime prevention police officers use state laws:

Enforce local and state laws and regulations pertaining to all Maryland Capitol Police properties and Annapolis City concurrent jurisdictional areas.
Conduct numerous security surveys, inspections and participated in local exercises meeting local federal and state laws, regulations.

10. Local Citizens

Here's how crime prevention police officers use local citizens:

Recognized for effectiveness in building a trusting and mutually respectful relationship with local citizens and community business owners.

11. Criminal Investigations

Here's how crime prevention police officers use criminal investigations:

Worked in multiple units, including car patrol and community policing to conduct criminal investigations and assist detectives with other investigations.
Conduct simple and complex criminal investigations and maintained computerized investigative reports in order to establish a strong case for criminal prosecution.

12. Security Surveys

Here's how crime prevention police officers use security surveys:

Conduct on-site security surveys of commercial and residential properties and prepare recommendations to increase safety and crime prevention.
Provided crime prevention information to incoming students, faculty, and staff, through seminars, lectures, and security surveys.

What skills help Crime Prevention Police Officers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on crime prevention police officer resumes?

Jennifer Gibbs Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Pennsylvania State University - Harrisburg

Police officers need many skills to be successful on the job. The most important are written and oral communication skills and the ability to make ethical decisions with limited information quickly. Written communications skills are crucial. If a police report is poorly worded or incomplete, it can derail a criminal case. Police officers also need to talk to people of all ages from all walks of life in any circumstance. Often, police meet people on what may be the worst day of their lives when emotions are running high. Police need to be able to help calm a person while gathering information. Police need to be able to use their words and body language to empathize with someone who has been victimized, and they need to project authority, so people making poor decisions obey their commands.
This may be common sense, but research has demonstrated that communication and ethical decision-making skills are important for police officers. (See the research article published in 2017 in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education, entitled "An assessment of the relative importance of criminal justice learning objectives," by Baker and colleagues.) Baker and colleagues asked students, professionals, and college professors to rate the skills of hypothetical job applicants. These participants rated the following as the most important characteristics for criminal justice applicants (including law enforcement officers):

Ethics
Oral communication
Critical thinking
Sensitivity to diversity
Written communication skills

What crime prevention police officer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Jill Myers

Director of the School of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration

Law Enforcement is a much needed and distinguished profession. Going into the field you need a thorough background in the criminal justice system, state and federal, a working knowledge of the laws and Constitutional dictates, and the ability to communicate well both verbally and in writing. The job requires the ability to not just talk the part, but to critically think and apply the skills learned in the classrooms with real people in real situations. You will need to start the job with the ability to be a hero, to respond to real events on perhaps the worst days of someone's life. The job requires knowledge, ethical conduct, and compassion for everyone, even those who have committed unlawful actions.

Do you want to know more?

List of crime prevention police officer skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a crime prevention police officer resume and required skills for a crime prevention police officer to have include:

Patrol
Public Safety
Emergency Calls
Crime Prevention Programs

Law Enforcement Agencies
Environmental Design
Community Relations
Public Speaking

State Laws
Local Citizens
Criminal Investigations
Security Surveys

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse protective service jobs