Family Liaison Officer - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A Police Family Liaison Officer (FLO) is a role of an officer

Police officer

A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...

either of uniformed or plain-clothed Criminal Investigation Department

Criminal Investigation Department

The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...

(CID) role, although some companies and schools have FLO's the best known and most used are of the Police's. Every territorial police force

Territorial police force

The phrase Territorial Police Force varies in precise meaning according to the country to which it is related, generally distinguishing a force whose area of responsibility is defined by sub-national boundaries from others which deal with the entire country or a restricted range of...

has a pool of trained FLOs, FLOs who have passed their probationary period and have gained the national qualifications in detective work are then allowed to fulfill the role. The FLO is usually assigned to the family by the Senior Investigative Officer (SIO). FLOs are usually assigned any situation where a point of contact between the family and the police is deemed essential, such as a high profile murder investigation, or a case of a missing child. The Metropolitan Police Service

Metropolitan Police Service

The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...

has occasionally send FLOs to families who have lost relatives in terrorist attacks or major disasters. An FLO can also be used to gather intelligence on the behaviour of a member of a family where they are a suspect in the case.

FLOs need good communication skills as they are often the person who reports investigative advances in the case, and are a "shoulder to cry on" for the family. Most FLOs dress in civilian style clothes rather than police uniforms, so as to appear more sympathetic. Sometimes the FLOs will give a statement to the media

News media

The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

if the family do not wish to.

Non-police FLOs

Some Private, fee-paying schools have FLOs, although the position differs from the one in the UK Police Service, but is still based on the same guidelines of friendly and approachable staff who is the first point of contact between the authorities and the other party.

British Armed Forces

British Armed Forces

The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...

also have Royal Military Police

Royal Military Police

The Royal Military Police is the corps of the British Army responsible for the policing of service personnel, and for providing a military police presence both in the UK, and whilst service personnel are deployed overseas on operations and exercises.Members of the RMP are generally known as...

trained FLOs for families of killed service men/woman.

Training

Students applying to be a trained FLO will do day to day police work in their parent department and will only be brought in as an FLO and taken off normal duties when the need arises. Students will initially have a 5 day training module to gain the necessary requirements to be an approachable and friendly FLO. Training is disciplined and structured to make sure all potential FLO's become both professional and supportively in the execution of their duties. FLO's will be trained to a moderate level of basic physiciatry so they are able to "read" people to gain an understanding of what makes them angry, violent or upset, that may aid the investigation to work out what the person is like.

FLO Course Content is made up of:

Overnight reading during the course (as FLOs can be assigned for twenty-four hours a day)
Talks from surviving victims or their families.
Team building exercises.
Studying of computer presentations.

Upon completion of the first module, FLOs train further in three subjects, which may include major crime and road death. The course is made up of a total of seven days training, divided into two modules held on consecutive weeks.

Sources

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Waldren, Michael J. (2007). Armed Police, The Police Use of Firearms since 1945. England: Sutton, 224. ISBN 0750946377.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.