Officer Strategy: Understanding Human Nature and Basic Drives

BEHIND THE BADGE  - Human Nature and Basic Drives

By Lt. Joseph Pangaro BA, CPM, CSO

In recent times, we have seen several high-profile political people who have engaged in some inappropriate personal behavior: read that a former New York governor and former congressman that were headline news for quite a while. Both men were led astray by their base instincts and inner drives in the arena of personal sexual behavior, the result being the destruction of their careers and pain for their families.

Why would two such prominent men engage in such negative behavior? Were they arrogant in believing they could get away with it? Were they just plain stupid? The surface answer is probably a little of both, but the deeper question is what would drive these men and many others we can name pretty easily to step outside their familial relationships and engage in such risky actions. The answer to this question requires a greater understanding of human nature and the things that drive us as people.

As a police officer, if you want to be successful you will need to understand what makes people tick. We see evidence of this understanding in many of the processes of law enforcement and security organizations. 

Debriefing of a criminal is important. This is an interview that seeks information beyond that which you would need for a conviction in a trial. This type of interview is focused on “why” and “how” the criminal did what they did.

My partners and I would debrief suspects on almost any type of incident, from burglaries to thefts to frauds and especially in sexual cases. The information you learn in these interviews can be the key to preventing future crimes.

Understanding why a person committed a specific crime allows you to put a given set of facts into perspective and reveal patterns in behavior. It is not an exact science, but the information you learn can give the investigator insight into how certain people act and react in different instances.

Take house burglaries, for instance; if you are the victim of a house burglary it is a very difficult thing to accept. The feeling of being violated is ever present; having a stranger come into your home, walk around your house, in your children’s rooms, and go through your personal property can be devastating to some people. In contrast to how the victim feels, in the world of police work a house burglary is rather routine, something that happens quite often. How then do the police respond?

We would like to find some fingerprints at the scene and match them up to a known criminal, but that is not always possible. Some agencies do not process burglaries and some that do are not always good at it. Without that important piece of evidence we are left with hoping a neighbor saw something, noticed a person near the house, maybe they wrote down the plate of a car parked on the street or called the police to report it. These things, too, do not always take place. What we are left with is basic police investigation work 101. That’s where the debriefing interviews come in.

In a previous column, I discussed the reality of “Signature” actions by people who engage in criminal activity. This is where a criminal will find a way of doing their business that works for them. A way of committing their crimes that is comfortable for them and has been successful for them. An example would be the shoplifter who uses a friend to create a distraction to the clerk while they take the merchandise they want. When the team figures out what distraction works best they will use it over and over again; same is true for serial criminals: rapists, killers and other criminal actors.

Burglars are no different; they will choose the same type of houses, or houses in the same place on a block, such as corner properties, or houses that back up to woods. Some burglars will always break out the glass at the basement window, others will always break out the glass in the kitchen, and others will always shoulder the front door. Whatever signature they have, you can predict, to some degree; how, when and where they are likely to strike next. It is with this knowledge, gained from good solid debriefing interviews, that you can make a great investigator out of an ordinary investigator.

This understanding and acceptance that people do have signature actions; things they do all the time because it is comfortable for them, such as always driving in the left lane, or always taking a certain route to work or getting a specific cup of coffee etc. can provide understanding into the human mind. People are creatures of habit. Understanding human nature is a very important tool investigators use to solve crime. Getting good at reading the signatures left by criminals is an individual talent that police officers can develop.

Another “understanding” a good investigator needs to be proficient in is the basic human drives, the things that motivate all of us to one extent or another. These basic drives to eat, sleep and procreate all influence our daily actions.

We all feel the need to eat. We can skip a meal or two, but after a while we get that feeling that we have to eat and we will take actions to ensure we find some food. This drive has an obvious purpose. If we don’t eat, we starve and die, so it’s not something we have a choice about, it’s a drive.

The sexual drive is responsible for continuing our own families on the small scale and continuing the human species on a larger scale. This is one of the most powerful drives we have. By looking to our own experience, we can all come up with examples of how this drive has been a blessing or a curse. We were driven to say hello to someone we liked, which led to dating and maybe marriage or family. That’s a good outcome because the drive was controlled. We also know of people who get themselves in trouble because of their sex drive.

Inappropriate comments, sexual harassment of the kind reportedly experienced in the governor’s office in Albany, is a very clear examples of this drive’s negative side.

Understanding how these drives in our nature make us tick can help us solve these crimes. When does a person go from a healthy sex drive to one that is inappropriate, then to one that is criminal?

These people have signature actions as well as the burglar. The investigator has to simply uncover enough of the facts and actions of a particular crime to begin to see a picture of the person who is committing it. With that understanding we can begin to “think like the criminal” and anticipate when and where they will attack next.Whether it’s is a particular food we can’t live without or a dark desire that invades a person’s mind day and night, those drives can be identified and revealed.

These two important investigative understandings can keep our police ahead of the criminals who prey on us. They need to be properly trained and take the techniques seriously, use them on a regular basis and look for the signatures.

In the end, only the people who engage in these behaviors can explain why they did what they did in any given incident, but the rest of us can be aware of the patterns. It is for this reason that we have to be very careful with serial sexual predators in particular. The sex drive is very powerful. A sex drive that is out of control is dangerous. The reality of Megan’s Laws tells us that the large majority of people with a criminal sexual drive do not change their behavior; they just get better at hiding it. Eventually, many of them will seek to prey on us again.

A serial burglar may be driven by the desire for “things” or money, but a criminal who acts based on a human drive rarely changes. For them we must beware.

Let me know what you think.    JPangaro@Yahoo.com

Lt. Joseph Pangaro retired after serving 27 years at a police department in Monmouth County, NJ, having served as the Lead Training Officer. Pangaro is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickenson University’s Certified Public Managers Program (CPM). He’s a newspaper columnist who writes about the rigors and joys in law enforcement. Joseph Pangaro is the CEO and President of Pangaro Training and Management, and Pangaro Global Training, an online training company. E-mail at: JPangaro@TrueSecurityDesign.com www.TrueSecurityDesign.com