Sep 22, 2026 Identify, Interrupt and Intervene | Recognizing and Defeating Frustration in Policing

There is a reason the number three appears so often in communication, storytelling, advertising, and training. From the ancient rhetorical device known as the tricolon to familiar phrases such as “stop, look, and listen,” three creates a structure that is concise, rhythmic, and easy to follow. It is why our phone numbers are broken down into three sets of numbers (3 digits -3 digits -4 digits). Isn’t it easier to remember the license plate number of ABC-123 than the license plate number of A1B2C3?

This Rule of Three appears everywhere around us:

• Stop, Drop, and Roll
• Snap, Crackle, Pop
• Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
• Reduce, Recycle and Reuse
• Blood, Sweat and Tears

As you read those phrases above, your mind probably recited additional ones that are commonplace in our culture.

Research into working memory suggests that our ability to hold and manipulate information is limited, and that grouping information into meaningful “chunks” can make it easier to remember. For police trainers, this matters because officers are routinely asked to absorb enormous amounts of information. When something is important enough to remember under stress, simplicity matters. Because when the stakes are high, we don’t want people remembering a paragraph. We want them remembering a sequence.

The Rule of Three also creates a natural sense of progression. Three points can take an audience from a problem, to understanding, to action. That is particularly important when we talk about frustration. Frustration is a normal human emotion; the problem isn’t experiencing it; the problem is what happens when frustration goes unmanaged. I know of no profession more susceptible to frustrating circumstances than policing.

In law enforcement, unmanaged frustration can influence communication, judgment, decision-making, officer safety, relationships, and ultimately the way an encounter unfolds. If we want officers to recognize frustration before it becomes behavior, we need to give them something simple enough to recall when their emotions are elevated. In my classes, I often talk about the Space in the Middle, that space between when an officer experiences emotion and their response. What occurs within that space is often the difference between a complaint and a commendation.

I have spent my entire adult life in law enforcement as a police officer and as a federal agent. Good portions of that career was spent as an FTO, a FLETC instructor and a college criminal justice instructor. In all that time I recognized that many of the cops we see on video exercising poor judgment or who were overzealous in their use of force were frustrated at the moment when the wheels came off.

What I also realized was that as a profession we have not historically given these cops the training to recognize when they (or the citizens they serve) are frustrated. We haven’t given these heroes the understanding that frustration is ok, it is a normal human response when our goals are blocked. We have not given them the training to understand the implications of this complicated emotion either. Most maddening for these officers and their careers, we haven’t equipped them with the training and experience to use certain tools to defeat frustration as they experience it.

With that in mind, I spent the last ten years of my life studying frustration and its impact on decision making and the human body. The result of that decade of research was a book I titled Fractured. But as I traveled around the country presenting to groups on frustration, I was missing something. That something was an easily remembered tagline, a North Star, a roadmap that I could present to police officers and their trainers. Something they could grasp onto in the heat of battle to keep from taking an action based on emotion as opposed to their training. I wanted to create the Stop, Drop and Roll earworm but instead of saving fire victims, I want to save officers from making mistakes they can’t take back.

That’s where IDENTIFY. INTERRUPT. INTERVENE. comes in. IDENTIFY: identify the emotion you’re experiencing. INTERRUPT: interrupt the automatic reaction and recognize that, regardless of what caused the emotion, you are responsible for what you do with it. INTERVENE: take purposeful action to prevent that emotion from controlling your behavior or your decision-making. Three words, three actions, one objective: don’t allow an emotion to make a decision that you will later have to live with. For police trainers, this isn’t about teaching officers not to feel frustration; it’s about giving them a memorable tool for identifying frustration and managing it before frustration manages them.

IDENTIFY. INTERRUPT. INTERVENE.

When frustration begins to surface, the first step is to IDENTIFY. Officers are trained to read situations, people, and environments, but they also need to learn to identify what is happening within themselves. Frustration produces identifiable physical, cognitive, and behavioral cues: increased heart rate, muscle tension, narrowed attention, negative thoughts, changes in tone, impatience, or an urge to react. IDENTIFY means recognizing those signals for what they are—a warning that emotion may be beginning to influence the way you see and respond to the situation. Identify the emotion. Identify the warning signs. Identify what is happening within yourself.

Once frustration has been identified, the officer must INTERRUPT. Identification has little value if the warning is simply ignored. Frustration is a normal human emotion and experiencing it does not mean an officer has done anything wrong. The danger comes when frustration is allowed to build unchecked and begins to influence judgment, communication, decision-making, or behavior. INTERRUPT means breaking the automatic reaction before it becomes action. Pause long enough to ask: What is happening to me right now? What is this frustration telling me? Is my response proportional to the situation? The goal isn’t to eliminate the emotion; it is to interrupt the cycle long enough to prevent the emotion from dictating how you process and respond to the encounter.

Finally, INTERVENE. This is where awareness becomes action. Once an officer identifies frustration and interrupts the automatic reaction, the officer must take responsibility for what happens next. The situation may not be within the officer’s control, and the behavior of another person certainly may not be. But the officer’s response remains a choice. INTERVENE means deliberately choosing the words, tactics, tone, and behavior that will move the situation in the direction the officer wants it to go. In other words, don’t allow frustration to make a decision that you will later have to live with.

IDENTIFY. INTERRUPT. INTERVENE. Three simple steps: identify the emotion, interrupt the reaction, and intervene with purpose.

I recently wrote an article for the Police1 website discussing the fact that as a profession we have much room for improvement when it comes to helping our officers defeat this highly destructive emotion. I invite you to read the article here: https://www.police1.com/patrol-issues/frustration-on-patrol-the-emotion-we-rarely-train-for

The book Fractured is available online in print and in digital form. It can be purchased on Amazon here!

Teaching cops about frustration and how to overcome it with fourteen possible tools has become my new mission in life. I would love to present to your organization, your academy class or your leadership staff. Embassy Consulting Services offers courses on frustration in law enforcement and how to defeat it. We can modify the training into a one-hour keynote speech or 8-hour, 16-hour or 24-hour courses. We think your officers deserve the information. We believe that no other organization in the country is dedicating training on this specific topic.

Keep monitoring this website as we hope this article is the first in a series about this destructive emotion in policing.

To learn more about those courses check here: https://embassycs.com/course-library/occupation-frustration

Our goal is to save officers’ lives and careers by making this Rule of Three of Identify, Interrupt and Intervene a universal phrase in law enforcement.