Communication skills are essential to effective handling of all areas of field work. These include both nonverbal skills and verbal skills that are effective in obtaining information and clarification. These and more general skills are valuable to officers in performing the tasks that comprise the bulk of field work. These include skills in dispute management (family, business, landlord-tenant), victim management and interviewing, citizen assistance, handling the mentally ill or suicidal, and dealing with hostile or angry people. In addition, training in communication, crisis intervention, and negotiation techniques is a prerequisite for effective SWAT teams. Training police officers to handle these call areas has been tested in several departments, including the Los Angeles Police Department. Research has shown that officers trained in approaches to handling psychologically related field problems perform better in a number of way than do untrained officers. Training can reduce call-backs, improve officer and citizen safety, produce greater cooperation of victims in investigation and in prosecution, and reduce officer stress. 2 tables and 26 references.