Stress In Law Enforcement Essay
The Effects of Stress on the
Law Enforcement Officer
Liberty University
Abstract
This paper explores the effects of stress as it pertains to the job of law enforcement. Every job has its stressors but law enforcement carries with it the potential for stressors unlike many people will ever go through. The law enforcement job comes with the potential for life and death situations that can have a lasting impact on one’s life. The research shows that while officers are given instruction on how to protect themselves and others they are often not told what to expect after these incidents are over. Many officers find themselves experiencing mental health problems after some incidents but don’t know what to do or who to go to …show more content…
for help. These problems can become serious when they are not dealt with appropriately. Some serious cases can lead to the development of PTSD or even suicide in some cases. Inner department teams and programs designed to help officers cope with these potential issues is of the upmost importance for today’s officers.
Work related stress can be a stressful topic. When it comes to the job of law enforcement stress is a guarantee. Law enforcement officers play a vital role in the safety and security of cities and towns across the world. The law enforcement officer’s job can be extremely difficult, dangerous and stressful. The law enforcement officer often is faced with brutal homicide scenes, accident scenes, and may have to fight for their life on any given day on the job. A single call for service can have a life altering impact on their lives. These calls for service often bring upon extreme levels of stress that when not dealt with appropriately can have a negative impact on their mental health, their families and their jobs. This paper will provide an insight into the job of a law enforcement officer. It will show how law enforcement officers have a certain type of persona that comes from the job and how that persona can affect them. Actual events will be discussed to show the types of calls officers go on a daily basis and the types of stressors that come from them. It will also give details into the different types of mental health issues that come from the job experiences, how they can be treated, and the types of programs available for help when needed.
There are several factors that can lead to law enforcement officers becoming under so much stress that they find themselves not being able to function properly even though they may not see it themselves. How can the law enforcement family come together to help one another and make sure the law enforcement officer has the support needed to have prosperous careers? Proper training, understanding, counseling, and department policies can provide the law enforcement officer with the knowledge they will need to identify stress management issues early on and help avoid the serious problems that come with the improper handling of stress. Understanding the law enforcement officer starts with the persona that comes with it. The law enforcement officer carries about them a certain type of persona. It is this persona that both helps and hurts them in dealing with the everyday life of being in law enforcement. In order for law enforcement officers to be effective in the job they have to suppress normal emotions like fear, anger and compassion. If these elements were not put aside it could lead to doubt or hesitancy when decisive action is required (Kirschman, 2006). Law enforcement officers often must make split second decisions. They are not always afforded the opportunity to think before they act. If they were to allow fear or anger to enter into their decision making it could cause officer safety or use of force issues. When the law enforcement officer’s shift ends it can be difficult to leave the persona at the job and not take it home with them. This persona is compounded when they are faced with the critical incidents that they will respond to. Law enforcement officers will see more critical incident scenes then they will likely be able to remember by the time their careers are over. While everyone experiences the death of a loved one, the law enforcement officer will be on the front line of many brutal death scenes and may even have to be the one that has to take a life in order to save themselves or someone else. Television shows often make it seem as though law enforcement officers are not fazed by these scenes as television stars see these scenes multiple times in one show and always come out fine in the end. In reality the effects of some of these incidents will continue much longer than the actual event. During a career a law enforcement officer will see hundreds of accidents and respond to numerous homicide scenes. Some of these calls for service will be remembered forever. The following two incidents only cover a small portion of what a law enforcement officer can be involved in on any day of the job. They are also only a small part of what is expected out of officers during their work day. After the events are over, officers can be left with extreme levels of stress and the potential for mental health problems. These incidents will give a small insight to both the potential dangers officers face as well as the after effects they have to deal with as well.
In the first incident a homeowner calls 911 because his house has been broken into and is afraid the suspect may harm him and his family. The law enforcement officer responds and finds the back door of the residence to be kicked in. The officer draws his weapon and enters the residence fearing that the owner’s life may be in jeopardy. Once inside of the residence the officer confronts the suspect and identifies himself. The suspect begins to charge at the officer and fight begins. The officer’s hand is hurt in the encounter and the suspect is attempting to take the officer’s gun away from him. The suspect charged the officer four times during the incident and on the fourth time the injured officer decided he would not be able to hold on to his weapon any longer and fired one shot striking the suspect in the chest. The suspect fell to the ground, the officer calls for a medic and starts providing medical treatment to the suspect. The suspect later died at the hospital. Even after being attacked multiple times by a suspect, law enforcement officers are still required to provide immediate aid to suspect who are injured during encounters with them. What the officer did not know at the time of the incident is that this suspect previously served time in prison for burglary to occupied houses. He was also under the influence of cocaine at the time of the incident and he had previously been in fights with law enforcement officers from his own department. He also made comments that if he were ever caught again he would die before going back to jail. What made this experience even harder was the way in which the officer was treated by his own department after the incident. The department was worried about how the community would see the event. The officer was a white male and the suspect was a black male. The department took the officer’s gun, identification, read him his rights and requested that he waive his rights so he could be interviewed by detectives. All of this happened before he was even offered medical attention for injuries to his hand that was sustained in the event. When he was finally allowed to go home he was told he had no police authority and would be placed on administrative leave and would not be given a replacement gun. He was never given any assurance that he did the right thing even though he was found to be justified in his actions.
In the days to come the officer found himself not being able to trust anyone. He did not even trust the physiologist he was seeing because he was appointed by the department and was the same one that he saw before being hired. He felt as though if he told this psychologist everything that was going on in his mind that the psychologist would report it back to his department and he would be fired. During his time of reflection the officer began suffering from suicidal thoughts, hyper vigilance, severe anxiety and felt as though he may need some sort of medication to help him with these problems but he was to afraid to ask for help in fear that he would lose his job (Thomas, 2011).
In the second incident officers are dispatched to a domestic call during the midnight hours. The call started from a boyfriend brandishing a gun at his girlfriend in a bar. This escalated later when the suspect went to the girlfriend’s apartment where he fired multiple shots through the front door of the apartment. The suspect then fled the scene. His vehicle was eventually located in another apartment complex empty. While a perimeter was being set up the suspect was observed walking to the car. He was approached by law enforcement and advised to put his hands up. The suspect then pulled out a gun and pointed it at the officer. The officer fired two shots, both missing, and the suspect retreated into the car. Other officers arrived on scene and negotiations begin to take place with the suspect in an attempt to get him to surrender. The officer who is conducting the negotiation had 15 prior successful negotiations. In this case the suspect relayed that once the sun came up he would kill himself because he had nothing to live for. Shortly after, the sun began to rise and the suspect fatally shot himself once in the chest (Thomas, 2011). The officer was about 20 feet away from the suspect when he shot himself.
It wasn’t until after the incident that the officer realized that he had responded to this man’s house before. On that call the suspect was in a verbal altercation with his girlfriend but no violence had occurred and no arrest was made. Prior to leaving the man’s house he relayed to the officer that he would commit suicide before he would be arrested (Thomas, 2011). The officer then began speaking with the suspect about his statement of suicide. After following all the procedures it was determined that the suspect was not a danger to himself or anyone else at that time so there was no action the officer could take at that time.
In the aftermath of this the officer returned to the station after leaving the scene and collapsed from fatigue. The officer believed he had failed in his mission and was overrun with emotions. The department did have a psychologist come in for a debriefing but only stayed for fifteen minutes because he had other clients waiting for him at his practice. The officer attempted to talk with officers he was close with but was always stop short because they did not want to hear of his anguish and pain. He even attempted to talk to his fiancé but all she seemed to care about was that he was safe and she didn’t care about the suspect dying. This department’s usual practice is to have officers see a psychologist after critical incidents to make sure they are fit for duty. In this case for whatever reason they didn’t and the officer was expected to be at work the next day. In the days to come the officer experienced, nausea, nightmares, severe cramps, and sleeplessness (Thomas, 2011).
While every incident will always have different circumstances, the same types of stressors that come from them are often similar.
The law enforcement persona can play a role in the aftermath of these incidents because officers often don’t know if or who they can trust with asking for help. They often worry of being misunderstood, talked negatively about by their peers because others may feel like they are not up to the task of being in law enforcement or may even fear being fired. Situations like these often leave officers with many questions, and extreme levels of stress. Stress in the law enforcement field is certainly not limited to critical …show more content…
incidents.
In addition to critical incident response many law enforcement officers have cited that their departments were one of the biggest stressors they faced in their jobs. Stress focus groups have been conducted in an attempt to gain an insight of why and how their own departments often are the causing factors of stress (Tosch, 2002). Some officers relayed that the upper level management often looses touch with the officers that work the road and answer the complaints (Tosch, 2002). The road officers are generally looked at as the front line of the department. Other stressors came from ever changing policies and procedures and what is right to do today can become wrong tomorrow. Many also said that the lack of recognition of high performing officers brought upon stress as well as promotion processes and who promotions are given to (Tosch, 2002). Officers offered that those in the inner circle or are favored by higher ups in the department were the ones who would be promoted instead of those who have been on for many years and are routinely looked at by their peers as one of the best officers the department has (Tosch, 2002).
Stress from any job can often find its way to our homes and families and law enforcement is no different. During focus groups law enforcement officers discussed the difficulties they face when deciding whether to share their work related stress with their families. Some officers relayed that they have experienced both good and bad when talking about their jobs at home. Sometimes the discussion proves to be helpful other times it causes their spouses to become angry, which caused them more stress. Some expressed that sharing their stressful experiences at work would cause their families to experience the same thing that they did and cause them experience the same stress as well (Tosch, 2002). It is important for officers to be able to find ways of communicating with their families about the problems and stressors they face at work. When communication is not open, both the officer and family members can find themselves not relieving or finding help for their stress which can lead to deeper emotional and mental health issues.
One of the mental health concerns for those in law enforcement is post traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD.
Law enforcement officers are prime candidates for PTSD because of the work they do, the critical incidents they are involved in, and the trauma they face. Some of the most life threatening critical incidents can lead to PTSD however not every officer will respond to life threatening incidents the same way. Two officers can experience the same incident but have complete opposite reactions to the event. One may be able to return to work in a few days but the other may need months to recover. It is important that each officer is given the time and help needed for them to recover. PTSD symptoms can range from sleeplessness, nightmares, replaying the events over and over, dizziness, loss of appetite, or having a feeling of being numb (Nickerson, 2009). Just because an officer may begin to experience some of these symptoms does not mean that a diagnosis of PTSD is
evident.
Symptoms or responses associated with critical incidents are normal responses to abnormal events. PTSD is not an automatic diagnosis after a critical incident. What is important is that if the officer continues to have these types of symptoms help should be sought to make sure that it does not become overwhelming and lead to the development of PTSD. PTSD is not something that will simply go away with time (Fink, 2006). While these symptoms can come and go any future event may bring everything back all at once and can easily cause the officer to become immediately overwhelmed. It is also important to understand that it may not be a critical incident that brings these symptoms back. It may not event happen while they are at work. Some officers have said it has come back from them hearing a vehicle backfiring nearby or even during their yearly training scenarios.
In some cases PTSD can develop over time and after multiple critical incidents and stress. It happens more when individuals either cant or refuse to take their mental health issues head on. In some cases PTSD has been tied to those who commit suicide. The law enforcement family is no stranger to suicides. Although it is rarely discussed or even truthfully disclosed, law enforcement officers take their own lives at an alarming rate.
A growing concern for the law enforcement community is the growing rate of law enforcement officers committing suicide. On average one hundred and sixty four law enforcement officers die in the line of duty each year. That is a number that is hard enough to swallow for the law enforcement community but when you look at the suggested number of law enforcement officers who commit suicide, it gets much worse. One estimate says that between three hundred to four hundred law enforcement officers die by their own hands each year (Kelly, 2006). In 2004 it is estimated that thirty one thousand six hundred Americans committed suicide and of this number four hundred and forty seven of them were law enforcement officers (Perin, 2007). This information is staggering.
The biggest question when presented with this data is why? It is believed that in most cases these suicides happen because the officers are not able to overcome the pain and suffering they have experienced as a result of the job. The high stress job of law enforcement can lead officers to alcohol abuse, substance abuse, violence, and anger. These things by themselves can lead someone to suicide. When you add these factors to a critical incident it can become a very dangerous situation for the officer (Larned 2010).
It is important to put policies in place and provide training to all officers so that everyone understands the signs of suicide. One of the most important things to remember when a fellow officer may be in crisis and contemplating suicide is to simply ask them the question, do you want to kill yourself? You do not want to use questions like are you thinking about hurting yourself or are you going to do something stupid. You need to be direct and ready to act if the answer to the question is yes.
If the answer is yes they need to be taken to an emergency room immediately and be evaluated by a professional. When someone says they want to kill themselves and they have a means to do so, as a law enforcement officer would have, they can be taken to the hospital for evaluation whether they want to go or not. Law enforcement departments have access to mental health service professionals that will come out and evaluate an individual that is saying they want to kill themselves. If the individual is deemed to be a threat to themselves then these mental health professionals can seek proper paper work from a magistrate or judge that will allow them to place the individual into a mental health facility for treatment.
They may hate you for it initially but realistically putting that strain on that relationship with the person in order to save their life is worth it. The hope is that you can save a life and eventually they will be thankful you saved them and that is what is important. It is also important to make sure that even if they say no you are still prepared to offer any assistance that may be needed. There are numerous twenty four hour hotline services that will be able to provide support for them. It is important to talk through all the options available to the person because you don’t want that person to think suicide is their only way out (Kelly 2006).
In most cases fellow officers are not going to have the knowledge to help this person on their own. It is important to tell them that and help them seek help from a mental health professional. Just because someone in law enforcement has thought that suicide is the best answer and has told someone about it, does not mean that they will lose their jobs simply because of those thoughts. This is one important piece of information that can help the officer in crisis understand that they can not only get help and recover but keep the job they have such a great passion for.
With the number of law enforcement suicides on the rise departments have been forced with looking at the reasons why, and what they should be doing to help. Most departments have not provided training to their officers at any point in their careers regarding law enforcement officers committing suicide. The majority has also not provided much in the way of stress management training either. Many departments across the country are now beginning to see that their officers need training in these areas and are beginning to implement that training into their police academy.
When departments begin looking for information to use in teaching about stress management they are realizing that several programs are being created all over the country in an effort to provide awareness in this area. The old days of just saying suck it up, are long gone and law enforcement departments have found themselves playing catch up to these potentially life altering issues. Due to the nature and affects of the job, each law enforcement department should be responsible for helping their officers and their families live mentally healthy lives. Some departments have looked to the military to see how they are helping their members deal with similar issues.
The United States military has implemented many programs over the years to help not only military members but their family members as well. The Tricare Assistance Program known as TRIAP is an online program that military members and their families can access twenty four hour a day, seven days a week. They can use this service to help them with any type of stress that may be going on in their life. It is an easy to use program that they can utilize whenever they want. They do not need to get approval from the insurance company or anyone else in order to use it. One of the best features of this program is that it is free to use. The program offers online sessions in chat rooms or face to face communication through web cameras (Smith, 2010). The military did not want its military members and families to go without this service because they could not afford it. That is why the program is free. The question many in the law enforcement family have is why are there not programs like this for law enforcement officers?
The idea of critical incident and stress management in the law enforcement community is still a relatively new idea. Many departments throughout the country are now beginning to implement stress management teams in their departments in an effort to put in place procedures to help officers deal with their stress that is related to not only the job but their families and life in general as well. Departments are starting to realize that when officers are going through particularly stressful times, there work becomes infected with that stress and problems start to surface in their work.
I work for the Hampton Police Division. We recently created a Critical Incident Stress Management Team, known as the CISM team. The team was assembled a little over a year ago. This program came to light after some of my colleagues and I noticed a need for better policies and procedures after we had been through critical incidents ourselves. We collectively approached our chief and asked to create this program to help our fellow officers handle the stressors of the job. This team now has created policies that put a procedure in place any time we have a critical incident. These steps insure that our fellow officers receive the care they may need after a critical incident.
When officers go home after a critical incident they are given some paperwork that not only has the phone number for everyone member of the team but are also given information on the feelings and emotions they may go through in the coming days. They are also given phone numbers to our Employees Assistance Program that is run by a mental health psychologist. The team has also circulated a list of the phone numbers of everyone on the team to all of the officers on the division along with a memo of what the team is about and how we can help them. Our team spends most of its time helping our fellow officers with daily stressor that are both work and family related. They can come to us with any issue they may have.
We find that they like our program because they can speak to someone they know and someone who understands the demands of law enforcement and can relate to the issues and stressors they face on the job. Our team tracks how times our members talk to someone but never use names in our reports. We simply use these numbers to show that the program is needed and is working. Since June of 2012 we have noticed our numbers have gone up significantly. We feel this is due to the recent law that past which gives stress management teams the same privilege the attorney client privilege does. Therefore we know do not have to provide any information to the department, defense attorneys, or anyone else. We find that often the reason officers do not ask for help is because they are afraid their discussions will get back to other people and may affect their jobs negatively.
We also have also expanded our team to help not only our officers but their family members as well. Often the critical incidents and traumatic events officers go through will have a big impact on their family’s lives as well as their own. We want to make sure that our services are not just limited to the employee. Our team is made up of people who are willing to answer phone calls at any time on any day and we do not ask our department to pay us overtime or compensate us in any way. We provide this service because we care about the health of our fellow officers and their families.
The key to any team’s success is the members on the team and the department’s backing of the team. It is important to make sure that the team has at least one mental health physician or doctor on the team as well. In our case the mental health provider for the cities employees’ assistance program is on our team. He is the one that trained the whole team on one on one peer counseling and critical incident response. There will be times when we talk with people and realize the problem they are having go well beyond what we are capable to helping with. The ability to know your limits and redirect people to those that have more experience or knowledge is of the upmost importance (Regehr, 2005). Our team is never afraid to refer our fellow officers to others who are more qualified. The last thing we want to do is give incorrect information or make their matters worse.
We have found that officers are more likely to seek help from a mental health doctor after we suggest they go. I believe this is the result of having members on the team that have experienced similar experiences or can at least relate to them. Any team created will always be limited in its capabilities. It is important that after a team is created that departments do not stop there. Providing their law enforcement officers with routine training in the area of stress management and critical incident response is important to keep the subject current.
When officers are sent to the academy they are trained on how to protect themselves and survive on the streets. Most academies do not give their recruits training on how to survive at home (Kelly, 2006). After completing the academy most law enforcement agencies are required to give there officers a certain number of training hours every year. These hours can be broken up into several areas to include firearms training, practical scenarios, and legal updates. It is essential to make sure that departments start to implement stress management in the academy. Refreshing this information and providing updated trends during their yearly training is important as well. During this training it would also be a good idea to let the officers know what types of programs are available to them, both through the department and outside of the department as well.
It is important for law enforcement officers to know and understand the options they have when it comes to managing their stress and traumatic incidents. While many departments nationwide have yet to implement training for their officers, there are still many options out there for them outside of their departments. Some departments may not have programs but the actual city or town might have an employee’s assistance program. Psychologists are always a great option as well. The insurance through your department will cover most of the cost of these visits and when these visits are necessary after a traumatic event, you can file paperwork with your human resources department to have the visits completely covered at no cost to you.
Conclusion
The law enforcement officer has one of the most highly stressful jobs. It is a job that is not for everyone and requires commitment and dedication to be successful. The law enforcement officer will be faced with dangerous, life altering, and potentially life threatening situations throughout their careers. With the way that it appears the world is heading I believe the job of the law enforcement officer is only going to get harder. Every law enforcement department needs to catch up to the times and insert proper policies and procedures into their departments to assist in providing their officers with the proper stress management tools they will need to survive the job. These protocols should be in place and taught to officers in the academy and given updates throughout there careers.
The implementation of stress management and critical incident response teams would be a great start and having that team on hand to help with the extremely stressful environment of law enforcement would be a great tool for the officers. Many law enforcement agencies look at everyone on the department as family. Why wait for something tragic to happen in your department before you decide to start finding ways to help your employees and their families. Once stress management becomes something that is talked about regularly and teams are put in place to help officers and their families we will start to see a reduction in the number of suicides and officers leaving the job they are called to do.
Bibliography
Fink, P.J. (2006, May). Police and PTSD. Clinical Psychiatry News, 34(5), 12. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA149500902&v=2.1&u=vic_liberty&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w Kelly, P., & Martin, R. (2006). Police suicide is real. Law & Order, 54(3), 93-95. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/197243876?accountid=12085 Kirschman, E. (2006). I Love a Cop: What police families need to know. New York, NY:
Guilford Press.
Larned, J. G. (2010, Fall). Understanding police suicide. The Forensic Examiner, 19(3), 64+.
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Nickerson, A., Reeves, M., Broch, S., Jimerson, S. (2009). Identifying, Assessing, and treating
PTSD at School. Springer, NY.: Springer US.
Perin, M. (2007). Police suicide. Law Enforcement Technology, 34(9), 8-16. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/229748646?accountid=12085 Regehr, C., & Bober, T. (2005). In the Line of Fire: Trauma in the emergency services. Oxford:
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Smith, B. P. (2010). Stress solutions. The Officer, 86(4), 44-44. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763161107?accountid=12085 Thomas, D.J. (2011). Police psychology: A new specialty and new challenges for men and women in blue. Santa Barbara, CA.: Praeger.
Toch, H., Bailey, F. Y., & Floss, M. (2002). Stress in policing. Washington, D.C.: American
Psychological Association.
Law Enforcement Officer
Liberty University
Abstract
This paper explores the effects of stress as it pertains to the job of law enforcement. Every job has its stressors but law enforcement carries with it the potential for stressors unlike many people will ever go through. The law enforcement job comes with the potential for life and death situations that can have a lasting impact on one’s life. The research shows that while officers are given instruction on how to protect themselves and others they are often not told what to expect after these incidents are over. Many officers find themselves experiencing mental health problems after some incidents but don’t know what to do or who to go to …show more content…
for help. These problems can become serious when they are not dealt with appropriately. Some serious cases can lead to the development of PTSD or even suicide in some cases. Inner department teams and programs designed to help officers cope with these potential issues is of the upmost importance for today’s officers.
Work related stress can be a stressful topic. When it comes to the job of law enforcement stress is a guarantee. Law enforcement officers play a vital role in the safety and security of cities and towns across the world. The law enforcement officer’s job can be extremely difficult, dangerous and stressful. The law enforcement officer often is faced with brutal homicide scenes, accident scenes, and may have to fight for their life on any given day on the job. A single call for service can have a life altering impact on their lives. These calls for service often bring upon extreme levels of stress that when not dealt with appropriately can have a negative impact on their mental health, their families and their jobs. This paper will provide an insight into the job of a law enforcement officer. It will show how law enforcement officers have a certain type of persona that comes from the job and how that persona can affect them. Actual events will be discussed to show the types of calls officers go on a daily basis and the types of stressors that come from them. It will also give details into the different types of mental health issues that come from the job experiences, how they can be treated, and the types of programs available for help when needed.
There are several factors that can lead to law enforcement officers becoming under so much stress that they find themselves not being able to function properly even though they may not see it themselves. How can the law enforcement family come together to help one another and make sure the law enforcement officer has the support needed to have prosperous careers? Proper training, understanding, counseling, and department policies can provide the law enforcement officer with the knowledge they will need to identify stress management issues early on and help avoid the serious problems that come with the improper handling of stress. Understanding the law enforcement officer starts with the persona that comes with it. The law enforcement officer carries about them a certain type of persona. It is this persona that both helps and hurts them in dealing with the everyday life of being in law enforcement. In order for law enforcement officers to be effective in the job they have to suppress normal emotions like fear, anger and compassion. If these elements were not put aside it could lead to doubt or hesitancy when decisive action is required (Kirschman, 2006). Law enforcement officers often must make split second decisions. They are not always afforded the opportunity to think before they act. If they were to allow fear or anger to enter into their decision making it could cause officer safety or use of force issues. When the law enforcement officer’s shift ends it can be difficult to leave the persona at the job and not take it home with them. This persona is compounded when they are faced with the critical incidents that they will respond to. Law enforcement officers will see more critical incident scenes then they will likely be able to remember by the time their careers are over. While everyone experiences the death of a loved one, the law enforcement officer will be on the front line of many brutal death scenes and may even have to be the one that has to take a life in order to save themselves or someone else. Television shows often make it seem as though law enforcement officers are not fazed by these scenes as television stars see these scenes multiple times in one show and always come out fine in the end. In reality the effects of some of these incidents will continue much longer than the actual event. During a career a law enforcement officer will see hundreds of accidents and respond to numerous homicide scenes. Some of these calls for service will be remembered forever. The following two incidents only cover a small portion of what a law enforcement officer can be involved in on any day of the job. They are also only a small part of what is expected out of officers during their work day. After the events are over, officers can be left with extreme levels of stress and the potential for mental health problems. These incidents will give a small insight to both the potential dangers officers face as well as the after effects they have to deal with as well.
In the first incident a homeowner calls 911 because his house has been broken into and is afraid the suspect may harm him and his family. The law enforcement officer responds and finds the back door of the residence to be kicked in. The officer draws his weapon and enters the residence fearing that the owner’s life may be in jeopardy. Once inside of the residence the officer confronts the suspect and identifies himself. The suspect begins to charge at the officer and fight begins. The officer’s hand is hurt in the encounter and the suspect is attempting to take the officer’s gun away from him. The suspect charged the officer four times during the incident and on the fourth time the injured officer decided he would not be able to hold on to his weapon any longer and fired one shot striking the suspect in the chest. The suspect fell to the ground, the officer calls for a medic and starts providing medical treatment to the suspect. The suspect later died at the hospital. Even after being attacked multiple times by a suspect, law enforcement officers are still required to provide immediate aid to suspect who are injured during encounters with them. What the officer did not know at the time of the incident is that this suspect previously served time in prison for burglary to occupied houses. He was also under the influence of cocaine at the time of the incident and he had previously been in fights with law enforcement officers from his own department. He also made comments that if he were ever caught again he would die before going back to jail. What made this experience even harder was the way in which the officer was treated by his own department after the incident. The department was worried about how the community would see the event. The officer was a white male and the suspect was a black male. The department took the officer’s gun, identification, read him his rights and requested that he waive his rights so he could be interviewed by detectives. All of this happened before he was even offered medical attention for injuries to his hand that was sustained in the event. When he was finally allowed to go home he was told he had no police authority and would be placed on administrative leave and would not be given a replacement gun. He was never given any assurance that he did the right thing even though he was found to be justified in his actions.
In the days to come the officer found himself not being able to trust anyone. He did not even trust the physiologist he was seeing because he was appointed by the department and was the same one that he saw before being hired. He felt as though if he told this psychologist everything that was going on in his mind that the psychologist would report it back to his department and he would be fired. During his time of reflection the officer began suffering from suicidal thoughts, hyper vigilance, severe anxiety and felt as though he may need some sort of medication to help him with these problems but he was to afraid to ask for help in fear that he would lose his job (Thomas, 2011).
In the second incident officers are dispatched to a domestic call during the midnight hours. The call started from a boyfriend brandishing a gun at his girlfriend in a bar. This escalated later when the suspect went to the girlfriend’s apartment where he fired multiple shots through the front door of the apartment. The suspect then fled the scene. His vehicle was eventually located in another apartment complex empty. While a perimeter was being set up the suspect was observed walking to the car. He was approached by law enforcement and advised to put his hands up. The suspect then pulled out a gun and pointed it at the officer. The officer fired two shots, both missing, and the suspect retreated into the car. Other officers arrived on scene and negotiations begin to take place with the suspect in an attempt to get him to surrender. The officer who is conducting the negotiation had 15 prior successful negotiations. In this case the suspect relayed that once the sun came up he would kill himself because he had nothing to live for. Shortly after, the sun began to rise and the suspect fatally shot himself once in the chest (Thomas, 2011). The officer was about 20 feet away from the suspect when he shot himself.
It wasn’t until after the incident that the officer realized that he had responded to this man’s house before. On that call the suspect was in a verbal altercation with his girlfriend but no violence had occurred and no arrest was made. Prior to leaving the man’s house he relayed to the officer that he would commit suicide before he would be arrested (Thomas, 2011). The officer then began speaking with the suspect about his statement of suicide. After following all the procedures it was determined that the suspect was not a danger to himself or anyone else at that time so there was no action the officer could take at that time.
In the aftermath of this the officer returned to the station after leaving the scene and collapsed from fatigue. The officer believed he had failed in his mission and was overrun with emotions. The department did have a psychologist come in for a debriefing but only stayed for fifteen minutes because he had other clients waiting for him at his practice. The officer attempted to talk with officers he was close with but was always stop short because they did not want to hear of his anguish and pain. He even attempted to talk to his fiancé but all she seemed to care about was that he was safe and she didn’t care about the suspect dying. This department’s usual practice is to have officers see a psychologist after critical incidents to make sure they are fit for duty. In this case for whatever reason they didn’t and the officer was expected to be at work the next day. In the days to come the officer experienced, nausea, nightmares, severe cramps, and sleeplessness (Thomas, 2011).
While every incident will always have different circumstances, the same types of stressors that come from them are often similar.
The law enforcement persona can play a role in the aftermath of these incidents because officers often don’t know if or who they can trust with asking for help. They often worry of being misunderstood, talked negatively about by their peers because others may feel like they are not up to the task of being in law enforcement or may even fear being fired. Situations like these often leave officers with many questions, and extreme levels of stress. Stress in the law enforcement field is certainly not limited to critical …show more content…
incidents.
In addition to critical incident response many law enforcement officers have cited that their departments were one of the biggest stressors they faced in their jobs. Stress focus groups have been conducted in an attempt to gain an insight of why and how their own departments often are the causing factors of stress (Tosch, 2002). Some officers relayed that the upper level management often looses touch with the officers that work the road and answer the complaints (Tosch, 2002). The road officers are generally looked at as the front line of the department. Other stressors came from ever changing policies and procedures and what is right to do today can become wrong tomorrow. Many also said that the lack of recognition of high performing officers brought upon stress as well as promotion processes and who promotions are given to (Tosch, 2002). Officers offered that those in the inner circle or are favored by higher ups in the department were the ones who would be promoted instead of those who have been on for many years and are routinely looked at by their peers as one of the best officers the department has (Tosch, 2002).
Stress from any job can often find its way to our homes and families and law enforcement is no different. During focus groups law enforcement officers discussed the difficulties they face when deciding whether to share their work related stress with their families. Some officers relayed that they have experienced both good and bad when talking about their jobs at home. Sometimes the discussion proves to be helpful other times it causes their spouses to become angry, which caused them more stress. Some expressed that sharing their stressful experiences at work would cause their families to experience the same thing that they did and cause them experience the same stress as well (Tosch, 2002). It is important for officers to be able to find ways of communicating with their families about the problems and stressors they face at work. When communication is not open, both the officer and family members can find themselves not relieving or finding help for their stress which can lead to deeper emotional and mental health issues.
One of the mental health concerns for those in law enforcement is post traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD.
Law enforcement officers are prime candidates for PTSD because of the work they do, the critical incidents they are involved in, and the trauma they face. Some of the most life threatening critical incidents can lead to PTSD however not every officer will respond to life threatening incidents the same way. Two officers can experience the same incident but have complete opposite reactions to the event. One may be able to return to work in a few days but the other may need months to recover. It is important that each officer is given the time and help needed for them to recover. PTSD symptoms can range from sleeplessness, nightmares, replaying the events over and over, dizziness, loss of appetite, or having a feeling of being numb (Nickerson, 2009). Just because an officer may begin to experience some of these symptoms does not mean that a diagnosis of PTSD is
evident.
Symptoms or responses associated with critical incidents are normal responses to abnormal events. PTSD is not an automatic diagnosis after a critical incident. What is important is that if the officer continues to have these types of symptoms help should be sought to make sure that it does not become overwhelming and lead to the development of PTSD. PTSD is not something that will simply go away with time (Fink, 2006). While these symptoms can come and go any future event may bring everything back all at once and can easily cause the officer to become immediately overwhelmed. It is also important to understand that it may not be a critical incident that brings these symptoms back. It may not event happen while they are at work. Some officers have said it has come back from them hearing a vehicle backfiring nearby or even during their yearly training scenarios.
In some cases PTSD can develop over time and after multiple critical incidents and stress. It happens more when individuals either cant or refuse to take their mental health issues head on. In some cases PTSD has been tied to those who commit suicide. The law enforcement family is no stranger to suicides. Although it is rarely discussed or even truthfully disclosed, law enforcement officers take their own lives at an alarming rate.
A growing concern for the law enforcement community is the growing rate of law enforcement officers committing suicide. On average one hundred and sixty four law enforcement officers die in the line of duty each year. That is a number that is hard enough to swallow for the law enforcement community but when you look at the suggested number of law enforcement officers who commit suicide, it gets much worse. One estimate says that between three hundred to four hundred law enforcement officers die by their own hands each year (Kelly, 2006). In 2004 it is estimated that thirty one thousand six hundred Americans committed suicide and of this number four hundred and forty seven of them were law enforcement officers (Perin, 2007). This information is staggering.
The biggest question when presented with this data is why? It is believed that in most cases these suicides happen because the officers are not able to overcome the pain and suffering they have experienced as a result of the job. The high stress job of law enforcement can lead officers to alcohol abuse, substance abuse, violence, and anger. These things by themselves can lead someone to suicide. When you add these factors to a critical incident it can become a very dangerous situation for the officer (Larned 2010).
It is important to put policies in place and provide training to all officers so that everyone understands the signs of suicide. One of the most important things to remember when a fellow officer may be in crisis and contemplating suicide is to simply ask them the question, do you want to kill yourself? You do not want to use questions like are you thinking about hurting yourself or are you going to do something stupid. You need to be direct and ready to act if the answer to the question is yes.
If the answer is yes they need to be taken to an emergency room immediately and be evaluated by a professional. When someone says they want to kill themselves and they have a means to do so, as a law enforcement officer would have, they can be taken to the hospital for evaluation whether they want to go or not. Law enforcement departments have access to mental health service professionals that will come out and evaluate an individual that is saying they want to kill themselves. If the individual is deemed to be a threat to themselves then these mental health professionals can seek proper paper work from a magistrate or judge that will allow them to place the individual into a mental health facility for treatment.
They may hate you for it initially but realistically putting that strain on that relationship with the person in order to save their life is worth it. The hope is that you can save a life and eventually they will be thankful you saved them and that is what is important. It is also important to make sure that even if they say no you are still prepared to offer any assistance that may be needed. There are numerous twenty four hour hotline services that will be able to provide support for them. It is important to talk through all the options available to the person because you don’t want that person to think suicide is their only way out (Kelly 2006).
In most cases fellow officers are not going to have the knowledge to help this person on their own. It is important to tell them that and help them seek help from a mental health professional. Just because someone in law enforcement has thought that suicide is the best answer and has told someone about it, does not mean that they will lose their jobs simply because of those thoughts. This is one important piece of information that can help the officer in crisis understand that they can not only get help and recover but keep the job they have such a great passion for.
With the number of law enforcement suicides on the rise departments have been forced with looking at the reasons why, and what they should be doing to help. Most departments have not provided training to their officers at any point in their careers regarding law enforcement officers committing suicide. The majority has also not provided much in the way of stress management training either. Many departments across the country are now beginning to see that their officers need training in these areas and are beginning to implement that training into their police academy.
When departments begin looking for information to use in teaching about stress management they are realizing that several programs are being created all over the country in an effort to provide awareness in this area. The old days of just saying suck it up, are long gone and law enforcement departments have found themselves playing catch up to these potentially life altering issues. Due to the nature and affects of the job, each law enforcement department should be responsible for helping their officers and their families live mentally healthy lives. Some departments have looked to the military to see how they are helping their members deal with similar issues.
The United States military has implemented many programs over the years to help not only military members but their family members as well. The Tricare Assistance Program known as TRIAP is an online program that military members and their families can access twenty four hour a day, seven days a week. They can use this service to help them with any type of stress that may be going on in their life. It is an easy to use program that they can utilize whenever they want. They do not need to get approval from the insurance company or anyone else in order to use it. One of the best features of this program is that it is free to use. The program offers online sessions in chat rooms or face to face communication through web cameras (Smith, 2010). The military did not want its military members and families to go without this service because they could not afford it. That is why the program is free. The question many in the law enforcement family have is why are there not programs like this for law enforcement officers?
The idea of critical incident and stress management in the law enforcement community is still a relatively new idea. Many departments throughout the country are now beginning to implement stress management teams in their departments in an effort to put in place procedures to help officers deal with their stress that is related to not only the job but their families and life in general as well. Departments are starting to realize that when officers are going through particularly stressful times, there work becomes infected with that stress and problems start to surface in their work.
I work for the Hampton Police Division. We recently created a Critical Incident Stress Management Team, known as the CISM team. The team was assembled a little over a year ago. This program came to light after some of my colleagues and I noticed a need for better policies and procedures after we had been through critical incidents ourselves. We collectively approached our chief and asked to create this program to help our fellow officers handle the stressors of the job. This team now has created policies that put a procedure in place any time we have a critical incident. These steps insure that our fellow officers receive the care they may need after a critical incident.
When officers go home after a critical incident they are given some paperwork that not only has the phone number for everyone member of the team but are also given information on the feelings and emotions they may go through in the coming days. They are also given phone numbers to our Employees Assistance Program that is run by a mental health psychologist. The team has also circulated a list of the phone numbers of everyone on the team to all of the officers on the division along with a memo of what the team is about and how we can help them. Our team spends most of its time helping our fellow officers with daily stressor that are both work and family related. They can come to us with any issue they may have.
We find that they like our program because they can speak to someone they know and someone who understands the demands of law enforcement and can relate to the issues and stressors they face on the job. Our team tracks how times our members talk to someone but never use names in our reports. We simply use these numbers to show that the program is needed and is working. Since June of 2012 we have noticed our numbers have gone up significantly. We feel this is due to the recent law that past which gives stress management teams the same privilege the attorney client privilege does. Therefore we know do not have to provide any information to the department, defense attorneys, or anyone else. We find that often the reason officers do not ask for help is because they are afraid their discussions will get back to other people and may affect their jobs negatively.
We also have also expanded our team to help not only our officers but their family members as well. Often the critical incidents and traumatic events officers go through will have a big impact on their family’s lives as well as their own. We want to make sure that our services are not just limited to the employee. Our team is made up of people who are willing to answer phone calls at any time on any day and we do not ask our department to pay us overtime or compensate us in any way. We provide this service because we care about the health of our fellow officers and their families.
The key to any team’s success is the members on the team and the department’s backing of the team. It is important to make sure that the team has at least one mental health physician or doctor on the team as well. In our case the mental health provider for the cities employees’ assistance program is on our team. He is the one that trained the whole team on one on one peer counseling and critical incident response. There will be times when we talk with people and realize the problem they are having go well beyond what we are capable to helping with. The ability to know your limits and redirect people to those that have more experience or knowledge is of the upmost importance (Regehr, 2005). Our team is never afraid to refer our fellow officers to others who are more qualified. The last thing we want to do is give incorrect information or make their matters worse.
We have found that officers are more likely to seek help from a mental health doctor after we suggest they go. I believe this is the result of having members on the team that have experienced similar experiences or can at least relate to them. Any team created will always be limited in its capabilities. It is important that after a team is created that departments do not stop there. Providing their law enforcement officers with routine training in the area of stress management and critical incident response is important to keep the subject current.
When officers are sent to the academy they are trained on how to protect themselves and survive on the streets. Most academies do not give their recruits training on how to survive at home (Kelly, 2006). After completing the academy most law enforcement agencies are required to give there officers a certain number of training hours every year. These hours can be broken up into several areas to include firearms training, practical scenarios, and legal updates. It is essential to make sure that departments start to implement stress management in the academy. Refreshing this information and providing updated trends during their yearly training is important as well. During this training it would also be a good idea to let the officers know what types of programs are available to them, both through the department and outside of the department as well.
It is important for law enforcement officers to know and understand the options they have when it comes to managing their stress and traumatic incidents. While many departments nationwide have yet to implement training for their officers, there are still many options out there for them outside of their departments. Some departments may not have programs but the actual city or town might have an employee’s assistance program. Psychologists are always a great option as well. The insurance through your department will cover most of the cost of these visits and when these visits are necessary after a traumatic event, you can file paperwork with your human resources department to have the visits completely covered at no cost to you.
Conclusion
The law enforcement officer has one of the most highly stressful jobs. It is a job that is not for everyone and requires commitment and dedication to be successful. The law enforcement officer will be faced with dangerous, life altering, and potentially life threatening situations throughout their careers. With the way that it appears the world is heading I believe the job of the law enforcement officer is only going to get harder. Every law enforcement department needs to catch up to the times and insert proper policies and procedures into their departments to assist in providing their officers with the proper stress management tools they will need to survive the job. These protocols should be in place and taught to officers in the academy and given updates throughout there careers.
The implementation of stress management and critical incident response teams would be a great start and having that team on hand to help with the extremely stressful environment of law enforcement would be a great tool for the officers. Many law enforcement agencies look at everyone on the department as family. Why wait for something tragic to happen in your department before you decide to start finding ways to help your employees and their families. Once stress management becomes something that is talked about regularly and teams are put in place to help officers and their families we will start to see a reduction in the number of suicides and officers leaving the job they are called to do.
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