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THE SILENT DESTROYER

by Loren W. Christensen

Accumulated stress can affect law enforcement officers in a variety of ways.

Sanders, who is now retired, stands 5' 9" tall and nudges the bathroom scale to about 155 pounds, a weight he maintained throughout his 30 years on the police department. Most of the officers who worked around him called him “Pitbull,” not because of how he looked, but how he fought.

His style was to latch onto a perpetrator and remain latched until the perp wore himself out from trying to shake off the annoying cop. Pitbull would use his arms to latch on to the perp’s head, his arm or his waist and, if the perp was exceptionally tall, the diminutive cop would grab his leg, sometimes just his pant leg, and never let go. Pitbull dogs fight the same way, except they use their sharklike teeth to do the latching.
Pitbull the cop worked a high crime area where he spent long days chasing hold-up guys, gangbangers, rapists and other heavy-duty types, all the while earning a reputation for being hardworking and fearless. He made lots of arrests and latched onto a lot of perps who didn’t want to go the easy way.  

Then, one day, Pitbull froze.

He was at home getting ready for work and slipping on his shoes when he suddenly couldn’t move – not one muscle. He tried to call out, but his mouth only opened and closed silently, like that of a beached fish. Several minutes passed before his wife found him lying motionless on their bed, staring up at the ceiling.    

In spite of several minutes of deep breathing and comforting from his wife, Pitbull still couldn’t get up to finish dressing and, after 30 more minutes, he knew he couldn’t go to work. He called in and told them he had the flu.  

During my 29 years in law enforcement, I’m proud to say that I always went when called. On every “in progress” call, I was always the first to snatch the mike and tell dispatch I was on my way. It didn’t matter if it was a riot in progress, an armed robbery, or a gang shootout, I was always quick to answer the call and quick to get into the fray. Except once.  

When it happened, I’d only been on the force about eight years, but they had been wild and crazy years working a beat which provided more intense action in one eight hour shift than some PDs get in a year. I was young and, as an action junkie, I thought I was in paradise. Then, one day, my hand wouldn’t move to retrieve the mike and answer dispatch’s urgent call about “a man tearing up a bar.”  

As hard as I tried physically, and as hard as I willed myself mentally, I could not pick up that mike or drive in the direction of the call. I just sat there like the proverbial bump on a log, as sweat saturated my uniform.
That happened over 20 years ago and it’s only been recently that I told anyone.  

Karen is a 23 year veteran of a major police department. As an aggressive officer, she has been in more than her share of fights, riots, chases and shootings. Her husband is a veteran SWAT officer in the same department, so she has also shared indirectly in all of the violence he has experienced.

For four years, Karen worked in the narcotics unit, executing dozens of high risk entries, conducting follows and making street buys. On top of the stressful street duties, Karen found the office politics to be dog-eat-dog; her fellow officers to be competitive with each other; and her supervisors to be uncaring. The stress from all the internal negatives, combined with her years of experience as a patrol officer and her husband’s many years of SWAT, bounced Karen’s stress needle into the Red Zone. While it seemed to Pitbull and me that our stress needles had blipped suddenly into the red, Karen’s had been moving progressively in that direction for a long time.   

She said, “For the last two years that I worked in the narcotics unit, I would have to drag myself to work. I would tell myself that I should appreciate this coveted job, but I didn’t appreciate it. It was hard for me to feel so negative because I’m a positive and upbeat person, but I was starting to count the days to retirement. I was taking good care of myself, eating right, exercising, sharing with my family and friends, but I couldn’t shake the dread.  

“Then the dread shifted to fear. I feared going in the front door on warrants, which scared me because I know that, when you are afraid, things happen. For over 20 years on the street, I had never been afraid. But, I just felt worn out – all the accumulated events on the job were taking their toll.”

This Gig Isn’t for Sissies

To frame what we are talking about here, allow me to preach to the choir for a moment.  

There is no other job in the civilian world quite like police work. One moment you are in your patrol car fighting sleep on a blistering hot summer day and, two minutes later, you are rolling around on the floor with an overweight wife beater, as the wife bellows at you to “kill the bastard,” while the kids scream hysterically at you to not hurt their daddy.

A boring day can suddenly turn into one filled with fear, tragedy and a memory which won’t fade no matter how many sets of bench presses you do or beer cans you empty. The randomness and sudden intensity which is police work can be as inviting and intoxicating as it can be stressful physiologically and psychologically.  

How about those work hours? Isn’t it special to work midnight to 8:00 a.m. and then sit in court all day? Maybe you get some sleep that evening – maybe not – but, either way, midnight comes around and it’s time to repeat the exhausting cycle. And who came up with the idea to rotate shifts? Was it the makers of sleeping pills? Stress accumulates quickly when there isn’t sufficient rest to combat it.   

Oh, and let’s not forget working holidays, emergency call-ups, other types of surprise overtime, and those times you have to work seven, eight or nine days in a row for whatever reason. When these times happen, you miss your important stress reducing workouts while forced to survive on “nourishment” from fast-food joints.

Long tours in high crime areas can take a toll, too. It’s not uncommon for a well-adjusted, eager and sharp looking rookie to evolve into a gruff, tired, stressed, and even angry officer after just a couple of years working in a busy and dangerous area.

Also taking a toll is the conscious or unconscious concern about getting hurt or killed. Grinding away at your “lifespark” is the dread filled thought that the next confrontation might turn deadly, or the nagging memory of a recent incident which did that to another officer. Such haunting thoughts can cause poor sleep, problems at home and problems on the job.  

Then, there are all the things which go on in the office and out among the citizenry. Many officers say that they can handle the criminal element, but it’s the office politics, relations with coworkers, discipline, cranky bosses, unfair treatment, lack of support, media embellishment and citizens’ accusations which create the preponderance of debilitating stress in their lives.

Tips to Help You Combat Stress

Okay, that’s enough grumbling: Let’s look at some positive things we can do to fight back. Though we have been discussing accumulative stress, the following helpful tips also reduce the stressful impact of a major traumatic incident, such as a shooting.  

The tips suggested here are not the only things you can do, and you are encouraged to research more ways to combat this debilitating, career ruining, and deadly force which has ruined the lives of so many officers. You may not have control over everything which causes stress, but these are some easy to do things which will help reduce its impact.  

Pitbull and I experienced our problems over 20 years ago at a time when macho ruled, when most police officers wouldn’t admit they had a problem and most police agencies were unfamiliar with the problems stress can cause. Pitbull and I didn’t ask for help. Instead, we suffered alone and felt guilty and embarrassed for years. Karen’s situation, however, happened just recently in an agency which understands the problem and even has an office to help officers get over the rocky road of accumulated stress. The following tips worked for Karen and now she is back on the street doing that which she loves.  

Healthy Lifestyle Choices

These are obvious things which you probably already know are good for you – regular exercise, eating healthy, getting sufficient sleep, going to the doctor, and drinking alcohol in moderation. The fact is this: A healthy body bounces back faster from physical injury and gives you an extra edge to cope with stress.

Support from Friends,  Peers and Family  

Since humans are social creatures, social isolation is unnatural and usually unhealthy. People who have connections they can turn to for support, feedback, and help fare better than people who are alone or living inside a shell. While some people need more social contact than others, the exact amount is less important than the quality of the relationships and whether they are getting their personal needs fulfilled.  

If you feel lonely and full of dread, you need to do something about it. Sitting at home watching TV and feeling sorry for yourself isn’t going to help, nor will hanging out in bars drinking with your buddies. Instead, consider some positive alternatives, such as joining an organization of people who share your interests, hobbies, or religious beliefs, or do volunteer work to help others. These activities get you out in the world and around positive people doing positive things.

Don’t limit your social contacts only to police officers. This is a natural tendency, but one which will develop an unhealthy  “us versus them” mentality toward anyone outside law enforcement. Officers work in such a different world than most other people that there is a tendency for them to associate with only those who understand them. It’s up to you to learn to get along with people from all walks of life and to allow yourself to become friends with some of them. Doing so will make you more balanced so that you see good guys as the norm and bad guys as the exception.    

Don’t forget your primary support system – your family. When Karen recognized what was happening to her, the first person she talked to was her husband. Although he is a weight lifter, veteran SWAT sergeant and a poster boy for the word “macho,” he was sensitive to her issues, and not just because the person asking for help was his wife: He recognized the problem because he had seen it happen to other officers.

Be Proactive in Solving  Your Own Problems  

Life isn’t always fair and, from time to time, it’s your turn to get kicked; in fact, sometimes, the boot party happens when you are already down. You will bounce back quickly, however, when you don’t think of yourself as a perpetual victim, but, rather, accept the reality that occasionally stuff is going to happen to  you.  

When you have this acceptance in your mind, and then one day you are presented with a traumatic event, or you start feeling overwhelmed from a host of them, you will automatically begin thinking in terms of what you need to do to take care of yourself. You will seek information, assistance, new coping strategies and do whatever is necessary to turn a negative into a positive or, at the very least, turn it into a learning experience which will make you better, stronger, and wiser.  

Even with an acceptance that stressors will happen to you on the job, there will still be times when you get mad, depressed, disgusted, and fed up, and you can still experience psychological problems after being exposed to a horrible event or a long period of stressful events. But to reiterate, your new way of thinking means that you absolutely refuse to let adverse events or people wear you down, and you know it’s your responsibility to ensure that these forces don’t destroy you.  

When Karen realized what was happening to her, she first talked it over with her husband and then sought a transfer out of the narcotics unit. She didn’t want to take time off from police work, but rather she wanted to do something more sedate for a couple of months to see if that would help her. If it didn’t, she planned to talk to a psychologist. It was not that she had an issue about talking with one, she wanted to see first if a break from the stress of her assignment would help.

A Spiritual Foundation

How can you find happiness, peace and fulfillment in a world so full of evil and craziness? This is a particularly important question for police officers who see so much of the ugly and traumatic side of life.

Let’s define spirituality as some type of belief or feeling which allows you to feel meaningfully plugged into the web of life around you. It’s something that is bigger than you, a core that you carry everywhere. Spirituality transcends any one situation and gives continuity to your existence and your values through time and across events. It’s life enhancing; it encourages compassion and respect for others; and it allows you to feel grounded and positive in the face of adversity.  

For many people, formal religion fills this need. For those who don’t subscribe to a formal religious doctrine, spirituality can be a commitment to a deeply held value or set of values, such as “my purpose in life is to make sure the world is a better place for me having been here.” No matter your approach, a sense of meaning and purpose will serve you well when faced with pain and trauma.  

Peer Support

Although you may have only limited power over how your command staff treats you; how the public reacts to police involved incidents; what the media reports; and even how your friends and family members cope with the ugly events you experience, you and your fellow officers do have power over how you treat each other. Only you can make the commitment to be there for other officers when the chips are down.

When Karen decided to transfer out of narcotics, she spoke with two officers who had connections with those who could get her transferred. They knew Karen as a hardworking dedicated officer, but they also saw that she was a boiling kettle. They didn’t judge her, they didn’t label her, but they did act as a liaison to get her another job.

We know that all officers are not so kind. The police subculture is rarely a “genteel” society. It tends to be a bit rough around the edges and it pays to have a thick skin and a broad sense of humor to not be offended by all the “stones busting” and teasing which officers like to do with each other. This will never change, nor should it. But, when officers are feeling unusually stressed or vulnerable, that is a time to be more careful about what is said and a time to think about offering support. This can make all the difference in the world. When, after four years in the narcotics unit, Karen told her superiors that she wanted out, there were those who couldn’t believe it. A couple of them even spoke to her as if she were stupid to leave such a coveted position; one said that riding it out for two more years would allow her to retire with more income than she would retiring from a patrol function.

So, why do some officers make insensitive comments during these sensitive times? Well, some are just uncaring and that will never change; happily, their numbers are small. The majority of hurtful comments, however, are made out of ignorance, mostly because the speaker doesn’t know what else to say. This is the same reason some officers ignore or avoid their peers who are experiencing a bad time in their lives. Fortunately, a little education can go a long way toward helping officers know how to be there for each other.

Support from Your Agency

There are many agencies with command staff who care about officers and strive to treat them with sensitivity. A supportive command staff which has been educated as to how they should treat an officer suffering from an accumulation of stressful events will make a big difference in helping the officer recover quickly. Unfortunately, there are other agencies which are not so caring. Those who mistreat their officers through ignorance (“suck it up troop and be a warrior”) do great harm by traumatizing them further.

  Officers and supervisors are encouraged to get educated on the issue so they can guide an officer in the right direction to get help, as well as identify a troubled officer who is perhaps too uncomfortable to take that initial step. Knowledge is power. As an officer, the more you know about the subject of accumulative stress, and accept that it might happen to you, the better you will be able to put up a fight when it rears its ugly head. As a supervisor, the more knowledge you have on the issue, the quicker you will recognize it in your people and help them to be proactive in their recovery for their sake and the sake of your agency. 

About the Author: Loren W. Christensen recently retired after 29 years in law enforcement. He now works as a full-time writer and martial arts instructor.  He has written 23 books, made two defensive tactics videos, written dozens of magazine articles, and is the editor of the Rap Sheet, the Portland (Oregon) Police Association’s monthly newspaper. You can reach him on his Web site (LWC Books) at www.lwcbooks.com.