Thin Blue Mind / Smokey Heroes

Police Psych: Sex Crimes Cop Part 3:  The Delusions     With Easter having just past, I thought I would show you how a Sex Crime Cop sees the holiday (sent to me on Easter Sunday by a sex crime cop with the statement “this is how I see Easter.  Everything’s has become so sick.”)  […]

Sex Crimes Cops Part 2:  Nasty Recurrent Intrusive Images by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP   In Berkely, California there are researchers who are working on what happens to the brain in intrusive recurring images, in fact they are working hard on mapping what the brain does when it has the images.  They have gone […]

Historical Trauma and American Policing by Dr. Philip J. Swift Historical or multigenerational trauma is the communal emotional and psychological injury of a group caused by traumatic experiences or abuses that transcends generations. When an individual or group is emotionally or psychologically injured by an event(s), the injury can be passed to non-traumatized individuals and […]

Police Psych:  Sex Crimes Cops Part 1:  It’s Not Just About Sex by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP   A soldier may have a few days in combat but they are interspersed with time back at their base.  The regular cop has what I like to call “burst stress” where they see a traumatizing situation, […]

Police Psychology:  Merry Stressmas by Gary S. Aumiller, PH.D.  ABPP   So I was riding on a train on Wednesday of last week, December 13, 2017, at 6 am in the morning going into New York City for a OASAS seminar.  OASAS is the certifying group that allows you to do evaluations on people who […]

Police Psychology:  No More Drama by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP I had pneumonia!  I just got over it I guess, although I hack as I write.  One off my staff caught it on a cruise to Russia, and I woke up with it on Saturday last week, in case you were wondering why there […]

Police Psychology:  Sleep – What’s the Point? by Douglas Gentz, Ph.D.   Sleeping doesn’t make much sense from a, “survival of the fittest” perspective. How does it benefit an animal or a person to become completely inattentive to their environment – helpless to fight or flee – for six or seven hours out of every […]

Police Psychology | Stress Inoculation:  Not Just for Gunfights by Patricia A. Robinson, Ph.D. Sonoita, Arizona  If you Google “police stress inoculation shooting,” you’ll get about 300,000 results, with titles like “Why your firearms training MUST include stress inoculation drills.” Acute stress induces the so-called “fight or flight” response, stimulating the sympathetic nervous system and […]

Police Psychology:  27 Symptoms of Anxiety       Site Administrator:  Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP Please share this article from down below. Please join the email list on the top of the sidebar and you can get these sent to your email.  Also follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ThinBlueMind) for other articles and ideas, and […]

Police Psychology | PTSD 4:  Flashbacks Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP   Of course, you are going to think I’ve lost it on this one, but it shows some merit.  And it makes some sense logically.  Researchers in England  say that flashbacks from traumatic events can be moderated through playing Tetris right after the event […]

Police Psychology | PTSD 3:  Car Accidents by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP   Of course, they’re driving around 24 hours a day, non-stop.  The problem is there are other people on the road.  The cops have lights on the car and fancy writing, but that just attracts people who have only partial attention to […]

Police Psychology | The Obsessed Mind-Body Connection by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP

Police Psychology: Intrinsic Heart Rate – A Landmark for the Ability to Engage in Rational Thought by Doug Gentz, Ph.D. – Psychological Services Your intrinsic (inherent) heart rate is how fast your heart would beat when you are calm and at rest if it wasn’t slowed down to your (observed) resting rate by your vagus […]

Police Psychology | An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure Robert John Zagar PhD MPH and Brandon Northern Current ways of finding challenges like trauma and stress miss 61% of at-risk. Conventional approaches of interviews, background checks, and short paper and pencil tests are less than chance accurate and comparable to a […]

Police Psychology | Not-So-Fantastic Four by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP The Human Torch, the Invisible Woman, the Thing and Mr. Fantastic are Marvel’s creation of four people with super powers who work together as a team to stop crime.  Not one of their powers is complete, but together they are unstoppable.  In fact in […]

Police Psychology | PTSD 2:  Crash and Burn by Gary S. Aumiller, PH.D.  ABPP Have you ever had the chance to be in a drunk driving simulation or even play a game on a drunk driving simulator?  You try to keep the car on a straight path, but it keeps moving around.  Every turn you […]

Police Psychology | Getting Off the Floor by an Anonymous Reader   Do you remember the first few minutes before you entered the police academy as a recruit? There were a million thoughts running through your mind. You landed the greatest job in the world and now you are going to get some of the […]

 Police Psychology | Too Much Ugly By Robin Kroll, PsyD ABPP   When officer Frank arrived at the scene of the crash, he knew immediately there was a fatality. He found the teenage driver ejected, lying on the side of the road, dying. In his attempt to give aid, he heard the gurgling sound that […]

Police Psychology | Night of the Living Binge by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP I’ve got to have some chocolate before dinner. Where is it?  Wait there’s some cheese.  I could eat this cheese instead.  Where’s the knife?  Hell I don’t need a knife, I could eat the whole chunk of cheese in two bites. […]

Police Psychology | PTSD Part 1:  What You Hear is What You Get Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP I have seven PTSD cases in my office right now at different stages.  Being hit by a car while working highway, a car accident with the leg shattered, a car accident during a chase, a guy stabbed […]

Police Psychology | Control Freaks!   In police psychology, we know how to pick them out. “It’s my way or the highway!” they cleverly say, as if those words were ever original thoughts. Or, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself,” more originality.  Maybe they just offer “constructive criticism” or […]

What’s the Seventh Grade Science Term for the Opposite of Chronic “Stress?” (Hint: Two words, a total of nine syllables)  by Doug Gentz , Ph.D- Psychological Services Along with intentions to abstain from junk food and resist general slothfulness, most of us try to avoid “stress.” Maybe as long as we’re committed to steering clear […]

Police Psychology | Make Up (of) Your Mind   Police stress can sometimes originate from cops who are thrust into a work situation where supervisors don’t understand how they think and process information. This is an area where police psychology can be of tremendous help to departmental leaders. The police psychologist is in a position […]

Police Psychology | Locked Away in Your Cell Police psychology has had a new enemy these days, and it’s not typical ol’ police stress. The Cell Phone. You ever hold your cell phone up at a concert to demand an encore? That means you are cool! Scan a document into you cell phone. That’s really […]

Police Psychology | To Pee or Not to Pee   Police psychology is sometimes dripping with excitement. Cops have a tendency to know where every bathroom is in their sector because when they have to go, they need to go. But it may be more than that. Today, I’m going to write to you about […]

Keeping It Simple   Police Psychology has many facets.  This is one I learned quickly working with officers. I sat and dutifully listened to a story I had heard many times from my parents and now from my friend’s Brooklyn relatives. It seems that people who were children of the forties and before remember a […]

Psychological  Shot-Peening Let’s talk about an often overlooked police psychology concept – shot-peening. Now, I know shot peening isn’t a top 10 on anyone’s choice of psychological technique, but before you click on that little “x” button, hear me out. We’ve been discussing how scientific theories can extend to your head, and the practice of […]