Posts Tagged ‘police stress’

Police Psychology | Getting Off the Floor

Posted: June 23, 2016 in Police Stress
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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 best training ever.  You probably thought I am going to be trained on everything from a car stop to recovering evidence at a homicide scene.  I’m going to be in the best shape ever by running and lifting weights, learn how use defensive tactics, and learn how to shoot a pistol. It just dawned on you that you are going to be “that” person who is requesting you to go a 911 to handle anything.  Sounds exciting!

What happens when you have a few years on the job and you come across the “S” word? The “S word I am referring to is Stress. Stress comes in so many different forms for officers.  You may find out one day anxiety, Police Psychologyduring a physical exam you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol.  You may find you can’t sleep at night.  You are more irritable and moody than ever before. You are breathing heavily. Your heart rate is through the roof. You are constantly nervous.  You worry about everything.  You don’t want to make a mistake. Everyone is watching your every move.  That’s how I ended up on the floor! (more…)

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Police Psychology | How Do We Find and Divert Violence Before It Happens?

Posted: June 21, 2016 in Tests
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Police Psychology | How Do We Find and Divert Violence Before It Happens?

Robert John Zagar PhD MPH and James Garbarino PhD

Homicide, suicide or mass murder, are two sides of a coin. Violence is either directed at others or at oneself. So how do we find violence?

Background checks miss violence 75% of the time. For interviews and judgment the figure is 54%, unstructured physical and psychiatric, 51%, and conventional ways combined miss 61% of violence. How can violencethis be if background checks miss 75%, interviews miss only 54%, or exams 51%?

When the current approaches are summed into an average, the combined approach is less than any one single approach. One would be better off tossing a coin than using these conventional ways. Yet 95% of the professionals persist in “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Einstein defined this as insanity.

This fixation with ineffective approaches is costly.  In the United States, work productivity losses due to violence range from $1,000,000 – $5,000,000 per victim, whether it’s homicide, suicide or mass murder. (more…)

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Police Psychology | Mass Casualities

Posted: June 15, 2016 in Rank and Leadership
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Police Psychology | Mass Casualties

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP

 

In light of the Orlando night club shooting this week, I wanted to give you some information on the effects this kind of tragedy can have on first responders and what can be done as a police police lineleader or psychologist to help the situation.  Unfortunately, I have worked on too many mass casualty situations, from TWA Flight 800, to the embassy bombings in Africa, to both World Trade Center bombings and quite a few in-between.  Being in the New York area I still have cops processing their work at 9/11 and Flight 800.

First off let me explain the concept of “burst stress.”  Burst stress is the norm for police officers and first responders.  Sgt. Friday of Dragnet said it best when he described police work as hours and hours of boredom surrounded by moments of sheer terror.  Burst stress is that sheer terror.  It is the amusement park rides that jerks you into the air and tosses you upside down to be caught just before you descend to your death (or puke in my case).  In the amusement park it is fun for many (I actually hate those rides) as you know that you will probably not die or else the amusement park would have closed years ago.  It is also over in a few seconds, then you go on.  Not quite that way when it happens in real life.  A first responder is in that situation, then he or she goes home and tries to get some sleep, wakes up the next morning and returns again to the same  situation sometimes for weeks.  It’s not just feeling the jeopardy, but also seeing the death that makes them confront their mortality.  When you handle mutilated bodies you picture yourself, your children and many others in that position and it is not pleasant.  It haunts you. (more…)

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Police Psychology | Too Much Ugly

Posted: June 3, 2016 in Police Stress
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 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 was all too familiar, the sound of death. He detested that sound.  Officer Frank has a 16-year-old son of his own and immediately felt the parent’s pain.

He knew he had to pull it together so, without emotion, he mechanically and procedurally finished his tour and headed home. In his 17 years on the job, Frank had seen a lot of violence; a lot of death; a lot of “ugly.” He thought he would be used to it, but today he felt “off.” Today he thought of his own son. Today he felt intense pain. (more…)

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Police Psychology | Police Divorce Part 2: Hate to Admit

Posted: June 1, 2016 in Mastering Change
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Police Psychology | Police Divorce Part 2:  Hate to Admit

by Dr. Gary S. Aumiller

When I was in my late 20’s and just married, I asked a friend of ours (who was really old, a few years short of 40) what was it like to be divorced?  police, divorce, psychologyDoes it feel different?!  He had an early marriage that didn’t work, and frankly divorce wasn’t in my wheel of experiences then, so I was curious.  He said “it was really rough at first, but looking back now it was just a relationship gone bad, like you had in high school or college.”  I didn’t buy it.  I mean this was a marriage, the sanctity of vows, building a life together, dreams, together goals, and all that jazz.      

So you’ve started the process of getting a divorce.  You’ve stopped blaming the other party.  You’ve stopped envisioning him in a refrigerator box living on the streets or her in a mental hospital, now you have to do something, right?   Time to find some loose women and play the field, or find a real man that knows how to take care of a woman, or play on the other team for awhile and gain some new experiences with your own sex, or become more independent and find yourself by jumping out of a plane, or perhaps stay with that new love that got you out of your marriage and will lead you to eternal bliss.  Let me know how these work out for you.  I’ll be waiting for you to boomerang to the same spot you are in right now.  (more…)

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