\n<\/span><\/p>\n
Unusual and sometimes disturbing experiences are just part of the job of a Police Officer. As they proceed through their careers, officers typically take these experiences in stride. At some point, an officer may have In a true Critical Incident, the involved officer has to work harder and longer than usual to digest the experience.\u00a0 A partial list of events that may (or may not) trigger a\u00a0 Critical Incident include Officer Involved Shootings, horrific car wrecks, and grotesque crime scenes especially those involving children. While the events<\/i>\u00a0 are relatively easy to describe, the factors that\u00a0 underlie the \u201cdegree of adjustment required<\/i>\u201d are\u00a0 much more difficult to define. There are a multitude of examples of events shared by several officers that become a Critical Incident for one or two officers and not others. What makes the same event a Critical Incident for one officer while another officer experiences it as just unusual, perhaps noteworthy?<\/span><\/p>\n Most of the answer to that question is more physical than psychological. The main contributing factor that makes an incident \u201chard to digest\u201d is the amount of epinephrine (AKA adrenaline) secreted into the officer\u2019s brain during the experience. The more epinephrine that floods his or her brain, the greater the need for recovery and adjustment.<\/span><\/p>\n All experiences are received, processed, and sent for storage by a part of the midbrain that acts like a librarian responsible for accepting, indexing, and cataloging input from the five senses. This \u201clibrarian of the brain\u201d<\/i> is called the hippocampus and it is extremely sensitive to levels of epinephrine. A little \u201coverdose\u201d of epinephrine enhances its performance (stronger memory formation), while a big overdose \u201cintoxicates\u201d it. When \u201cintoxicated,\u201d its\u2019 performance is impaired. This means that the pictures, the sounds, the sensations associated with emotions, and even the smells that the officer perceives during the event are not sorted, indexed, and catalogued as usual. Instead, those perceptions may remain knitted together as a whole experience so that later, the event may be reexperienced<\/i><\/b> instead of simply being remembered. Fortunately, as the hippocampus \u201csobers up\u201d over time, it will work tirelessly and unconsciously to perform its function of turning the experience into a regular memory.<\/span><\/p>\n The typical reactions (pounding heart, replaying the event, difficulty with sleep, etc) that tend to accompany involvement in a critical incident are associated with re-experiencing<\/i> rather than remembering<\/i> the event. It is essential to keep in mind that all Critical Incident reactions are normal<\/i><\/b>, temporary,<\/i><\/b> and resolvable<\/i><\/b>. If and when reactions aren\u2019t as temporary as you\u2019d like, consultation with the psychological staff at your department would be a useful option.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Site Editor:\u00a0 Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Please share this article from down below.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Please join the email list on the top of the sidebar and you can get these sent to your email.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Come back regularly for more updated articles on police psychology<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Police Psychology | Critical Incidents in Law Enforcement by Doug Gentz, Ph.D.\u00a0 Guest Author Unusual and sometimes disturbing experiences are just part of the job of a Police Officer. As they proceed through their careers, officers typically take these experiences in stride. At some point, an officer may have an experience that rises to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17168882],"tags":[17168929,17168797,17168831],"class_list":["post-2239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resilience","tag-critical-incidents","tag-police-psychology","tag-police-stress"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=54","url_meta":{"origin":2239,"position":0},"title":"Book Review: Crisis Negotiations: Managing Critical Incidents and Hostage Situations in Law Enforcement and Corrections","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"January 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been honored to give keynote addresses at a couple conferences for the Texas Hostage Negotiators and the FBI Crisis Teams and found them to be a very different type of cop.\u00a0 They are humble but at the same time show a lot of confidence.\u00a0 They have a way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168876"},"img":{"alt_text":"crisis negotiations","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/crisis-negotiations-244x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2119,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=2119","url_meta":{"origin":2239,"position":1},"title":"Police Psychology | Investigating \u201cG.I. 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Jason Childers, Texas We frequently hear about how stressful police work is, and the sacrifices we make in the service of our community is an oft-repeated narrative in police circles. The jerks we deal with on the street, the trauma\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Rank and Leadership"","block_context":{"text":"Rank and Leadership","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168887"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":684,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=684","url_meta":{"origin":2239,"position":3},"title":"Police Psychology | The War on Police: “Officer-Directed Violence”","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"September 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | The War on Police: \u201cOfficer-Directed Violence\u201d Ron Martinelli, Ph.D., CMI-V, BCFT, CFA Let\u2019s see a show of hands. Every one of you who recognize these names raise em up. Michael Brown? Freddie Grey? OK. 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an experience that rises to the level of a Critical Incident. Two factors must be present to qualify an experience as a Critical Incident. The first is involvement in a sudden, unexpected, very unusual, life threatening event. The second is that the involvement in that event triggers a need for a much greater than \u201cnormal\u201d degree of psychological adjustment on the part of the officer.<\/span><\/p>\n