{"id":6203,"date":"2017-07-06T06:06:58","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T10:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=6203"},"modified":"2017-07-11T14:07:06","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T18:07:06","slug":"police-psychology-stress-inoculation-not-just-for-gunfights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=6203","title":{"rendered":"Police Psychology | Stress Inoculation: Not Just for Gunfights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police Psychology | Stress Inoculation:\u00a0 Not Just for Gunfights<\/strong><\/h1>\n
by Patricia A. Robinson, Ph.D.<\/span><\/p>\n
Sonoita, Arizona<\/span><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>If you Google \u201cpolice stress inoculation shooting,\u201d you\u2019ll get about 300,000 results, with titles like \u201cWhy your firearms training MUST include stress inoculation drills.\u201d Acute stress induces the so-called \u201cfight or flight\u201d response, stimulating the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal-cortical system to prepare you to deal with the proverbial saber-tooth tiger about to pounce or the drug dealer drawing a pistol.\u00a0 Without getting into the physiological weeds, we are familiar with the effects of the acute stress response:\u00a0 pounding heart and rising blood pressure, tunnel vision, loss of fine motor control, auditory exclusion, and so on.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not prepared, these responses can wreak havoc with your shooting skills.<\/span><\/p>\n
Trainers introduce artificial stress (e.g. time pressure, shoot\/don\u2019t shoot decisions, scenarios) in firearms training to ensure that when the real thing happens, an officer will still be able to perform, even under acute stress.\u00a0\u00a0 The middle of a gunfight is a bad time to be trying to think through step-by-step how to draw and fire your weapon or what to do when a malfunction occurs\u2014your responses must be automatic. \u00a0With acute stress, when the gunfight is over (or the saber-tooth tiger has decided on a different entr\u00e9e), our bodies return to normal.<\/span><\/p>\n
Chronic Stress:\u00a0 No Saber-Tooth Tigers, Just Being Nibbled to Death by Ducks<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Chronic<\/em> stress, on the other hand, produces all the same physiological effects as acute stress, although not always at as high a level\u2014but it doesn\u2019t go away as readily.\u00a0 Your body never quite returns to normal.\u00a0 Chronic stress can result from many sources, but among them is the need to remain calm and professional even under severe provocation. \u00a0That provocation need not be physical.\u00a0 Just the daily grind of dealing with people who are angry and upset and take that distress out on the cops adds up.\u00a0 After all, in what other job are you guaranteed when you head to work that at least once during your shift someone will call you an obscene name?\u00a0 Ask any officer which call they\u2019d rather respond to:\u00a0 suicide by firearm or an ongoing neighbor trouble.\u00a0 The suicide will win, hands down\u2014even if the body wasn\u2019t immediately discovered and has become, well, ripe.<\/span><\/p>\n
Some progress has been made in teaching officers to manage angry or upset citizens.\u00a0 In recent years, in response to various high-profile use-of-force incidents, law enforcement has focused much more attention on training officers in crisis intervention\u2014teaching officers to recognize individuals in crisis, particularly when there is a mental illness component, and to use verbal techniques to de-escalate crisis situations where possible.\u00a0 In other words, to learn and practice skills to calm people down. \u00a0Other<\/em> people, that is.\u00a0 But what about the police officer\u2019s own anger and emotional upset?\u00a0 What do we train for that?<\/span><\/p>\n
I recall as a rookie officer encountering the reality of people screaming at me, calling me names, and accusing me of being a racist just because I wore a uniform.\u00a0 This was new to me and, frankly, quite upsetting, particularly the racial accusations.\u00a0 I always did my best to treat people with respect and fairness, regardless of their behavior, but the undeserved hostility rankled, nevertheless.\u00a0 I once asked a senior officer how he managed to deal with it, and his response (facetiously) was \u201cdrink heavily.\u201d\u00a0 Nothing in the academy had prepared me adequately for that aspect of the job.\u00a0 Over time, I developed ways to manage these situations and achieve a level of emotional detachment, but it still took a toll.<\/span><\/p>\n
Think the effects are transient?\u00a0 Think again.\u00a0 I recently had occasion to watch the video of the Sandra Bland arrest<\/a>. \u00a0You\u2019ll recall that she was the woman stopped by a Texas DPS officer for failing to signal a turn, ordered out the car and arrested.\u00a0 She committed suicide in jail, which triggered protests, especially after the arrest video went viral.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been out of active law enforcement for over 15 years, and still, when I watched that video and listened to the whole exchange between the trooper and Ms. Bland, I felt my stomach tense up and all those old emotions from similar verbal conflicts come rushing back. (If I still taught academy students, I\u2019d use that video as a training tape for Professional Communication, but that\u2019s another column.)<\/span><\/p>\n
Can Stress Inoculation Reduce Chronic Stress From Anger?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Is there any way to train officers to better manage that internal anger that comes with the job?\u00a0 Could the same stress inoculation techniques that we use to train officers to shoot under stress also work to help officers prepare for the critical emotional component of policing? What a great idea\u2014why hasn\u2019t someone thought of that?\u00a0 Actually, someone did\u2014forty years ago.\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0Writing in the American Journal of Community Psychology<\/em> in 1977, Raymond W. Novaco described using stress inoculation to train law enforcement officers in anger management, with the twin goals of reducing inappropriate aggression by police and reducing police officers\u2019 internal chronic stress.\u00a0 So why in the world aren\u2019t we doing that training routinely now?<\/span><\/p>\n
While modern academies do incorporate some stress management topics, these are usually lecture classes.\u00a0 Recruits are urged to manage stress in a positive way (exercise, eating well, maintaining social support networks) and avoid negative responses such as excessive drinking and social isolation.\u00a0 Why not incorporate stress inoculation using scenario training specifically designed to help officers manage verbal altercations in a way that not only allows them to de-escalate the other person\u2019s hostility, but also to manage their own anger and frustration?\u00a0 If it works for gunfights (acute stress), it should also work for \u201cword-fights\u201d (chronic stress).<\/span><\/p>\n
Teach officers a handful of anger-management techniques and then let them practice with intense, realistic scenarios in which hostile individuals berate the officers, call them names, question their integrity and intelligence\u2014all the usual annoying things that upset people do.\u00a0 Let the officers practice calming themselves down at the same time as they calm the hostile person and work through the scenario problem.\u00a0\u00a0 Have the officers report out not just why they chose specific actions to handle the call, but also how they felt, what pushed their buttons, and what worked to defuse their own emotions.<\/span><\/p>\n
Without such training, officers all too often just try to \u201cstuff\u201d their feelings or numb them with alcohol (or worse). Sometimes this accumulated anger and frustration bubbles over and an otherwise reasonable officer \u201closes it\u201d with a suspect, resulting in an excessive force complaint\u2014and possibly a ruined career.\u00a0 \u00a0Other officers put up an impenetrable emotional wall in self-defense, and fall into an us-against-them mentality with the community. Using stress inoculation to train healthier ways to manage emotional overload will reap multiple benefits\u2014both for the officer and for the employing agency.\u00a0 Officers who learn how to manage their internal response to verbal abuse will be less likely to overreact when provoked, less likely to become jaded and cynical, and more likely to live longer, healthier lives.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Site Administrator:\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.\u00a0 Also follow me on Twitter (https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThinBlueMind<\/a>) for other articles and ideas, and YouTube at\u00a0 https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCfjNw0510ipr3bX587IvAHg<\/a> .<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police Psychology | Stress Inoculation:\u00a0 Not Just for Gunfights by Patricia A. Robinson, Ph.D. Sonoita, Arizona \u00a0If you Google \u201cpolice stress inoculation shooting,\u201d you\u2019ll get about 300,000 results, with titles like \u201cWhy your firearms training MUST include stress inoculation drills.\u201d Acute stress induces the so-called \u201cfight or flight\u201d response, stimulating the sympathetic nervous system and […]<\/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":[17168885],"tags":[17169004,17168797,17169005],"class_list":["post-6203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stress","tag-chronic-stress","tag-police-psychology","tag-stress-inoculation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5851,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=5851","url_meta":{"origin":6203,"position":0},"title":"Police Psychology | Master Police Coaches: \u201cBuilding A Better Cop\u201d","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"May 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | Master Police Coaches: \u201cBuilding A Better Cop\u201d Marla Friedman, Police Psychologist \u00a0 Born out of the academy, the Probationer is a blank slate. 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Please join the email list on the top of the sidebar and you can get these sent to your email.\u00a0 Also follow me on Twitter (https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThinBlueMind) for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Police Stress"","block_context":{"text":"Police Stress","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168885"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4600,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=4600","url_meta":{"origin":6203,"position":5},"title":"Police Psychology: Be the Solution, Not the Cause","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"November 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology:\u00a0 Be the Solution, Not the Cause by Lt. 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. 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