Police Psychology | An Unsung Hero

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP

This weekend I was working on a cement block retaining wall, the ones that look like rocks but are really just carved cement.  I needed to do about 50 feet of wall but I figured being 60 next month and having gotten over open heart surgery, and being fat and in the wrong shape (round instead of square), I would do ten feet at a time, about two hours of work, I figured.  First I had to rip out big eight-foot landscape ties, then dig a trench about 7-8 inches deep, fill it full of bluestone pebbles rocks to 4 inches left, put in the block, level them and WALLA, I’m done.   Simple.  Eight and a half hours later, with two trips to Home Depot I was exhausted and couldn’t even carry the last blocks to the wall.  I needed a chainsaw for the landscape ties.  I had to make two cuts on each one so I could carry them.  I had to sharpen the blade after every cut.  I need four times as much rock as I had.  Digging was an adventure, who knew every rock in the free world came to rest in my front yard, and leveling the blocks in an unlevel yard —  I am not built for this kind of work!  And no one will notice the difference.  And I thought about my occasional friend Jim Dougherty when I was finished.

We lost a good one, a real hero, this Tuesday.  No not that way, Jim Dougherty retired.  Jim ran Marworth Treatment Center and came to my attention in the late 90’s when he asked me if I would help him establish a treatment center for police officers and first responders.  He came across my name when I was doing a tour of field offices for the FBI teaching Keeping It Simple and he wanted to know if I thought an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center could be maintained for law enforcement.  Jim said Marworth had a program for medical professionals, doctors and nurses that had taken off and he wanted to run one for law enforcement.  He had luck with the Pennsylvania police and wanted to expand.  We talked and I decided to go up to Marworth and see what Jim was trying to develop.  Quite honestly no one had maintained a program for law enforcement for any length of time, although many had tried. (more…)