Thin Blue Mind / Smokey Heroes
Police Psychology | A Real “Blue” Christmas
by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP
Posts Tagged ‘police psychology’
Police Psychology | Symptom Stress
Posted: December 15, 2016 in Mastering ThoughtsTags: police psychology, police stress, Symptom Stress
Police Psychology | Symptom Stress
by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP
Police Psychology has a strong cognitive element. Thoughts are very powerful. They have the ability to shape your reality and create a world that is completely different than anyone else’s. They can provide you with 
questions and solutions that help you function better in day-to-day life. They can help you dream about, and plan for, the future. Yet, thoughts can also be very intrusive. Have you ever stayed awake late into the night, tossing and turning, trying to get some disturbing or unpleasant thought out of your head? How about trying to forget about something uncomfortable that occurred earlier in the day (or earlier in the week) in order to move on? The truth of the matter is “thoughts” seem to play by their own rules. They’re like your annoying neighbor who constantly stops by uninvited and never seems to leave. You can drop as many hints as you want—“Well, Steve, we should really do this again some time…how about next year…?”—but they never seem to get the hint. Thoughts sometimes act in this same indifferent way: they are always around when you least want them to be there, similar to the voices in your head that are like little gnats that buzz around you no matter what you try to do to avoid them. And it’s never the intrusive thought about lying on the beach with a Bond girl strapped to your side that you can’t get rid of, at least not anymore. (more…)
Police Psychology | If I Can Just Get Through This Month
Posted: December 13, 2016 in Mastering EmotionsTags: holidays, police psychology, police stress
Police Psychology | If I Can Just Get Through This Month
by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP
“…and I in my cap, had just settled our brains for a long winter’s…” fight! Perhaps if Clement Clarke Moore would have written his poem in 2016 instead of 1822, this may have been the line in “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” 
Many don’t find a serene “nap” on their schedule, in fact many “just want to get through it.” Get through the holidays is the major sentiment that a psychologist sees in his office from mothers, and fathers, and cops and most people out there. They often don’t let each other know in social relationships, but they sure do say it a lot in to a psychologist, even when we don’t ask. I just want to get through this damn holiday season without “going broke,” “without ringing someone’s neck,” “without getting a divorce,” “without killing my kids…” “Maybe I’ll just work Christmas and Christmas Eve.” The joys of the holidays!!
Holidays are a time when many people are happy, and quite a few are miserable or just powering through it. If you have an overly controlling person(s) in the family, you have obnoxiously opinionated people in the family (you should have heard some of the stories after Thanksgiving this year, less than a month after the election), you have someone in the family who has a personality disorder, or you even have kids who missed the discretion and manners line on the way out of heaven, you could be in for a rough holiday. Or if you have a family from Mars and you’re from Sheboygan, watch out, the Grinch lives in each of us and “his heart hasn’t grown 3 sizes that day” yet. Well, Doc, can’t I just keep a positive attitude and get through it? Bring a video camera, I want to see that solely for entertainment purposes. Can’t I just avoid everyone this Christmas? Do me a favor and make sure the battery on that camera is charged and please don’t throw it against the wall smashing it into a thousand pieces before I see. (more…)
Police Psychology | The Operational Triangle
Posted: December 8, 2016 in Rank and Leadership, StoriesTags: influence, Operational, police, police psychology, power
Police Psychology | Take the Operational Triangle Home
by Doug Gentz, Ph.D. Psychological Services
The operational triangle was developed to provide a graphic way to represent priorities for officers in the field. At the base 
of the triangle is Officer Safety which always comes first. The middle level of the triangle is about building Rapport which involves interacting with other people in a way that creates or enhances a relationship and increases your ability to exert the power of influence. Problem Solving is at the top of the triangle and could be as simple as giving someone directions to the bus station or as complex as making a successful case against a homicide suspect.
As opposed to influence, problem solving relies on the power of authority, meaning you can make something happen that eliminates the problem. Your directions relieve the lost pedestrian’s ignorance about the bus station and the case you build against the murderer takes him off the street. Somewhere in between is arresting a drunk driver. When you’re through solving a problem, you can usually go 10-8. (more…)
Police Psychology | Hanukkah Wishes and Communication
Posted: December 6, 2016 in Rank and LeadershipTags: communication in law enforcement, Hanukkah, police psychology
