Police Psychology:  MidLife Crisis
by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP

It brings up images of the salt-and-pepper-haired man riding on a Harley with a yoga instructor half his age on the back nuzzling too close to him so that it is difficult for him to drive.  Or perhaps a middle-aged woman dressed in clothes she “shouldn’t be wearing” playing kissy-face in the corner of a bar with a young muscle-bound Adonis, not much older than the son she could have popped out at 22.  If I could circulate a sign-up sheet for these two scenarios, it wouldn’t make it past half the room.  There is something sort of fun about the midlife crisis.  Why is the midlife crisis so all encompassing, and why is it so predictable? Read the rest of this entry »

Police Psychology | “Inside the Mind” of Donald Trump

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP

 

Let me start by saying that this profile article is my professional opinion based off behavior.  I have not met the President yet, and I do not have anything other than his public behavior to base this profile on.

Many have villainized President Donald Trump and it seems they have clearly a dictator mindset.  Many people want to believe that he is like Hitler or Mussolini and wants the end of all but  straight, white males in this world, and wants women to fit in rolls like in the centuries long past or perhaps in harems.  This is not true regardless of what the spin on the evidence is. These people want to believe he is a megalomaniac that sits poised over the nuclear codes and the buttons that will bring forth Armageddon.   On the opposite end of the spectrum are those that believe Trump is some anti-political superhero destroying the all-reaching giant aliens bent on extinguishing the earth’s population by digesting their essence while flying into the major cities of the world at warps speeds, shooting anything that moves and setting all property on fire.  Is he a political dragon slayer or a dictator?  Maybe we need to get “Inside the Mind of Donald Trump.” Read the rest of this entry »

Police Psychology | “Inside the Mind” of an Anarchist

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP

There are the guys seen dressed in all black with black masks that are crashing chairs through windows and ripping up cars alongside of the road at the recent demonstrations.  They are destruction-oriented and do not tend to favor either party, although they sit with the extreme left now and most often do.  They look for a peaceful demonstrations and turn it into a riot.   They call themselves anarchists, and they are not so much of a group as an instant mob, just add water.  One thing is for sure, they make a demonstration uncomfortable, not only for police, but for the demonstrators themselves.

A true anarchist does not want any government at all.  They fight all forms of authority and even fight the idea that a society should be organized.  That is why they look for demonstrations and try to create chaos.  They don’t like authority so they destroy anything built by a company, such as a building.  The cars they just throw in for free as they represent the hierarchy of life.  They wear black for a reason, and it is not to look thin.  Black is the absence of color, the absence of light.   This is homegrown terrorism and the actors are known as domestic terrorists.  But there is more than meets the eye in this terrorist movement.  Let’s get inside “THE MIND OF AN ANARCHIST.” Read the rest of this entry »

Police Psychology | PTSD 3:  Car Accidents

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP

 

Of course, they’re driving around 24 hours a day, non-stop.  The problem is there are other people on the road.  The cops have lights on the car and fancy writing, but that just attracts people who have only partial attention to a mundane task like driving.  Two cars hit, one of them is a cop car.  From helping cop to a victim, from a person in charge to helpless man lying on the ground in pain or even unconscious.   At an accident scene, we are worried about everything from keeping the traffic moving to making sure everyone gets the help that is needed.  But the help the cop needs may not be as obvious as a broken bone, or some blood-stained clothes.  And that becomes a major problem for policing.

A New York Times article in June of last year told a story about a physician that was analyzing a soldier’s brain that had been in Iraq and Afghanistan, and had died of a drug overdose.  He was complaining of sleep problems, cognitive problems, memory loss, balance problems and suicidal depression.  The physician notices a buildup of a certain type of protein and some dust-like scarring between the gray matter and the white matter of the brain.  Many other soldiers’ brains seem to have the same scarring and complained of the same symptoms.  The physicians felt it was from blast exposure, or all the loud sounds a soldier was exposed to.  Up to 20 percent of soldiers seem to have these symptoms at different levels of severity.  Problem was soldiers didn’t want to report it for fear they would be seen as going crazy.  The article opines that in World War I, thousands of soldiers were shot for desertion or cowardice that may well of had a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  In the 2015 movie “Concussion,” Will Smith play Dr. Bennett Amalu who fights against the NFL when he discovers microtears in the brains cells of football players and the NFL won’t recognize it.  Players complained of headaches, problems sleeping …(you know the rest).   The NFL and the American Military recognize it as a disorder, when will our police departments become aware of it and recognize it? Read the rest of this entry »

Police Psychology | Building Resilience

 by Doug Gentz, Ph.D. Psychological Services

Resilience is the ability to effectively and quickly recover from difficulties, failures, illness, and injuries.  From a neurophysiological perspective, resilience is the ability to recover rapidly from sympathetic nervous system (SNS) over-activations with adequate parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) activations. Since working in law enforcement guaranties moderate SNS over-activations on a frequent basis and intense SNS over-activations on occasion, enhanced nervous system resilience is a long-term survival booster.

Four strategies for enhancing resilience are 1) minimize your exposure to unnecessary negative environmental over-stimulation, 2) take more responsibility for how you interpret your experiences, 3) notice and manage dysfunctional SNS over-activations with PSNS activations as soon as feasible, 4) stay in good cardiovascular condition with a regular aerobic exercise program supplemented with regular strength and flexibility training.   Read the rest of this entry »