Posts Tagged ‘police’

Police Psychology: Identity Politics

Posted: June 21, 2018 in Rank and Leadership
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Police Psychology:  Identity Politics

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D, AABP

 

This is one of those terms that many people in the media throw around, but few in real life understand.  Let me describe it simply as far as what is going on in the media.

Basically, it is about the power of the voice.  The straight white American male has the least voice and sits as the baseline.  Now above the baseline are any persons who belong to a group that can claim they are victimized, or oppressed, or have effects of being victimized or oppressed in the past.  Basically, the white American female makes claim to being victimized because of sex and can be seen as above the American male.  The same is for people of color — Black, Hispanic, Indian, West Indian, etc.  Basically, they are rank ordered even further within this category and depending on how loud they get at the time.  Now if you are a member of more than one identity group you have even more power.  So, a Hispanic female has even more power in identity politics than a Hispanic male.  Now further, sexual orientation gives you a bigger voice in some political circles, so if you are a gay white male you have a larger voice in political identity that the straight white American male.  Religion plays a large role also.  The Muslim is probably first on the identity power list, but Jewish people have a good case because of the Holocaust.  If you are a gay Jewish female Hispanic you have a pretty powerful voice.  Although a Muslim Hispanic female transgender would even trump the voice of the Jewish gay.  Geez, why is this so complicated.  That’s the tongue-in-cheek approach to what is meant by identity politics.  Now let’s apply it to policing…. (more…)

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First Responder: Almost ‘Chopped Liver’

Posted: May 24, 2018 in Mastering Change
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Almost ‘Chopped Liver’

by Gary A. Aumiller, PH.D.  ABPP

This story is told with the permission and review of my patient, John.

John is a retired cop, one year younger than I am.  He is pale white sometimes and other times he looks remarkably normal.  Sometimes he looks weak, sometimes like the man that plays golf a couple of times a week in retirement.  He is well-liked by most everyone that comes in contact with him.

“So why are you here?  I assume you didn’t come in for a golf lesson.”  I am not the greatest golfer.  I had known this man from police golf tournaments.

“I need a liver doc.  My brother and sister are both willing to give me part of their livers but the hospital in the city won’t do the operation because I failed a blood test.”  (A quarter of a liver from someone else will regenerate and handle the functionality of natural liver.  Live donors are the way to go in liver transplants these days). (more…)

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Police Psych: Sex Crimes Cop Part 3: The Delusions

Posted: April 11, 2018 in Police Stress
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Police Psych: Sex Crimes Cop Part 3:  The Delusions

 

 

With Easter having just past, I thought I would show you how a Sex Crime Cop sees the holiday (sent to me on Easter Sunday by a sex crime cop with the statement “this is how I see Easter.  Everything’s has become so sick.”)  We all see the world as a threatening place when something bad happens.  For the sex crime cop, it frequently goes way too far.  Any situation that their child is involved in, or their grandchild, or a child they know casually, bring up images in their heads.  It morphs from Boy Scouts, to clergy, to teachers, even to mythical figures dressing up at a shopping mall.  The worst part, is they don’t even have to have experienced these kinds of things, the images can be within their own creative minds.

You see the cop that is doing these kinds of cases jumps into a world of fetishes and philias, and crimes that are outside the box.  They see such creative types of perversions within the first year of sex crime work that they didn’t know existed growing up or working the streets.  And it doesn’t come from a books or pictures, it comes from real life, real images.  Drinking blood, nah that’s the easy stuff, ‘having sex with animals while smeared with human blood and eating engorged organs that come from who knows where while you are screaming like a Japanese Water Buffalo in heat,’ that’s the crazy stuff they are exposed to (yes there are Japanese water buffalo).  That’s the stuff of real perversions.  The type of perversion they are  exposed to daily surpasses their imagination and is a terrific shock to their systems, and if there are children involved ii intensifies their involvement. (more…)

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Police Psych: Sex Crimes Cop Part 1: It’s Not Just About Sex

Posted: January 25, 2018 in Police Stress
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Police Psych:  Sex Crimes Cops Part 1:  It’s Not Just About Sex

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP

 

A soldier may have a few days in combat but they are interspersed with time back at their base.  The regular cop has what I like to call “burst stress” where they see a traumatizing situation, but in between are less stressful situations, or as Officer Friday put “Hour and hours of boredom surrounded by moments of sheer terror.”  There is a way to get away from the stress and the seeing awful things.  But, the cop working with sex crimes/offenses has a daily dose of images, one more awful than the next, each one more and more bizarre.  I read the story last week about a man who was released from a British jail who was talking to a fourteen-year old on the computer and telling her the sexual things he wanted to do to her before he ate her alive.  He had pictures on his computer of a child with an apple in her mouth sitting on a serving plate.  Sick!!  Or how about the detective who went to arrest an accused pedophile and while in the house found martini glasses with half eaten human feces in them and digital images/movies of pre-school children being subjected to anal rape.  Apparent the cocktail was used while watching the movies of children.  Life is a daily assault on these cop’s sensibilities, a diurnal attack of nausea from seeing a young life destroyed.  It is disgusting to even talk about these things, much less see them daily.  But we expect a portion of our police population to endure this attack so they can put the perpetrators in jail.  The problem is the criminals are not the only ones put in jail, as there are many types of mental jails. (more…)

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Police Psychology: Law Enforcement Longevity and Loss

Posted: January 3, 2018 in Public Information Bureau
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Police Psychology: Law Enforcement Longevity and Loss of Self

Michael Tavolacci, PhD

Peak Performance Biofeedback, Inc.

(The interpretation of statistics and the opinions expressed in this piece are the author’s own, not reflective of the website or the editor’s.)

Consider:

In 2011 65 police officers were shot and killed! (Violanti, 2012)

In 2011 147 police officers committed suicide! (Violanti, 2012)

Ironically, the sad reality is police officers commit suicide more frequently than the civilian population. Admittedly, there are a myriad of possible explanations for the statistics, access to firearms being among the most commonly cited factors. I would suggest there is an important change that takes place in an individual who, previously determined to be of sound mind, commits suicide, weapon access notwithstanding. Degradation of self-worth, loss of hope, and feelings of helplessness are commonly understood to be elements in suicide and must have been prompted by some new variable in the officer’s life. Once the decision has been reached the weapon is merely a tool to do the job as there are various ways to end one’s life.

The Cumulative Career Traumatic Stress (CCTS) detailed by Marshall speaks directly to the hopelessness that accompanies suicide. I envision the three concepts of the suicide dynamic as the legs of a stool. As Marshall suggests that the officer’s sense of hopelessness is derived from constant, never-ending, stress, I see the leg weakening, at risk of collapse. The leg that represents the helplessness of suicide emerges as officers come to feel they cannot free themselves from the urge to help mankind, in the face of insurmountable cynicism for the very same. The third and final leg of the stool, worthlessness, represents the diminished public support perceived by most officers as they are often vilified for their mistakes and seen as representative of an increasingly distrusted government. (more…)

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