Calming the Storm
Officer James R. Burns was proud to represent the Atlanta Police Department on his dress blues, but since he discharged his revolver on June 22, 2016, the Atlanta police department reminds him that he mortally wounded a 22-year-old in the line of duty. Officer Burns responded to reports of a suspicious man lurking in an Atlanta apartment complex. When officer Burns arrived, he attempted to block a 2011 silver Ford Fusion that was leaving the complex. Deravis Caine Rogers did not try to hit the officer, while Burns stood at the rear of his patrol vehicle. Officer Burns had no information describing Rogers as a threat and had no way to identify that Rogers as the man reported. Regardless, officer Burns fired a single shot through Rogers’ vehicle, hitting Rodgers in the back of the head. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard charged officer James R. Burns with felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and violation of his oath of office. To this day, officer Burns is currently part of an ongoing court case. He has been charged with multiple felonies and has been relieved of his duties at the Atlanta Police Department. The stress from a shooting is sometimes overwhelming as the officer may feel betrayed by the department he/she serves. In addition, an officer faces administrative and legal proceeding which could result in termination, criminal charges or even being sued. A study conducted in 2002 by David Klinger, a professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Senior Fellow at the Police Foundation in Washington, DC., surveyed 80 police officers who’ve all shot suspects in their careers. Of the 80 police officers surveyed, 48% still experience trouble sleeping and an outstanding 83% have recurrent thoughts or feelings. An unhealthy mindset as a police officer has an adverse effect on behavior, emotion and performance. The lack of counseling in law enforcement has directly impeded efficiency levels in law enforcement.
Perhaps the largest barrier to finding effective treatments and support systems is the culture that exists within law enforcement. The profession requires officers to restrain from their emotions and rein their feelings of pain or suffrage. It is presumed by law enforcement that officers can make that emotional switch and focus on another case, regardless of what they may be experiencing. Cops that suppress their natural instincts during conflict and “deal with the consequences” later only makes sense that there’s a benefit to the suppression in the first place. Law enforcement is both physically and mentally demanding, but sloppy emotions like empathy, understanding, sharing in, and caring about another’s emotions can get in the way of effective emergency policing. In 2014, officer Joe Winters, a deputy in the King County Sheriff’s Office, was called in response to a woman’s behavior, which residents deemed disruptive, in a city park in western Washington. When he arrived, officer Winters noticed a woman, who appeared to be homeless, laying on a bench shivering in thirty degree weather. The woman claimed that she purchased the bench and refused to leave. Officer Winters did not give into her false claims, but felt an underlying sense of compassion for the woman. Instead of forcibly removing her from the park, he gave her a blanket and sat with her for hours. Officer Winters inability to restrain from his emotions prevented him from performing his duty. Therefore, cops, unlike officer Winters, are rewarded for being able to distance themselves from their feelings.
Police officers are also more at risk for alcohol abuse than the general public, as a result of their stress levels. When police officer’s actually accumulate astronomical amounts of pressure in their field of duty, alcohol seems like a reasonable solution to their problems. The most remote cause for alcohol abuse in law enforcement lies in alcohol’s ability to alter levels of neurotransmitters in the brain that take officers away from their line of duty and into a mindless bliss. Why not drink alcohol as a temporary relief to help cope with a murder case? Vicki Lindsay, a professor of Criminology and Penology at the University of Southern Mississippi, conducted a study of police officer’s in urban communities and found that of the 375 officers surveyed, 11% of male officers and 16% of female officers reported alcohol use levels deemed “at-risk” by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as opposed to a mere 4.7% alcohol use, ages 18-64, in educational services. Alcohol provides an outlet for police officers because they refuse to seek treatment for their anxieties or symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Problems that develop (such as alcohol dependency) are usually the result of a police officer’s, because of the stigma of appearing weak, reluctance to seek help. Mike Violette, an executive director of the Colorado State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police, emphasized that it was “difficult enough to have officer’s come forward who have this problem. There is an ‘I can handle it’ attitude that cops have.” A way to minimize the help police officers are offered, they quickly and completely indulge in a night of binge drinking that allow for them to drown the nagging memories months of talk therapy only dull.
Unhealthy coping mechanisms pave the way for additional stressors such as murderous hours, rank stagnation and managerial apathy. Lethargy is dangerous in law enforcement because it eats away at the productivity, ethics and effectiveness of an officer. Police officers become no longer willing to uphold the duties entrusted to them when they took the oath. Mark Bond, professor of Criminal Justice at American Military University, said,” What many officers might not be aware of is the long-term effects of chronic fatigue and the relationship between stress and fatigue. Not getting enough rest and not eating properly in order to fuel the body can increase the effects of fatigue. Being fatigued on-duty causes many issues, such as poor decision making and other cognitive task difficulties.” The lack of counseling in law enforcement directly impacts a police officer’s performance and effectiveness in their field of duty. Police officers need and deserve our help to regain their mental health.
Law enforcement needs to eliminate the stigma surrounding the culture of law enforcement regarding the harsh judgment of police officers who seek professional help for mental health concerns. The problem is completely internal to the department. It is critical that officers learn healthy coping strategies to minimize stress on a regular basis, rather than attempt to mask stress with alcohol or other unhealthy behaviors. We cannot limit our efforts to educate the protectors of our well-being. We must provide contemporaneous trauma support.
Works Cited
Bond, Mark. “The Impact of Stress and Fatigue on Law Enforcement Officers and Ways to Control It.” In Public Safety. American Military University, 01 Dec. 2015. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.
Gustafson, Timi. “Keeping Your Emotions Bottled Up Could Kill You.” Huffpost Living. 31 Mar. 2014. Web. 4 Nov. 2016.
Klinger, David. “Police Responses to Officer-Involved Shootings.” National Institute of Justice. National Institute of Justice, 1 Feb. 2002. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.
McGhee, Tom. “Police Officers Struggle with PTSD.” The Denver Post. 18 Jun. 2014. Web. 4 Nov. 2016.
Willman, Elizabeth A. “Alcohol Use Among Law Enforcement.” The Journal of Law Enforcement. 2.3 (2008) 1-4. Print.
Rowan Counterintuitive 
P1. I have a couple of suggestions. 1) If this is all we’re going to learn about Officer Wilson, we need some closure. You name him, mention his pride, tell us he killed a teen, and then consign him to a life of guilt, or something. If he surrendered his badge, we need to know that. If he’s still on active duty, then tell us that “to this day . . .” he suffers. If he was exonerated, charged, convicted, killed in action, made a scapegoat, or something else, we need to close the circle. 2) A study can be a survey. Is that what this is? You hint that more than 150,000 officers suffer PTSD, but you don’t indicate why the “study” wouldn’t get them to be frank. If the data come from anonymous survey forms, we could expect greater transparency than if the subjects were asked in person: Do you cry yourself to sleep at night? Understand?
P2. A thoughtful reader will undoubtedly ask: “If Seifert never acknowledged his troubles or sought counseling from the force, left duty in 2010 and committed suicide 7 years after the valorous gun battle without ever receiving treatment, how does Philly321 know Seifert suffered from PTSD? Is he just guessing that a 2015 suicide can be traced back to a heroic shootout? He doesn’t say Seifert even killed or wounded anyone, only that shots were fired. What’s the trauma?”
P3. That’s a LOT of summary opinion on your part, Philly. Do you owe the ideas in this paragraph to any source? It’s compelling, but might need some evidence. A percentage of cops who take to drink compared to the general population? Something? Better yet, some support for your claim that “law enforcement” requires officers to restrain their emotions. There should be a good source to support the idea that in a situation where objective action is required, sloppy emotions like sympathy and compassion get in the way of effective emergency policing. If that’s true, cops are rewarded for being able to distance themselves from their feelings. Right?
P4. You’ve read my mind. This exact sort of evidence, that cops suppress their natural instincts during conflict and have to “deal with the consequences” later only makes sense if there’s a benefit to the suppression in the first place. Build some of that into P3, then be careful not to assume too much in P4, as you do when you say, “We know that stress can build up and become chronic, etc.” [Fix “suffrage”; it means the right to vote.]
P5. [The usual trouble with your plurals and possessives. Watch out for officers and officer’s especially.] Most of your causal links work well in this essay, Philly, but claiming that cops are warned about boozing, but that it “only helps a bit” undermines your causation. Find a better rhetorical balance: a way to minimize the help they’re offered by emphasizing how, for example, quickly and completely a night of binge drinking can drown the nagging memories months of talk therapy only dull. See what I mean?
P6. You’ve got this cause list backwards, Philly. Start with the dangers you’ve already alerted us to, then ADD additional stresses you haven’t yet named: murderous hours, rank stagnation, managerial apathy . . . (notice how much more vivid my descriptions are?). Here I see you’re providing the statistic I asked for earlier about cop drinking, but we need both numbers. Is 11% much higher than the at-risk percentage for non-cops? If so, you have a useful statistic. If not, it’s just a number.
P7. I suppose you’re right that the stigma is the problem. But how in the world will you propose that “WE need to eliminate the stigma against perceived weakness”? Isn’t the problem completely internal to the department? Rhetorically, you’ve adopted a very consistent tone here: all four sentences are moral claims of necessity.
Very strong work overall, Philly. Always room for improvement as noted.
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