Police Mental Health

After You Fluff Your Pillow Tonight

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Wed, 8 Mar 2017 19:47:00 -0800

On Feb. 20th 2017 Keith Boyer, a 27-yr veteran of the Whittier, CA Police Department did what he was supposed to do: he went to help people. In this case, he went to help people involved in a serious motor vehicle accident. What officer Boyer didn't know was that the "victim" in this accident had been released from the California Department of Corrections a week earlier as a parolee. Despite his prior convictions for robbery, burglary, and resisting arrest (among others) Michael Mejia was considered a "low level" inmate under the newly passed California Assembly Bill 109.

Officer Boyer also did not know that Mejia - shock of all shocks - had murdered his own cousin earlier in the day, and had no intention of going back to prison. So, here we have a situation in which an officer hardwired for elping meets a hardened, violent criminal who simply has no value for a human life. When attempting to PAT search Mejia for weapons Ofc. Boyer was shot and killed, leaving behind adult children. At his memorial, one of his sons said,

"We knew as kids growing up what our father did, and the risk, but my dad never showed fear," said son Joseph Wayne Boyer. "He absolutely loved his job."

The author of AB 109 is a man called Michael Romano. Professor Romano sits in his office at Stanford University and frets about the poor people locked up in prison. Admittedly, when I read this story I was infuriated. A life long liberal and intellectual, I decided to send Mr. Romano an e-mail inviting him to expose himself to the perspective of the "other side" of the cause he has taken on.

The difference between those with intellectual integrity and those who are blind is the ability to seriously and honestly consider the "other's" perspective; to understand the other's perspective on their own terms, not on one's preconceived biases.

Here is the e-mail I sent to "Professor" Romano:

Michael,

I am a mental health professional with decades of direct experience working with some of the most disenfranchised people in our society. For example, I worked for years in the San Francisco County Jail providing mental health treatment to some very sick, and often quite violent individuals.

I am also a police officer who has seen, over and over again, violent criminals - the type of people you apparently want on the street. I've arrested them for shocking, senseless, brutal crimes. If I had a nickel for every time my jaw dropped when looking at their arrest histories, I'd be retired by now. How many times have a screamed the thought, "Why the fuck is this guy not in prison?"

As you know but probably strategically ignore, the best single predictor of future violence, is a history of violence. A sea of people with long, documented histories of violence in their communities, are being released after serving a few weeks in county jail.

Now lets talk about you.

You are a thinker. You sit in your office and think. A Yale graduate and shooting star at Stanford, our society has given you quite a nice platform for your ideas. But, you also have an agenda don't you? You've convinced yourself by selectively reading ideas similar to your own, that the criminal justice system has failed too many people. You think people deserve a second, and no doubt third, fourth, and fifth chances to show society that they're really, deep, deep down, good, hardworking, honest people with caring hearts. You've worked hard to give them these chances and can congratulate yourself for having succeeded in this.

It doesn't really concern you that our community mental health system is in complete shambles, because that's not your problem. Your problem is trying to figure out how to get career criminals out of jail and back home. Never mind that, without drug and mental health treatment, many of these career criminals are most certainly going to reoffend.

And, of course you don't see this first hand because you probably live in a two story Spanish style Tudor in Menlo Park. You certainly can't see it from the Ivory Tower at Stanford. Sure, you roll your shirt sleeves up and go to San Quentin to hear the sob stories of psychopaths (which you apparently take hook, line and sinker).

After you fluff your pillow tonight and roll over to sleep, I'd like to invite you visualize the family of Keith Boyer. Who is he you ask? He's the Whittier police officer that was murdered the other day by one of the "victims" of the criminal justice system you got out of jail under Prop. 109.

Officer Boyer was doing what cops are supposed to do: help people. He was coming to help a motorist who had just been involved in a bad collision. Oops, no, it turned out to be one of those criminals that makes my jaw drop when looking at his arrest history, and which pulls on your heart strings.

I'd like to invite you to visualize a hypothetical conversation between you and Officer Boyer's family. In fact, you don't even have to think of anything to say to them that you haven't already said. You can tell them, as you told the LA Times, that any assertion that your champion bill has led to more violence in the community is "fake news."

Officer Boyer's incident is merely an anecdote, carrying none of the heft of other types of evidence. Even if I plopped hundreds of thousands of these anecdotes on your desk at Stanford you would dismiss it wouldn't you? You ignore anecdotes unless their your own. I'd bet my next pay check you have an anecdote about how you personally have been pulled over and harassed by the police, don't you?

You see, cops don't have the time to sit around planning, implementing, and evaluating high quality research. We're busy trying to separate the small but prolific number of psychopaths you've let out of prison from regular, tax paying citizens.

Unless you have more intellectual integrity than I'm giving you credit for, you probably won't really spend much time tonight thinking about your conversation with Officer Boyer's family. I'm guessing your heart will go out to Michael Mejia, the young man you let out jail and Officer Boyer's killer...er, I mean, "alleged" killer.

Mr. Mejia is REALLY in trouble this time. You may want to roll up your shirt sleeves again to look at his case. Here's his picture for you. Note the sad puppy eyes. Good luck on his case, and sleep tight.

Sincerely,

Jeff Shannon

Words of Wisdom for New Officers

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Wed, 8 Mar 2017 18:59:00 -0800

Very good article here.

http://wannabeacop.com/new-officers-guide-handling-stress/

A Mind Toward De-escalation: Throwing away the fake, adopting the real

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Sun, 8 Jan 2017 17:30:00 -0800

“De-escalation” has become a real buzzword in the law enforcement industry. A confluence of forces have thrust our ability to talk to people into the forefront of modern policing. As tempting as it is to critique these forces, I think we have to accept that the community, the courts, and our departments now expect a whole lot from us with regard to our ability to talk to people. Specifically, agitated people, in a rapidly changing environment, with lots of opportunity for Monday morning quarterbacking.

There is nothing new in the idea of trying to calm people down so that we don’t have to use force. Much of the older generation learned “Verbal Judo” in the police academy, a full-throated endorsement of using words to settle people down. The latest version of Verbal Judo is now embedded in Crisis Intervention Training (CIT), tactical training, and management training at all levels.

Our police chiefs, sheriffs, and public information officers leap at any opportunity to drop the de-escalation buzzword in their public comments. All of this, in response to the communities perception that if we jam de-escalation training down every cop’s throat, people won’t be shot and killed anymore.

Unfortunately, the press has perpetuated the myth that more “sensitivity” training for officers with regard to our interactions with the mentally ill, will translate into less OIS’s. Training is ideal for those who are ready to learn, and who take some kind of interest in the topic they’re learning about. In reality, training is but a small part of what is required to reduce the number of mentally ill subjects being killed in the country.

I’d like to take a moment to strip away all the fluff and garbage surrounding the typical de-escalation training, and give you five things to think about on the topic of calming people down. Some of these ideas require introspection. They all lead to practical, in the field options for officers wanting to settle someone down.

(1) Being Authentic

Presented with a caricature or robotic police officer, people in crisis will inevitably escalate. In this sense, agitated subjects are reaching out for a real human connection. That connection will offer up keys to the castle for the de-escalator. The officer’s task then, is to respond to the escalated person, not as a cop trying to be ‘human,’ but as a human speaking with another human, keeping in mind his/her police duties. This can be very uncomfortable, especially for new officers.

(2) Responding versus Reacting

Reacting is the first thing that comes to your lips. Responding is giving it a second, letting this first impulse pass, and speaking tactically. Everything that comes out of your mouth should serve the singular purpose of calming this person down. Throw what you want to say out the window.

(3) Writing the Biography

As an advanced crisis de-escalator, you will become the personal biographer of the person you’re trying to settle down. You will be curious about what’s going on from their perspective. You’ll immerse yourself - if only for two minutes - in the world of the person in crisis, becoming familiar with how they see the situation. When writing the biography, officers should be asking questions, rather than making statements or providing commentary.

(4) Holding the Environment

In the midst of everything, the effective crisis de-escalator exudes a sense of comfort with taking control of the situation. This is a skill that largely comes with direct experience in the field. It’s not about being “controlling” as much as it is about knowing that you are in charge. When you know you’re in charge, and buck stops with you, your agitated subject will be more responsive to your interventions. Importantly, this isn’t something you’ll want to show off. It starts with your internal sense of confidence in being able to manage the call. That confidence will permeate your interaction with the person in crisis.

It’s important to remember that some adults need limits. Many people who feel out of control will respond favorably to the officer who says, “no.” It helps them feel protected. Setting a limit is a tactical decision, again, based on the singular goal of calming the subject down.

(5) Offering Hope

The person in crisis is drowning at sea. You are the Life Preserver being tossed overboard. Why should the agitated person reach out to you? Because you really believe that if they get the help they need, they will be in a much better place in their life.

Recovery is possible for people with schizophrenia, substance abuse, depression and all the other major mental illnesses. You have to believe that. As an advanced de-escalator, you will know about the mental health options for those you are talking to. The more you know about these programs the better.

Embedded into the identity of any law enforcement officer is that of “helper.” We strike our own balance between enforcer and helper; a balance that may change with years on, life experience, and work experience. Stripping away all the external pressure we now feel, the above officer tasks, if taken seriously, will reduce the necessity to use force, increase the communities confidence in us, and - perhaps most importantly - keep us safe.

Where We're Going.

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 20:26:00 -0800

Firstly, I want to thank you for taking the time to check out my blog. I've received a good amount of correspondence from people saying they get something from this, so thank you. It's heartening to hear from people from all over the world.

For the last three years or so, I've been a contributing editor for Calibre Press. This has been a great opportunity, and I love the work they do at Calibre. However, I now feel a need to write completely from the hip, without requirements about the number of words used, or topics that other feel are important that I do not, or visa versa.

Topics for this blog will include:

Police stress & wellness
Police culture
Police interactions with mentally ill subjects
Observations about the politics of policing

Again, thank you for your support and stay tuned for what I hope will be a good series of articles.

Kind regards,
Jeff

On Policing the Mentally Ill.

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 19:08:00 -0700

It has become abundantly clear to just about everyone that there is something mightily wrong with our mental health system. As LEO’s, we don’t spend much time in places where things are going splendid. We spend are time in broken places. And, so it is with the mental health system.

Police executives have been wringing their hands, asking how in the world we can manage the tidal wave of mentally ill subjects in crisis our officers are interacting with. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, a full half of everyone with a serious mental illness in this country receives no treatment whatsoever. None.

Allow me provide a little historical context to this. What LEO’s are facing today is a case of the chickens coming home to roost. In the 1950’s and 60’s the general public (the “general public” will come back into this story, so remember it) collectively decided to close the state mental institutions. Society said, “These hospitals are inhumane, no one should have to live in these conditions!” So, JFK went with the tide, promised to fund the public mental health system, and the hospitals starting shuttering their doors.

Well, then this really weird thing happened: a politician didn’t keep his word. Just as quickly as state mental hospitals closed, with no funding at the community level, very sick, unmedicated, and unsupported, people began surfacing in towns and cities across the country. The chickens began coming home.

Fast forward fifty years and we have a situation where, nationally at least 10% of all our calls for service involve someone with a serious and persistent mental illness. While I don’t have the stats to back this up, I think that percentage is much higher in urban areas. And when half of those people we contact with serious and persistent mental illness are receiving no treatment whatsoever, what do you think the outcome is going to be? Yep, 25-50% of all the people we kill have a mental illness (again, Treatment Advocacy Center).

Usually after a LEO kills or seriously injures someone with mental health challenges, the family comes forward to sue. With blood in the water, the local and national media love tag lines like, “[Your local city here] Officer Shoots/Kills mentally ill Teen.”

The mental health system is “mightily wrong” because it isn’t properly resourced. Period. Having worked as a non-profit mental health professional for many years, I can tell you with certitude that this isn’t a problem of lazy, incompetent people IN the system. The vast majority of your community mental health providers are trying to do the right thing, just like you. We naturally want to blame the “mental health system” for our current predicament but it’s not the system that’s at fault here. More on that in a minute.

Though well intentioned, the general public (remember them) believe that the problem of police officers using lethal force on mentally ill subjects can be answered with more training (e.g., Crisis Intervention Training).

Sheriffs and Chiefs across the country have seized on this, some righteous believers, others just forecasting civil litigation. I believe this sort of training has benefit. I myself am a CIT de-escalation instructor. But a lack of training cannot be blamed for most of the bad outcomes involving police and mentally ill subjects, and sending an officer kicking and screaming to the “hug a thug” training surely doesn’t ensure a better outcome down the line.

Several classes of victims have risen out of JFK’s failed experiment. First, there is the sufferer. People don’t choose to be mentally ill. Without treatment they suffer greatly. The woman you see talking to herself every day, unkempt, and surrounded by what looks like garbage, is suffering. Mentally ill people can get better. They can. With advances in antipsychotic medications, social support, and housing, people get better.

Another victim in this mess are the family members, caregivers, and friends of those with mental illness. There exists a sea of traumatized, indignant parents across our country who have absolutely been victimized by an underfunded mental health system. As the CIT Coordinator of my department, I’ve received far too many calls from concerned parents asking for advice. Their stories are remarkably similar.

My son was a straight A student in high school. He played sports and had friends. He was a happy kid. Now in his second year of college, he’s becoming psychotic and I need help.

My daughter has been hospitalized three times, but they release her right back to the street. She uses alcohol (or weed, or meth) when she starts hearing voices. How can we keep her in the hospital until she gets the long term care she needs.

Most parents are terrified to call the police because they worry their loved one will be killed. Yet, because of a lack of viable mental health resources, that’s exactly what they have to do. Most people have the luxury of not knowing just how skeletal our mental health system is. When it’s your son (God forbid) who needs emergency mental health services, however, that’s when the bubble bursts for parents. That’s when the national crisis we’re experiencing dawns, crystal clear on them. From the reports I hear, it can be a life-altering experience.

And, yes, our police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and custodial staff are also victims. We’ve been thrust into the fore, why? Because something broke. In this case, it’s the mental health system, and we’re left holding the bag.

Spending more time each week responding to calls for service involving the mentally ill involve more liability. Officers, by the way, who actually want to help people and do the right thing. But, we see the liability which has arisen from several fronts.

First, there are the expectations of the community, who have swallowed the media’s message that law enforcement officers are slaughtering mentally ill people. Any officer involved in an OIS (Officer Involved Shooting) involving a mentally ill subject should expect to be sued. That’s kind of off the top.

And, how are we to know the subject holding the knife in front of us is mentally ill? The courts have given us really no direction here. Case law over the last fifteen years produced an elevated standard for officers with regard to our interactions with mentally ill subjects, while providing no account for how that standard is to be met. No good deed goes unpunished, right? LEO’s across the country are doing the right thing by putting our fingers in the dike of the mental health system, but we’re getting sued left and right because of it. We’re getting injured more, we’re having to manage more post traumatic stress, we’re being scrutinized more.

The vexing problem of officer’s encounters with the mentally ill has occupied a lot of police executives’ time. Here’s a message I would suggest they send to their troops:

The current mental health crisis we’re dealing with has been caused by the general public’s lack of concern for the plight of the mentally ill. If the general public really wants to get that homeless encampment off their block, they will begin to support funding for the mental health system. Like so many other entanglements we get ourselves into, this is not a police problem. It is, rather, a natural extension of the general public’s lack of interest in seeing mental health as just as important as physical health.

So, when is this situation going to be better? It’s going to get better when the general public realizes that the “problem” of mental illness in their community is not a police problem, but a community challenge: “What legislation can I support that provides for a robust mental health system?” The “problem” of police interactions with the mentally ill was created by the general public. Appropriately then, it can only be corrected by the general public.

Emotional Wellness for Law Enforcement Curriculum

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 21:35:00 -0800

I am hoping to be starting the Master Instructor Certification Course (MICC) sponsored by the California Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST).

All MICC students are required to design a law enforcement course from 3-5 days in length, which will be submitted to POST for approval. If approved, it will become a POST reimbursable course offered statewide. POST courses tend to have much better attendance because officers get CPT credit for them.

My course will be on Emotional Wellness for Law Enforcement.

In addition to having grown up in a law enforcement family, I am an 11 year police veteran, and a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. While my professional and personal experience in this area have a place in the design of the course, it is far from enough.

I would like to correspond with others who feel strongly about the need for our peace officers to be as emotionally healthy as possible throughout the span of their lives. If you are one of the following and would be willing to share your ideas on the development of this course, please contact me.

Law Enforcement Officers (LEO)
LEO, mental health clinician or others that who teach in this area
Mental health professionals working with LEO’s
LEO peer supporters
Researchers
LEO family members
Anyone else with a verse to contribute

For those of us with a vested interest in this topic, this is a fantastic opportunity. My goal here is to learn as much as possible from as many different people as I can.

In addition to collaborators, I will be looking for subject matter experts (SME) for various topical areas (e.g., John Violanti for LEO stress). If you are a SME or know someone who may be willing to donate a bit of their time to a good cause, please let me know. I will be interviewing SME’s at some length.

It is important to note the focus of this project will be on “Lifetime Emotional Wellness.” To use an analogy, at the basic police academy in CA, the class on physical training is called, “Lifetime Fitness.” Recruits begin physical training on the first day of the academy. Their last day of PT is usually the day before graduation. It is pounded into our heads that fitness is not to stop once we leave the academy; that it is for life. This is the type of framework I intent to use for emotional wellness.

While the course will include secondary and tertiary prevention (i.e., what to do once problems exist), a focus will be on developing, maintaining, and constantly improving one’s emotional wellness. I see a gap here in the literature and training. My bias is that, as peace officers, we should go beyond “surviving” this career [no jab here toward Gilmartin’s invaluable work]. We should know about and be willing to work toward lives filled with meaning, happiness, and healthy relationships.

Finally, something about the design of the course. The fundamental question the CA POST IDI program asks is, how do adults learn? Everything in the program is geared toward adult student learning. To explain what is meant by “learning” here, let me contrast it with “going to a training.”

As most of us know, the typical training involves someone lecturing to the class for long periods of time, with a PPT in the background. In fact, sadly perhaps, this is how I’ve conducted most of my trainings (which is part of the reason I started the IDI program). So, lecture, PPT, the odd video or two and get out a half hour early. Sound familiar?

In designing this course, my question will be, what learning exercises, delivery methods, learning styles and modes, and learning verification tools will I use to ensure the greatest chance that students will actually use what is taught? In other words, rib sticking stuff. Ultimately, this will not be “Jeff Shannon’s” training. It will contain enough detail and clarity that any law enforcement trainer will be able to use the lesson plan and teach the same stuff. My question to you is, What “stuff” should be in there?

Thank you in advance for anything you can offer.

Kind regards,

Ofc. Jeff Shannon, LMFT

Berkeley Police Department

jshannon@cityofberkeley.info

(510) 981-5779

(510) 595-5580 Office

Optimism. In Law Enforcement? by Jeff Shannon, LMFT

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:36:00 -0700

The other day as I was driving, I saw a twenty something guy skateboarding down the sidewalk. His clothes were dirty and torn, and he carried a piece of card board under one arm with writing on it. Within only a few seconds of seeing this young man, a rather harsh judgement popped into my mind, the specific words of which I’ll plead the 5th on.

In this same few seconds, however, something quite amazing happened. Before I even completed the sentence in my mind, replete as it was with a colorful adjectives, I stopped myself. Not only did I stop myself, but I turned my attention to the young man’s lime green beanie cap. I said to myself, “I like that cap!” I said it again as he faded off beyond my side view mirror, “Cool cap.”

What I realized in this very brief moment in time was that I’m becoming more “positive.” Having worked in law enforcement for ten years now, this is no small accomplishment. As just about every cop knows, the more years we have on, the more pessimistic we tend to become. Pessimism, along with its ugly cousin cynicism, follow naturally as we spend years interacting with people at their “Maddest, baddest and saddest,” as Kevin Gilmartin puts it (Gilmartin is the author of Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement).

Optimism helps us bounce back from adversity of all kinds. Getting punched in the face is adversity. While I certainly hope no LEO has this experience, if it does happen, getting punched in the face does offer a moment of truth regarding ones’ ability to bounce right back and stay in the fight. Adversity can also take the form of events as routine as being stuck behind someone with no driving skills, working for a horrible boss, or being exposed to a critical incident.

Dr. Dennis Charney at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, makes his living by studying how people respond to adversity. Specifically, he’s interested in those who are excellent at bouncing back. He interviewed Vietnam veterans who were held in captivity, tortured and kept in solitary confinement for many years. He came up with ten characteristics of those who didn’t suffer from PTSD or depression after their imprisonment. Guess what the number one characteristic of resilient individuals was. Yeah, it was optimism.

Your daily experience reveals that some people seem to be naturally more optimistic than others. By the way, we’re not talking about those who are obnoxiously and unrealistically happy about everything. We’re talking about those who understand the gravity of the adversity before them and yet see the cup as half full. Regardless of how naturally optimistic you are, the fact is we can work toward being more optimistic (and therefore more resilient) if we so choose.

Having made baby steps myself toward being more optimistic, I can report the following benefits,

I’m less pissed off.
I feel better in my skin.
People like being around me more (I think).
I’m a better role model for my kids.
I have less toxic stress hormones coursing through my veins.
My overall life satisfaction is better.

Okay, assuming I’ve sold you on working toward being more optimistic, how do you “do” it? Step One is the most difficult. It involves bringing conscious awareness to our thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. The great thing is, we have lots and lots of opportunities to practice this stuff.

Angry, impatient, pessimistic thoughts are all opportunities! If you bring conscious awareness to them - in other words, you catch yourself in the act - you can choose to shine the light of conscious awareness on to something more positive (like the guys’ cool beanie). Doing it just one time will show you it’s possible.

Suddenly realizing that you’re feeling angry, tense, or irritable also presents the opportunity to ask yourself why you’re feeling that way. Then, you can add some positive (and probably more realistic) thoughts into the mix of your mind. Feelings don’t come out of the blue, they are the logical result of thoughts (e.g., if you think “I’m late!” you will begin feeling anxious and your body will tense up). You can also take a few belly breaths to relax.

Finally, if you don’t catch yourself in the act of thinking or feeling, your body may tip you off. If you’re sitting at a computer banging out a report and you suddenly realize you have a knot in your neck, again opportunity time.
Although I’ve used a lot of words to describe this process, keep in mind it can happen lightning fast (like the example I used at the beginning).

If you’re disciplined enough to exercise regularly as most LEO’s are, then your disciplined enough to work on your optimism. It’s one of the best investments in your overall wellness you can make.

Jeff Shannon is a Police Officer, law enforcement instructor, and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in northern California.

jeffshannonmft@gmail.com

Wellness Tip: Add Some Gratitude to Your Cynic Soup

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 17:28:00 -0800

“Pain is slight if opinion has added nothing to it; ... in thinking it slight, you will make it slight. Everything depends on opinion; ambition, luxury, greed, hark back to opinion. It is according to opinion that we suffer. ... So let us also win the way to victory in all our struggles, - for the reward is ... virtue, steadfastness of soul, and a peace that is won for all time.”
—Seneca, Epistles, lxxviii. 13-16

There is no part of our mind/body so qualified to make us sick or well, as our thoughts. Depression, frustration and joy are all emotions and, like every other emotion, they are derived from whatever we were thinking about just before the feeling. In an important sense, we are our thoughts.

The typical cop has a lot of thoughts about how junky the equipment is, how worthless the administration is, how lax the criminal justice system is, and so on. When we put all these thoughts into a big wooden soup bowl and eat from it every day, we can end up pretty cynical and burnt out. Over a period of decades, Cynic Soup can make you quite ill.

If we don’t pay attention to the content of our thoughts, we’ll become victimized by them. The good news here, is that we have complete control over our thoughts. It’s not easy to control all of our thoughts, all of the time, but we can - like putting some fresh spice into the soup - add a few thoughts.

May I recommend at this point, adding thoughts of gratitude. Several months ago a respected academic journal (Journal of Clinical Psychology) published an article by two big brains who reviewed the research on gratitude. They found that people who made time to really consider the things they were grateful for lowered their blood pressure, improved their immune system and had more energy than the rest of us ingrates.

The grateful bunch also had less anxiety, depression and substance abuse. So, it seems gratefulness was tailor made for cops, who are at increased risk for all the above maladies.

There are lots of ways to bring gratitude into our lives. You can think about the things you are grateful for that day, while sipping your morning cup of Joe. You could remove the crap rubber banded to the visor of your patrol car, and replace it with a piece of paper that has one thing your grateful for that day on it.

I’ve been keeping a gratitude journal for about a month now, and that’s amazing. Right before going to bed, I pull up my lap top and write a few things I felt grateful for that day.

Don’t worry that keeping a gratitude journal will turn you into a soft, Birkenstock wearing hippie. We still have lots of things to be pissed off and cynical about. In fact, you should only consider putting some gratitude in your life if you want to be a little less pissed off and cynical.

[[looking out my bedroom window feeling grateful for the lovely fall sunset]]

Are You a Mental Health Clinician Who Treats Cops?

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 20:45:00 -0800

If so, you should consider reading….

http://www.amazon.com/Counseling-Cops-What-Clinicians-Need/dp/1462512658

Just about everything you need to know to increase cultural competence.

Cheers.

Preying On Our Own: Damaging Gossip in Law Enforcement

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 16:20:00 -0700

“What are they saying?” This is a question Officers should never have to ask after a critical incident, but it is asked, almost every time. What are my fellow officers saying about me? Law Enforcement Officers, being hardwired perfectionists, are very concerned about how we are perceived by our peers. We know that gossip can develop into a “jacket.” Weak, stupid, butt kisser, bureaucrat...you get the picture. We often then believe (most of the time erroneously) that our entire career has been tainted by these easily earned and hard to get out of jackets. I’ve heard parolees lament, “It’s easy to get in the system. It’s ain’t easy to get out.” Same goes for the unfair labels we put on each other.

Like it or not, we lead high profile lives. We have to put ourselves way out there in this profession. Soft spoken Officers have to learn how to bellow, “Get on the ground!” It may not feel natural but we do it because we have to. Ours is a difficult profession by anyone’s standards, and when we make our inevitable mistakes, it’s often right out there in the open. If you can’t stand the thought of looking foolish in public don’t even consider police work.

The problem isn’t making mistakes, but rather what we fellow LEO’s do when we see or hear about the mistakes of our brothers and sisters in blue. And what would that be? We seek out all the gory details. Like chum thrown in shark infested waters, we swarm. A frenzy of gossip, exaggeration and trash talking erupts within the department. We love it. This is what we can and must change, one Officer at a time.

Damaging gossip differs from the good natured, sometimes relentless ribbing we give each other as a sign of affection and acceptance. Damaging gossip on the other hand, serves as a destructive stress-reliever for pent up cops.

We already have one of the most stressful jobs on the planet. We already have equipment that doesn’t work, felons trying to kill us, district attorneys that don’t charge our cases, reports that are kicked back, and defense attorneys trying to twist us up in court. The fact that one of our greatest sources of stress is knowing that our colleagues are disparaging us behind our back is completely unnecessary.

One of the highest held principles in law enforcement is that of taking personal responsibility for our actions. I would like to invite every one of us to include in that inventory of personal accountability, the degree to which we tear down or build up our family members.

We need to vent, no doubt about that. We need a few trusted co-workers who we can turn to and, in a confidential setting, blast our beat partner or supervisor to. That’s peer support in it’s rawest form and it’s part of what allows us to carry on in this work. But when we’re not thoughtful about the who, when and where of our tirades or gossip, we we create additional stress for our fellow Officers. We prey on our own.

Cops need two things when we screw up: we need to learn, and we need support. With regard to learning, we are often our harshest critics. Any tongue lashing we get from the Sergeant pales compared to our own harsh self-talk.

We need someone in the group to stand up for us when we’re not there to defend our reputation. We need someone to say, “I did that same thing a few years ago and let me tell you about it,” or “I wonder what we can do to help Larry move on from this.”

Speaking up for those who have made mistakes not only protects their reputation, it benefits you, as it is an act of kindness and compassion. It benefits you by giving you the feeling that you helped a fellow Officer in need. That “good feeling” we get when we stick up for others has real health benefits. For example, Dr. Stephen Post from Stony Brook University School of Medicine reviewed over 50 research studies on the health benefits of altruism and concluded,

In total, the research on the benefits of giving is extremely powerful, to the point that suggests healthcare professionals should consider recommending such activities to patients.... If the benefits of volunteering or altruism could be put into a pill, it would be a bestseller overnight.

A career in policing puts us face to face with a smorgasbord of stressors that are completely outside of our control, damaging gossip is one that we’re putting on ourselves. Let’s be mindful of what we’re adding to the culture of our department. Next time you’re in the locker room changing out to go home, ask yourself, “Who did I support today?” If we all adopted such an attitude we’d never have to answer our friend’s question, “What are they saying?”

Police PTSD, Stress & Suicide Documentary

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Mon, 6 Feb 2012 19:49:00 -0800

Looks like the group at Badge of Life (badgeoflife.com) is trying to get financial support for a documentary on the above topics. I think the completion of such a film would be a great way to educate administrators, er, I mean law enforcement professionals about the importance of proactive mental health.

Here's the trailer,

Code 9 Officer Needs Assistance

The Laugh Challenge

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:03:00 -0800

I teach a police stress class. It's really easy to talk about all the ways police work destroys our health and happiness. That's the easy part. The more challenging aspect of the class is getting cops to practice the things that will make us healthier bipeds. More comfortable in our skin. Better partners, parents and friends. Case in point: laughter.

Laughter acts just like medicine. It changes the way our body works at the physiologic level. Think about how you feel after a really good laugh. You feel great, right? Your muscles are more relaxed, you've stimulated blood flow and just plain feel better.

It's no accident that cops laugh so much. We collect a lot of tension at work and naturally, albeit unconsciously look for things to laugh at. Co-workers, their recounting of a street contact or call they responded to, are usually a good source of laughter. "So, I roll up get out of my car and this guy runs up to me and [insert bizarre, goofy or stupid action here]." We also laugh AT our co-workers too, don't we? The point is, we intuitively know laughing is good for us so we do it a lot.

But "fake" laughter gives us the exact same benefits as real laughter. Enter the Laugh Challenge.

THE LAUGH CHALLENGE:
You're sitting at the dinner table with your family (or friends). Pick a random time when everyone's there, and start laughing. Don't wait for something funny, create something funny by fake laughing. And, yeah, it'll feel really fake and silly and a voice in your head will bellow, "This is STUPID, stop it!" If you head that voice you will fail the challenge. Keep on with the fake laughter. A lot of people can't get past their "comfort zone" here, but not you. You're going to push on and keep laughing.

If you've made it this far you'll see the good stuff. Okay, so you're laughing like a complete moron and your family is looking at you like you've finally fallen off the deep end. Right about here your real laugh will probably kick in. MAJOR PRINCIPLE OF LAUGH THERAPY: fake laughing produces real laughing. Your kids, wife, friends or whoever is around you will start laughing for real. Now, you're laughing for real, they're laughing for real and tears will start coming down your face.

When I've done this in the past, I find it becomes one of those truly crazy laugh episodes. The ones you where you can't STOP laughing. After the dust settles and people are wiping the tears from their eyes you can tell them about the challenge.

You've given yourself and everyone around you the gift of a good belly laugh. Let me know how it works out.

For more on this see,

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5165226

Another Good Video

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Wed, 4 Jan 2012 21:39:00 -0800

On exercise. I know, you've heard it all before, but give this a look.

Interview with former cop about PTSD

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:39:00 -0800

Haven't read the book but I'm guessing it's pretty good. Couple things to note about this brief interview. First, it highlights one of the ways people become traumatized. Namely, when you feel you're life is in immediate danger. You don't have to kill someone or be seriously wounded to get PTSD. If you experience an event in which you BELIEVE you are about to die or be seriously injured, that could be enough to trigger a trauma response.

Secondly, notice the role of family in Jimmy Bremner's healing process. Research shows that police FAMILIES can either be an exacerbating or a healing force when confronted with PTSD. This is another reason working on our family relationships is so important throughout our police career.

Finally, he's not talking about the shit bird that's a waist of oxygen and should have died except of course he didn't die because shit birds never die, because only the good people do... He says, "The gentleman" when referring to...er, the guy. He clearly hasn't let his experience as a police officer steal his compassion, as it does for so many of us. We could all learn something from Mr. Bremner.

Happy Holidays!

Here's the link:

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20111220/jimmy-bremner-crack-in-the-armor-post-traumatic-stress-111220/

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:54:00 -0800

:) (click me)

Bureaucracy v.s. The Guy who First Starting Playing this Game

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:57:00 -0700

When I was in the academy they used to say, “10% of cops do the work for the other 90. Do you want to be part of the 10 or part of the 90?” Back then, this 10 and 90 thing was just a curious abstraction. Now, after working the street for a few years, I realize what they meant.

The typical trajectory for cops is that we start off our careers being proactive, but over time we become less so. In fact, most cops eventually become firefighters, answering calls on their beat but doing little else. Some of us spend more energy trying to get out of “taking paper” than it would take to just take a report.

During my first few years of patrol I felt indignant at the 90% Sometimes still do. What I’ve come to realize though is that there are good reasons cops reinvent themselves as firefighters. One of those reasons is that the bureaucracy in policing discourages proactivity. The more contact an officer has with the public, be it a consensual encounter or a detention, the more opportunity he gives bureaucrats to nitpick, micromanage, correct or even punish him. One of the old vets who trained me put it this way, “They want you to spin your wheels, so spin your wheels.”

Like you, I didn’t become a cop to spin my wheels. I became a cop to have an exciting, challenging career and to MAKE A DIFFERENCE. How does an officer who has lost this desire to make a difference get it back? In the film Jerry Maquire, Tom Cruise tries reconnect Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) to the enthusiastic ballplayer he once was,

...back to the guy who first started playing this game. Remember, way back when you were a kid? It wasn’t just about the money, was it?

At some point in their careers the 90% come to realize that it really has become about the money. Part of what got them to that point is the bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy as Stress

We’re used to thinking of “stress” as feeling “stressed out.” Not so. The things that activate our fight, flight or freeze response are called “stressors.” For law enforcement personnel, part of what makes us sicker than others is the manifold nature of our stressors, including (but not limited to),

Critical incidents.

Public scrutiny.

The administration.

Shift work.

Bureaucracy.

It’s the bureaucracy part we’re looking at today. It’s made worse by another stressor: lack of leadership. If your boss partners with you in acknowledging the good work you do as part of the 10%, looks for real reasons to compliment you on your work ethic, and then - and ONLY then - tells you that you forgot to fill out the green form (Form G7.2 to be precise) it reduces the officer’s felt stress. But we know leaders are elusive, which is why the “leadership industry” is booming. If all we get is a curt e-mail “reminder” sent by a bureaucrat and cc’d to our boss, it can really dampen our desire to do anything more than a firefighter.

Becoming a firefighter is bad for our health. It signifies a learned helplessness response. That’s when shit goes bad and you just stop trying. The concept of learned helplessness was developed in the 1960’s. Here’s my interpretation of the groundbreaking research in this area by Seligman and Maire:

Put a dog over two metal grates with a small fence separating them. Give the dog a small electric shock and what does he do? Right, he bounces over the fence to the other grate. Shock him there and he jumps back over. If you keep shocking ol’ Buddy he’ll keep jumping over the fence to the side that’s not pissing him off. Eventually, guess what happens? Buddy just lies there and gets shocked. That’s learned helplessness and it should sound familiar.

Now that you’re good and depressed, let me tell you what to do about combating learned helplessness and the bureaucracy. Here are four ways to keep your love of the game alive.

1. Have at least two support people on your “team.” These are workmates who really get it and who will allow you to scream, “This place is sooooo fucked up!!” Use your teammates liberally. This moves toxic stress out of from under your sternum where it will make you sick, and into the air. Whew, that felt good. Don’t forget to thank your teammate for listening to your agitated tirade. It’s also good for your health to be on the support team of a few workmates. What goes around comes around type thing.

The next three are key components of the what behavioral scientists have dubbed the “stress hardy personality.” They are, challenge, control and commitment.

2. Challenge. This is where you make it a game. You want to win the game, right? Okay, so, given that by remaining or becoming proactive you expose yourself to the bureaucracy, how can you not give them a chance to get you?

That’s a question.

While they probably didn’t teach you this in the academy, make it your job to know more about the bureaucracy than the bureaucrats. Keep the forms in your beat bag or your desktop and complete all of them. Then, go 10-8 and do more work. Ha ha, I won.

3. Control. Related to challenge, control is when you don’t give the bureaucracy a chance to ding you because you already filled out the green form. You took CONTROL of the things you could. It’s far less stressful to control those friggin forms by taking the initiative on them, than it is to let a bureaucrat send you a “reminder” e-mail. When you control your destiny you can just send two words back to the bureaucrat: “Already done.”

4. Commitment. Keep your eye on the ball, son. The ball isn’t just your retirement package, it’s “the guy who first started playing this game.” It’s arresting criminals, returning missing juveniles, making positive citizen contacts and looking good in your patrol car. Remind yourself about the reasons you got into police work. Commitment also relates to your religious views, your community, your family and friends. These are what you’re committed to...not form G7.2.

A story about depression from a cop.

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:22:00 -0700

I came across this article and got permission from the author to post it here. it's pretty damn good.

--------------------------------------------

DEPRESSION; KNOW THE SIGNS

Published Date:

Saturday, October 01, 2011

By Ed Anzore
Retired SFPD

My name is Ed Anzore and I am a recently retired sergeant out of Central Station. I retired 5 months ago and am now able to discuss my departure. Ten years ago, I lost my brother, Charlie, to kidney cancer. Charlie worked at Richmond Station at the time he was diagnosed with this disease. To say my brother and I were close is an understatement. I never knew how much his loss affected me until this year. I could write a whole article just based on our relationship, but that’s for another day.

About five years ago, I started to keep people at a distance. This was everybody, wife, kids, friends, and co workers. I never wanted to be close to anyone so I would never feel the pain I felt with the loss of my brother. I was doing this sometimes subconsciously. It was my defense mechanism which I thought was keeping me safe, but it was not. In the last two years, I began to feel myself isolating from people and places. I started losing the desire to go to events. Irritability started to set in and I did not understand why. During the last five years, I was involved to two critical incidents, one on duty and one off, where three people lost their lives. Things started to go downhill and there was inner turmoil including anger in which I could not understand nor let go of. My mind started to really go sideways. When my brother passed, at the age of 52, all I could think about was I hope I make it to 52. I was also the last male member of my family not to have a form of cancer.

Fast forward to Sept of 2010. I was assigned to the 1800-0400 at Central. I really started to lose interest in the job. I rarely read reports completely unless it was very serious as my concentration was going. I stopped wearing my vest and didn’t care if something happened. I just didn’t care period! I figured I had led a very good life. I did not care about playing golf anymore and would tell my golfing buddies the very same. I would even joke how much I hated people. I would drive home at 4 am after work and on occasion go well over 100mph. This is risky behavior, a symptom I later learned which occurs in people who are depressed. It’s an action that makes you feel good for a brief moment, but cures nothing. Thanksgiving 2010, my wife told me she thinks it’s time to put our Husky Rascal down. He was with us for 16 years and a big part of our family. So now I take him to be put down and watch the vet administer the injection to calm him down. This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, losing another member of my family.

The following week, I’m in CPT for my dreaded week of updates. Sgt. Mary Dunnigan was teaching a class from the Behavioral Science Unit. Mary was talking about depression, and how we just sit on the couch and flip through the channels in our little safety zone, detaching from any emotion. While she was lecturing, I realized I was doing this every day. I would get up around noon and sit on the couch until 4pm. I would ignore everyone and just wanted to be left alone. Of course, I did nothing about it because, “I could handle it on my own.” Boy was I ever wrong. So I continued going to work with my miserable, irritable and grouchy self. Everyone else must be the “pain in the butt because it certainly couldn’t have been me.”

December 2011, and I am at a Sharks game when I get a text from my good friend Norm Rice. My wife and I are scheduled to go on a cruise with Norm and his wife on January 8th. On this day, Norm tells me he has been diagnosed with kidney cancer. I know Norm because of my brother Charlie, and I say to myself, here we go again. The one person whom I emotionally got close to is now diagnosed with the disease that took my brother; and the downward spiral began. We went on the cruise and needless to say it was not the good time I hoped for. There were nights on the ship when I would stand on the balcony thinking I could just throw myself overboard and nobody would know. I have no idea why this thought popped into my brain. Later I would learn about Suicidal Ideation, (these are described as fleeting thoughts of suicide but no plan or follow through). We came back from the cruise and things were the same, more couch sitting and channel surfing, not really paying attention to or caring about what I am watching. The desire to be at work is lessening daily.

Now it is a month away from my 52nd birthday, again I’m sitting on the couch, and everything seemed to be crashing down around me. I just broke down for no reason and started shaking. I told my wife I couldn’t do this anymore. My first melt down of my life. Thoughts of suicide came back very intense. I was so scared but I did not know why. I had so much to live for, why were these thoughts coming up? I was able to get a hold of Mary Dunnigan, who calmed me down and talked me through my crisis. She was able to get me into see a psychologist first thing in the morning and I was able to sleep that night.

Even after seeing the clinician I continued to have a series of panic and anxiety attacks. My blood pressure began to rise and my back and shoulders were always tight. I ended up in the ER one night and my wife told me that I should consider retirement. Well, here comes the dreaded 52nd birthday, and I have an appointment with my therapist and I tell her I’m ready to retire. She concurs. I walked outside of her office and another melt down of anxiety and panic occurred on the sidewalk. I immediately get on the phone with the shrink who prescribes me an anti-depressant. I barely made it home still not feeling well. I then drive to work and went about ten miles when the third melt down occurred. I somehow managed to make it to work and got through line up. I went outside and got on the phone to call for help. I made it through the work-day and as I’m driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, I started shaking again. My panic and anxiety was at its highest. I got home and called Kaiser Emergency and the on-call therapist calmed me down and then said, “Ed, you need to retire.” Now three people have told me to retire, two of whom I really don’t know. So I tell my wife, “I am done with work.” The next day I walked into the Lieutenants office and told him this was my last day and retired two days later. I received a lot of calls telling me how cool people thought it was that I just walked in and pulled the plug. I laugh now because nobody really knew what was going on, but I didn’t have the heart or courage to tell them why.I am now retired and go to my last therapist appointment. At the end, I ask the therapist what she thinks. She tells me she believes I am suffering from PTSD, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. She tells me there is a PTSD retreat for first responders out in Inverness. I again talk to Mary Dunnigan who gets me in touch with The West Coast Post Trauma Retreat. I went through an hour intake with a clinician, who told me that I have suffered cumulative stress with some PTSD. I am accepted into the retreat and off I go in May 2011.My wife drives me out there and here I am with 6 other first responders suffering just like me. The retreat is full of volunteer first responders and clinicians. Every one of them has had their own critical incidents. They have all walked in the same shoes. From the minute I walked in to the time I left, I was treated better than any resort I have ever been to. I went through six days of intense therapy and discussion. I learned tools to cope with my issues if and when they come back. I can only explain this place as the 8th Wonder of the World. You are surrounded by professionals who really do care. I walked out on Friday feeling a whole lot better and filled with a new sense of life. I learned there are so many first responders that are in the same situation, yet there are only two places like this retreat in the United States. I learned that it is okay to be prescribed anti-depressants for anxiety and depression as they are no different than any other medication for any other illness or injury. I learned that the brain has a filter and after you absorb so many traumatic events in your life, the filter breaks. My filter has now been repaired. I also learned that I know if I take care of myself, I will be okay.

It’s been four months now since I have left the retreat. I am in a much better place in my life. My relationship with my wife is so much better. My family life is so much better. Life is so much better. I have been asked by many why I retired so young and what will I do with my free time. I now volunteer at the WCPR retreat as a Peer. I was asked by the peer coordinator if I would like to volunteer and I was honored and humbled. To assist others in need who are first responders is priceless. This retreat is truly magical.

If this story helps one person, or gets people to look at themselves, then I will be happy. What you don’t realize when you are going through depression, is how it affects your family and loved ones. They in essences become victims too. If you wish to talk to me or ask questions, please feel free to email me at edanzore@gmail.com. I would also like to thank Sgt. Mary Dunnigan and Vince Catanzaro. They took the time to listen and help. For that, I am ever grateful. For those in the SFPD, you are truly blessed to have the BSU and people who care. Do not hesitate to use them

Helping future police retirees.

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Thu, 8 Sep 2011 03:41:00 -0700

Smith College in Mass. is doing some research aimed at helping future retirees. Specifically, they want to find out about risk factors for posttraumatic stress. One retired police officer says, ‘PTSD, is a lot of crap consisting of bloody horrors, sounds, sights and smells you never wanted to see in the first place and now you can't forget.’1 Yeah, that.

If you're a retiree - especially FEMALES - they could use your help. The lead researcher, Dr. Pole, said many participants in the survey felt a bit of healing just by reflecting back on their police career in this way. That makes sense to me. Anyway, they'll put some money in your pocket for participating, but the reward really comes from knowing you may be helping future retirees enjoy their lives more.

Please post where appropriate and pass on the following link to any retiree willing to help,

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BWVFPPR

Thanks!

1. Dupay. D. (2009). This is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. From the Salem News online. http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august052009/ptsd_dp_8-4-09.php

Not Today

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Sun, 7 Aug 2011 13:47:00 -0700

‘Not today, not on this shift, not on this call, not on this stop — I will not be caught unaware!’
Dave Smith

There’s a picture of my 10-yr old daughter on the inside of my locker door. I had one of my son wearing a goofy hat, and another of our family vacationing in Mexico, but they fell off. My girl’s giving me one of those half feigned 4th grade picture day smiles. Every day after I flop my vest over my head, I will look at her and say, “Not today.”

Today won’t be the day I let my guard down. I won’t assume this so and so call will be like the others. I won’t assume the parolee I’ve always gotten along with will again agree to go lie down for three months on another violation. I’ll watch my six and that of my partners. I’ll be ready, willing and able to be more violent than the most violent person I’ll meet that day. You wanna kill me? Not today.

I don’t like violence. Never have. I never fought as a kid. The first time I was hit in the face it was as a cop. Violence is a necessary evil to maintain social order. Police officers, if we’re doing our job right, maintain order.

The philosopher Thomas Hobbes describes life without a “social contract” in his classic book Leviathan. He calls it the “state of nature.” Life in a state of nature, he says, is characterized by...

continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Sounds a lot like the failed state of Somalia, where for decades various tribes, religious zealots and megalomaniacs have climbed over one another for power, or Mexico where narcoterrorists skin people alive and hang them in public places.

Most people don’t think this could ever happen here. Most cops know it could. We see people who have no sense of future and who place very little value on human life. We see them in the parts of our cities and towns most people don’t know exist. These children who live in violence, squalor and psychological deprivation grow up. They become asocial “focused aggressors.” They keep fighting after being pepper sprayed and keep shooting after being shot.

Focused aggressors have a few advantages over cops. First, they don’t give a fuck about life - yours, theirs or that of anyone else. It would be quite difficult for me to articulate in words to my wife or a non-police friend, exactly what it’s like to meet someone who just doesn’t give a fuck. It’s disturbing.

Another advantage asocial focused aggressors have is that they get to pick the time. The parolee who I’ve always gotten along with swimmingly gets to pick the very moment he’s going to try to get my gun and attempt to execute me.

Not today though. Today, I’m going to assume he’s going to try to kill me. This means I have to perform schizophrenic mental gymnastics, outwardly friendly and disarming but physically and emotionally ready to become more violent than he.

I’m going back to the gym again tomorrow. I’m going to look like something in my uniform because I know there exist a growing number of asocial, predatory human beings in my city who look for the weak. The victim who gets beaten and robbed never knows it, but he was likely picked. Most people don’t know that criminals often drive or walk around looking for prey.

But not today. Not me. I don’t get a kick out of beating someone’s ass but I’ll do it. Not if, but when I have to. As that great American poet Dr. Dre says in “The Watcher,”

if you really want to take it there we can,

Just remember that you fucking with a family man.

I got a lot more to lose than you, remember that,

Don’t tell your wife or your boyfriend or kids, but tell yourself, “Not today.” They don’t need to know the gory details of mans inhumanity to man, that’s what you signed up to know. But be very clear with yourself when you walk out of the locker room that today will not be the day.

We work in a cesspool of shit. It requires real dedication, commitment determination and help from others to wash the residue of the cesspool from our bodies, minds and hearts. It’s good work and we owe it to ourselves and our families. However, we cannot unsully ourselves if we don’t get out. Getting out starts with the simple and resolute oath whispered to ourselves and made to those who love us: Not today, not on this shift...

I Need a Book Name

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Thu, 4 Aug 2011 21:44:00 -0700

If you had written a book on police mental health issues what would you call it? The book is based largely in research findings, personal anecdotes from my work as a street cop and mental health professional treating cops. The 'usual suspects" of divorce, alcoholism, suicide, health problems & traumatic stress each have their own chapter. The literature for each affliction is reviewed and specific suggestions are made which will allow the officer to live a more full, complete life. So what's this book called. The best known similar book is Kevin Gilmartin's Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement, so I can't steal that. Looking for that super sexy title. Any suggestions?

Lexipol, Gordon Graham and Critical Incident Stress: A Critique

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Tue, 2 Aug 2011 07:22:00 -0700

Anybody subscribe to Lexipol’s “Tip of the Day?” I’m not sure exactly what Lexipol’s raison d’ etre is, but it’s pretty cool to see Gordon Graham pop out from the side of the screen and give us the straight talk on various police-related topics.

Now, I saw Mr. Graham speak at a conference once. The topic was “risk management in law enforcement,” and he’s quite plainly an expert in that area. Unfortunately, he’s not quite as informed about critical incident stress and I worry that his mini lecture on the topic may make people with cumulative critical incident stress worse.

Mr. Graham tells us there are 8 things we need to know to “cope with, withstand...prevail” over critical incident stress. Here’s my critique:

1. Superior training and skill development.

This, he tells us, is by far the most important factor in our coping with, withstanding and prevailing over critical incident stress. By “training” the only thing he could be referring to is stress inoculation training, which, though rarely used in LE, has much promise. If this is what he meant, I wish he would have just said it. As it is, it suggests if one struggles with the emotional aftermath of critical incident exposure, it somehow reflects a failure to train well, which simply is not the case.

Posttraumatic stress is a normal reaction to an abnormal event, not a sign of inadequate training on the part of the LEO. Unless he refers to stress inoculation, I am baffled by the inclusion here of “skill development.” What “skills” does an officer need to develop so that he doesn’t have insomnia after witnessing the death of a child?

2. A learning attitude toward the profession...a culture of knowledge.

This makes sense. As Dave Grossman writes in On Combat, “Forewarned is forearmed.” It behooves us a human beings who police, to know how critical incident stress may impact us, so that we can plan accordingly.

3. High intelligence and problem solving ability.

Smart people don’t get posttraumatic stress disorder? Never heard that. What do we say to the young officer who witnesses a child die? If he were smarter he’d be fine? Higher ‘intelligence’ (which we measure through controversial and value-laden tests) has been correlated with lots of good stuff, but not resistance to critical incident stress. If you’re having difficulty concentrating after exposure to a critical incident, it doesn’t mean you’re a dummy.

4. Good verbal and interpersonal skills.

Really? I’m pretty sure there’s no science behind this claim. If there is, I’d like to check it out. I know it sounds like I’m bagging pretty hard here on Mr. Graham...I just wish he would have told us where he got these from.

5. Adequate emotional control.

Okay, this is where we get into potentially damaging information. This is eerily similar to the long held cultural myth that posttraumatic stress only afflicts “weak” people. It’s cousin is the cultural myth that psychotherapy is for “crazy” people. I find this offensive. Can you imagine sitting in a room filled with cops as they debrief a horrible critical incident, and telling them if they simply control their emotions they’ll be better off? “Get ahold of yourself man!”

6. A sense of optimism.

This is related to one of the components (called ‘commitment’) of hardiness, which is a personality trait. This is accurate.

7. Seek help and support.

This is quite a true and valuable point, and one I make all the time to friends and co-workers. So many of the common maladies which befall our brothers and sisters in blue are treatable. But you can’t get better if you don’t ask for help.

8. Critical Incident Stress Debriefings.

Another rock solid suggestion.

At the end of his statements, Mr. Graham tells us he got a lot of his information from an article written by someone else. That’s fine, but when you say it, you own it. Some of Gordan Grahams’ information on critical incident stress is confusing. Some of it may be damaging.

The law enforcement industry has begun a paradigm shift regarding the psychological toll a police career can have on the officer, and how to manage it. We cannot afford to go backward. . .we’ve come too far.

Getting it Twisted: 4 Mental Mistakes Cops Make

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:03:00 -0700

When I see a new police officer client in my practice, I listen for the content of the officer’s problems.

This department is FUBAR

My supervisor is a jackhole

I can’t sleep

you get the point.

Yet, more important than the content of our problems is how we think about our problems. More often than not, our thinking is the problem, or at least makes it much worse.

You’re feelings are never wrong, but your thoughts can be. A few years of unchecked, incorrect thinking can get us pretty sick. That’s because our thoughts lead to feelings, and prolonged feelings (i.e. anxiety, depression) screws up our body by releasing potentially toxic levels of cortisol and the suppressing feel-good chemicals like serotonin. So, ground zero for your gastritis, insomnia, anxiety or depression is HOW YOU THINK about stuff.

Depression and anxiety meds fly off shelves faster than the busy bees at your HMO can stock ‘em. Pharmeceutical industry executives have huge houses and take expensive vacations because they sell us medicine that helps fix the results of our twisted thinking.

Cops aren’t especially prone to twisted thinking, we just gravitate toward certain types of what are technically called ‘cognitive distortions.’ These are the distortions I see the most in police officers,

[the names of these bad boys come from The Feeling Good Handbook by David Burns]

1. All or nothing thinking. This happens when, instead of thinking of your police agency as running well in some areas and poorly in others, we conclude, “This place is totally fucked up!” TOTALLY. Nothing good here. Really? Very few things in life are all bad (or all good for that matter). When we consistently see things as all this or all that we are making a mental mistake.

2. Labeling. This happens when you label the totality of who you are based on one event. For example, I recently allowed a guy to look for his ID in a duffle bag he had at his feet, an officer safety mistake. A concerned fellow officer pointed this out to me. If I were to say to myself, “I’m a fuckin’ IDIOT!” that would be an example of labeling. Allowing the bad guy to access his duffle bag was a tactical error, not an indictment of my worth as a human being.

Cops tend to be perfectionists. Employers love perfectionists and we usually have successful professional lives. That is, until the pressure we put on ourselves blows up our body and we get panic attacks or ulcers.

3. “Should statements”: Related to perfectionism. Not sure why, but it seems like police officers ‘musterbate’ more than your average bear.

I need to be more careful.

I need to stop making this mistake.

I need to tell my Sgt. to find another punching bag.

I need to have a tougher skin.

No, you don’t. Believing that you must is bad for your health. How ‘bout,

I’d feel safer at work if I took my time more and called for cover more often.

I’d like to really focus up on my report writing.

I think I’d feel better about myself if I set limits with Sgt. Douche Bag.

I’m a sensitive person, a quality almost universally seen as desirable. I’m going to practice toughening up a bit for this cop job so I can feel less vulnerable at work.

4. Emotional Reasoning. Those who use emotional reasoning either forget or don’t know that emotions are, by definition, temporary. In this world, I feel angry = I’m being screwed over or feeling guilty means “I’m a bad person.” We cannot draw long term conclusion ― any long term conclusion ― from an emotion. Better is to (a) recognize it as a feeling and (b) know that it will pass. Even desirable feelings (i.e. that of being ‘in love’) won’t last forever.

In The Feeling Good Handbook, author David Burns offers up some practical advice for how to “untwist” your thinking. For now, if you’re able to identity your own cognitive distortions you’re well on your way. Peer support officers in particular would benefit from trying to identify not only their own twisted thinking, but that of their fellow officers who come to them for help.

Happy untwisting!

Building psychological resilience: An open letter to Field Training Officers

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 09:54:00 -0800

Your place in the department is established. You’ve demonstrated that you’re a good cop and have been elevated to the position of Field Training Officer (FTO). It doesn’t matter if you’re a crusty old veteran who’s trained more officers than you can count, or a 26 year old right out of FTO school. Either way, you’re a bridge for the new boot, and you’re job is to help the recruit transition from academy life to real life.

As an FTO, you’re probably great at knowing which form to fill out for this and that situation. You’re officer safety skills and tactics are probably squared away. I’m guessing you’re a perfectionist. You're interested in more than just getting your recruit through FTO. You want to shape a good cop.

Now, let me ask you this: what are you doing to build your recruits psychological resilience? Psychological what?

Resilience. It’s not on a duty belt or in a beat bag, it’s in your mind and in your body. It’s what ensures that a 20 plus career in law enforcement won’t chew you up and spit you out a bloody mess onto the rocky shore of your retirement. Resilience is something you model. Your recruit isn’t just watching how you clear hard corners, they’re watching how you deal with work stress. Included in work stress is what researchers call “organizational hassles.” As an FTO, you know all about those too, don’t you?

Allow me to speak for your trainee. He or she probably won’t say this to you directly because (a) they’re shaking in their boots already at all the stuff they have to learn, and (b) they’re on probation and don’t want to get shit canned for telling you how to do your job. What your recruit is thinking, but probably won’t say is, “How do I stay sane...no scratch that...Ah, you see I want to be a cop, but I also want to be emotionally healthy. I want to be a good romantic partner, parent, friend. I want to be both a good cop and a psychologically well person. How do I do that?”

Since this probably wasn’t covered in FTO school, here are two behaviors you can model to build psychological resilience in your trainee. These two suggestions come both from my experience as a cop and as the son of a cop, and as a mental health professional. It also comes from recent research conducted by a some nerds in Australia. They wrote a piece for the Australian Psychologist, called, On being mindful, emotionally aware, and more resilient: A longitudinal pilot study of police recruits.

Here are the two behaviors,

Mindfulness. In the study just mentioned, the authors write, “Mindfulness is... an active state of consciousness, which involves being open to and engaging with all aspects of one’s moment to moment experience.” So, it means being aware of your thoughts, feelings and bodily experiences while doing your job. This behavior flies right smack in the face of police culture, which doesn’t much value introspection. Our allergy to introspection is one of the reasons so many cops lead miserable, abbreviated lives.

To read more on mindfulness, see “Mindfulness on Patrol.”

Secondly, FTO’s should know how to identify their own emotional experience, and be willing to legitimize the emotional aspect of policing. Frustration, sadness, helplessness and, yes, fear are all inexorably tied to police work. We just don’t usually talk about these feelings. We need to start. Don’t worry, neither you nor your recruit will become blubbering messes or incompetent by merely acknowledging basic human emotions.

By modeling mindfulness and emotion identification you’ll make your trainee more psychologically resilient. As a result, that trainee will be less likely to engage in “experiential avoidance.” That’s where we don’t handle stress on the front end (i.e. mindfulness) and end up managing the psychic fallout later. And how do cops engaging in experiential avoidance manage stress? Gambling, boozing, sexing, playing first person shooter video games until 2 AM every night. You get the point.

The Field Training Officer has perhaps the single most important job in a police agency. Building psychological resilience in new officers, along with tactical and administrative proficiencies, makes a rock solid officer. Such officers not only represent the agency in a more professional manner, they take less sick days, get fewer citizen complaints and make better people in the world.

Prevalence of Intimate Parter Abuse Among Police: A review

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com (Jeff Shannon, MFT) — Sat, 5 Feb 2011 12:15:00 -0800

Are cops a bunch of wife beaters who are above the law?

Intimate partner violence (IPV), or “domestic violence” is often added to the list of psychological pitfalls associated with a career in law enforcement. Those in law enforcement, or those considering it as a career, may find themselves troubled by an internet search on this topic. Advocacy organizations such as The Purple Berets and the National Center for Women and Policing claim “research shows” police officers have a 40% rate of domestic violence, compared to 10% in the general population, or domestic violence is “2 to 4 times more common in police families.”(NCWP) Is this true?

The psychosocial dynamics of intimate partner abuse are complex. We can choose from a smorgasbord of theories when looking for reasons why people (mostly men) batter. Researchers, policy makers and advocacy groups also debate the most effective ways to prevent domestic violence from occurring or stopping it once it has begun. Leaving these issues aside, I’m going to address just one seemingly simple question: is the rate of domestic violence among police families higher than that of the general population? The key word here is “seemingly.” I’ll explain why the answer to this question can be found only tentatively, and only after untangling it from two enemies of science: politics and emotion.

CLEAR AS MUD

My father, a man not known for profundities, taught me “Opinions are like assholes.” I took that to heart. Therefore, I have been looking at what the science says on this issue. The science on this topic is about as clear as mud. Here’s why.

The first distorting factor we meet with when looking for the true rate of intimate partner abuse among police families is the passion surrounding this topic. Julius Caesar wrote, “Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.” This sure seems to be the case for much of the literature on domestic violence within law enforcement, on both sides of the issue.

The way around this obstacle is to avoid becoming personally invested in the outcome. If my raison d'être is ending violence against women I may be inclined to scour the internet looking for confirmation of “that which I wish to be true.” I’m in the fortunate position of not needing to find anything when reviewing the literature on this topic.

Clear as mud factor #2: Collecting data on a sensitive topic from folks as clannish and guarded as police officers. A group, by the way, that has a low opinion of “wife beaters.” When asked in a survey, police officers are unlikely to endorse acts of violence against their family members, especially after passage of the Lautenberg Amendment in 1996.

This law prohibits anyone convicted of domestic violence - including misdemeanor convictions - of owning a firearm. Moreover, the law was retroactive. This produced a small ripple of panic in the law enforcement industry as administrators frantically scoured their personnel files for officers with prior misdemeanor domestic violence convictions. As it turns out, “Research on the effects of the Lautenberg Amendment consistently shows that the use of the law has been rather limited and police officers have often been able to circumvent the ban and retain their weapons.” (Lonsway, 2006) However, as cops know all too well, perception is reality.

This brings us to the topic of survey research. The only viable way of studying the prevalence of domestic violence within police families is through surveys. While they’re a legitimate research method, surveys are vulnerable to a number of attacks, primarily along the lines that they’re unable to establish cause-effect relationships and that they rely on self-reported responses, which can be problematic. Imagine, for example, asking airline pilots in a survey, how often they consume alcohol while at work. “I NEVER drink on the job.” Right.

THE RESEARCH

Before the Lautenberg Amendment, there were three well known studies in the area of IPV within police families, two of which we’ll look at.

The first, by Neidig et. al., (1992) surveyed officers and their spouses. They were given a laundry list of types of violence (everything from “pushing” to using a gun and everything in between) and asked if they had experienced any of these. Approximately 40% of the respondents endorsed one or more types of violent incidents. A weakness here is the failure to discriminate between what type of violence couples experienced. We don’t know what percentage of them had a shoving incident versus one in which the husband choked or beat up the wife. Some in the world of domestic violence prevention believe it doesn’t really matter if you call your wife a “whore,” push her or give her two black eyes. It’s all domestic violence, so these distinctions are insignificant. That’s what I was trained to believe, and it’s what my clinical experience has shown. Others, like PoliceOne contributor Richard Davis, claim these distinctions are very important because “family conflict” is different from “battering behavior.” (Davis, 2004a)

The second (Johnson, 1991) involved 728 officers and 479 spouses. “40 percent of the officers stated that in the last six months prior to the survey they had gotten out of control and behaved violently against their spouse and children.” (p. 34) Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what “getting out of control and behaving violently” means. Richard Davis (2004b) slams this study on this front. He writes, “The Johnson study is a survey not a scientific empirical study.” Hmm. Not a compelling argument there. I think we can surmise the behavior Johnson found very likely fit within the realm of domestic violence. But again, it depends on whether or not you adopt the “family conflict” model of domestic violence.

MORE RECENT RESEARCH

Gershon (2005), who by all accounts is a five star academic, surveyed 1,103 cops about, among other things, domestic violence. She writes,

Altogether, 9% of all respondents (76/857) who had a spouse/partner, reported that they had committed physical spouse/partner abuse...that these were completely anonymous questionnaires, and... the responses were validated with a well defined domestic violence attitudes scale, we are confident of the accuracy of these percentages.

So, there’s a bit of a monkey wrench in the numbers with this, at 9%. Gershon notes that the Lautenberg Amendment may have contributed to her finding of comparatively low rates of IPV in this population. The idea here is that, if officers believe (READ: perception is reality) that making an admission of domestic violence will cost them a career, that officer will opt to keep the career.

SO WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US?

I think my dad (RIP) may be okay with the revised dictum, “Uninformed” opinions are like assholes. I have the following informed opinion: Domestic violence is probably at least as common in police families as in the general population. Further, as has been noted repeatedly in the literature, when it does occur, in police families it poses unique challenges to the victim.

Clearly, we need more (and better quality) research in this area. I say, “better quality” research but I have no good ideas about how to improve the quality of data outcomes here. That’s a job for the big brains.

Endnotes

NCWP: From the National Center for Women and

Policing web site:

http://www.womenandpolicing.org/violenceFS.asp

Davis, R. (2004b). Domestic Violence: On the front lines.

This article appears no longer available online. I have

a hard copy of it, which I got from

http://www.browardcrime.com.htm

Davis, R. (2004a). Domestic violence and police officers as abusers and victim. Retrieved January 24,

2011 from the PoliceOne web site: http://

www.policeone.com/standoff/articles/77224-

Domestic-violence-and-police-officers-

as-abuser-or-victim/

Gershon, R. (1999). Police stress and domestic violence in police families in Baltimore, Maryland.
National Institute of Justice, Data Resources Program.

Johnson. LB. (1991). On the front lines: Police stress and

family well-being. Hearing before the Select

Committee on Children, Youth and Families

House of Representatives: 102 Congress First Session

May 20 (pp. 32-48).

Washington D.C.: US Government Printing Office.

Lonsway, K.A. (2006). Policies on police officer domestic

violence: Prevalence and specific provisions within

large police agencies. Police Quarterly

V.9(4) 397-422.

Neidig, P.H., Russell, H.E., & Seng, A.F. (1992).

Interspousal aggression in law enforcement families:

A preliminary investigation. Police Studies: The

International Review of Police Development, 15(1),

30-38.

Nedig, P.H., Seng, A.F. & Russell, H.E. (1992).

Interspousal aggression in law enforcement personnel

attending the FOP biennial conference. National

FOP Journal Fall/Winter, pp. 25-28