OFFICER STRESS AWARENESS — INTERNALIZING PROBLEMS

[Music] negative unpleasant experiences because police work for the most part involves dealing with people in trouble today's police officer is exposed each day to an almost continuous stream of situations which are unpleasant or stressful to varying degrees [Music] unit 204 signal 12 KS 204 10 a.m krg 7 36 day after day he sees other human beings at their [Music] [Applause] worst day after day he sees senseless human suffering and cruelty picks up the pieces of shattered Liv he sees the face of poverty and its effects in a way few other men [Music] do fear and anxiety become his cont an companion [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] the safe [Applause] secure let's close it down and call the [Applause] owner he sees the very laws he has sworn to uphold made a mocker of tastes the bitter failures of our criminal justice system in a way that few other workers within it do have your right yes we [Applause] have Mr Foreman ladies and gentlemen and jury you say that Albert lrow is not building of assault police off I can't I such pressures inevitably begin to take their toll and for every officer every day every year there Remains The NeverEnding stress because his is an occupation from which society expects and demands a constant display of personal strength and freedom from the very human emotions and weaknesses with which he must deal there are strong pressures on police officers to inhibit or control any outward expression of the tensions they come to feel what the hell's it matter with you guys I come up here I'm trying to take a vacation I'm down from New York wa what the hell's wrong I get in your car and keep your mouth shut before you get locked up for breaching a piece mind the Boney I take that up from you guys get in there and wait there until I'm ready for you go ahead [Music] what's this it's a ticket what do you think it is oh [ __ ] look you broke the law what do you want me to do about it why' you go do something important for the most part the officer is prevented by both legal and social considerations from expressing or releasing these pent up emotions and the anger fear disgust and depression are internalized pushed deep within him and buried far beneath the mask of the outward calm Society expects to see its authority figures exhibit but out of sight is not out of mind the tensions an officer stores within himself may eventually surface to form a wide variety of physical and emotional problems problems which may affect his ability to perform on the job with his peers and at home you know stress is inherent in The Human Condition all people are are subjected to stress constantly during the course of their lives stress that disrupts them that injures them that hurts them in a variety of ways but most people adapt to stress so when we talk about stress what we really ought to consider is what is there in the stress to which police officers are subjected that is unique to them and to their calling I think this is a crucial issue and one of the most stressful aspects of police work that I know of is the total commitment that they have to dealing with human problems in in effect a police officer is a is a human Problem Solver he's confronted constantly with problem situations that are peculiarly human and that are so complex and so defy solution and the expectation on the part of the public and his own expectations of himself are for immediate resolution for um a Here and Now solution to these problems unfortunately the problems are so complex that they rarely are possibly solved in the Here and [Applause] Now how you rough day huh the how terrible really hey you want to go have a couple of bres that sounds good go up the Jerry okay sure I don't I [Music] you I'm all set for another one how about you give a double how you doing Tony you mind keeping a d over there you [Music] know just a couple belts after [ __ ] just one wind nothing wrong with that except that sometimes it's a lot more than that to an off-duty policeman at times alcohol becomes a crutch something used regularly to control anxiety to reduce temporarily the tensions and pressures generated by the job [Music] [Applause] [Applause] a couple belts just to unwind May escalate over time into a more serious problem that threatens an officer's job as well as his home and family life took me a long time to realize I was having a drinking problem I've seen it happen to other guys over the years but I really didn't believe it could happen to me I hardly drank it all my first few years on a job I'd stop and have a couple drinks after work go home and have a couple and I started going overboard coming home drunk all the time raising hell with the wife and kids going to work the next day hung over I promised an just about every night that I wouldn't do it again and I'd be right back there again the next night seems like I was w up all the time and it's the only way I had to come down sure I drink who the hell doesn't I don't have a problem with it doesn't affect my work hey may be some nights I sit here and get stiff but I got a right to wife couldn't understand it left me last month took the kids but hey that's her prerogative I'll make it Escape comes in many forms some obvious others not whether it's a pill to help us sleep the habitual cigarette before retiring or a cup of coffee during the hectic day all are drugs used by each of us to relieve the pressure take a break from the tension to forget for just a moment even sleep provides release and a method for getting away from it all be on the lookout for Roy frore there's a warrant for breaking and entering and laring in a building he's a white male 29 years of old the officer's attempt to deal adaptively with the internal stress his job produces is made especially difficult by the fact that he and the officers who work with him May interpret any expression of inner emotion or anxiety as a sign of personal weakness side of the city keep a close eye on the industrial areas tonight here's a bad one Report law enforcement officers killed long meno Massachusetts Public Safety department advises three officers shot and killed tragically all too often police officers internalize and accept our society's view of them as super cops rugged Marboro men who are far removed from the anxieties and strains that afflict Ordinary People in Pursuit who was shot with a shotgun shortly thereafter where does a police officer a man whose whole identity is built around physical and emotional strength turn for help in the face of a tional problems you can't put a man in this kind of a job month after month and year after year without having to affect him in some way or another if you look at any Department throughout the country you'll find that there is some officer with some personal or emotional problem the problem is that we usually don't find out about it until it's too late the officer has already gotten himself into some serious trouble he's reported to work uh drunk on duty uh he's caused a disturbance in his own home he's overreacted to some automobile accident on the street or some incident on that street and by this time it's well out of hand cops are probably the tightest Fraternity in the world guys would give up their lives for you for any brother officer if they had to but I don't know there's just some things you really never talk to partner about even if he's your best friend some problems you just keep to yourself sure cops have personal problems who doesn't a guy can't take the pressure on his own and let him get the hell out that's what I say I think in every Department ideally there ought to be somebody someone that the police officers can go to when he has a problem before it gets to the serious point a person such as a psychologist a psychiatrist or a police chaplain someone that he can rely on put his trust in and pour it all out to that person this is a situation that would be ideal for a small number of officers the emotional pressures created in large part by their work coupled with the absence of any effective release for these tensions may lead to the ultimate Act of human desperation the final desertion of self for all the police officers in this country who die at the hands of felons research shows that there are almost twice as many police deaths by Suicide as by homicide mute testimony to the tremendous emotional pressures of the job sometimes things happen to a guy in his job that are awful terrible there's no other way you can describe them and yet people expect you to forget them and move on to the next job like nothing happened that's [ __ ] there's some things in this job you just never forget [Applause] never hello police I to report a man with a gun threatening people at 111 Parker Street Apartment see too my name that don't [Music] matter without warning any officer May suddenly be forced into a TR traumatic experience that generates in him strong emotions of guilt anxiety and [Applause] depression it's empty the godamn gun is empty yet finds himself without any legitimate channel for expressing such [Music] feelings about a year ago my partner and I responded here to a call uh that there was a girl in the bottom of the pool and uh we did get her out of the pool and got her on on the deck and we gave her gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation but all our efforts to bring her back seemed to fail and uh we could just feel that we're losing her finally she just gave way I've seen a lot of homicides and everything myself murders and so forth but this girl should about 7 years old about the same age as my daughter and for some reason know it just keeps coming back and I just can't I can't seem to forget it you know for some reason however much any police officer may tell himself it's just a job he inevitably begins to personalize certain events in his occupational life as the reality of crime and its victims takes on a more personal dimension for an officer the injustices he sees each day may leave him vulnerable to strong feelings of pessimism and depression can you tell me what happened yeah was a little after 9:30 uh two guys come walking in average looking guys walked up to the counter ask for a sixpack of beer as I turned around open the cool they must have run behind the counter cuz when I turned around there right there one guy was already opening the register and I made a motion the other guy whacked me right in the head what a really size good gun looked like about a 45 45 yeah and then they uh come around the corner and push me down knocked over some of this Chunk on the way out and off they went how much money did they get oh about 250 260 around there can you give me a description to them yeah one of them was about 6 ft 250 lb heavy set guy had an old simply because he sees the worst of other people day after day week after week year after year he may come to gradually adopt a cynical view of human nature in General tell you one thing this job teaches you in a hurry people are no damn good and they don't give a [ __ ] about you one way or the other really last night we were riding downtown me and my partner get a call for the worthy so we go in guy sitting at the at the bar giving a bartender a hard time we asked him to leave couple of his buddies come over ends up a real go here we are rolling around on the floor must be 20 people standing around just watching us no one calls no one helps uh I guess I never really understood his job I thought it was like what you see on television then he began to talk to me about it I listened I felt a lot better and he felt better just knowing that I understood his job I mean it took me a long time to find someone to talk to about my feelings about the job about the problems at home no it wasn't easy having considered the scenes in this film let me ask you some questions do you find it necessary and I mean necessary to have a drink or two before you can feel relaxed after a tour of Duty do you have anybody that you feel comfortable with enough to be able to talk about what really is troubling you do you find that you sometimes have physical symptoms for which the doctor can find no physical cause and finally you sometimes feel so down so deeply depressed and frequently so that you have difficulty controlling thoughts of suicide if the answers to any of these questions are in the affirmative I think you ought to consider is some of the resources that are available to you in your community in your department and within yourself it might be very [Applause] helpful it's awfully easy to seek escape to push inside the problems to run from our realities we see the public do what all the time the real question is do we have the guts the inner strength to face ourselves to see our own weakness and problems and to do something about them it's not easy but then neither are the alternatives [Music] f for