Critical incident debriefing: Don’t forget your civilian employees

January 25, 2010 08:12 AM •

A critical incident can be anything from an officer-involved shooting to a terrible house fire, a horrific traffic crash, or the death of child at the hands of a parent. When you are debriefing such an incident, don’t overlook your civilian employees. The dispatcher who took the call, the records clerk who transcribed the report, or the detective division secretary who logged in multiple anonymous tips all need to be a part of the immediate and perhaps the long-term critical incident care. These personnel not only need to be able to connect with others about their role in the incident and their feelings about it, they can often offer invaluable insight into how the agency can improve its response, conduct its follow up, and change its procedures in the future.

Police agencies often overlook the impact of a critical incident on our civilian employees. Don’t let this happen in your department!

Betsy Brantner Smith

My column is undergoing a bit of an identity crisis. I’ve been writing for the Street Survival “Newsline” and the P1 Newsletter for several years. As a Street Survival seminar instructor, I write about officer safety and survival, but I’m also a supervisor, a mom, a trainer, a cop’s wife, and dare I say, a woman, so I’ve got a lot to say about any number of topics (what woman doesn’t?!), and I’ve always received great feedback from our readers. So when Police One approached me and asked me to author a monthly column dealing with women’s issues, I enthusiastically agreed. “What a great opportunity” I naively thought “to bring issues to light that both women and men in law enforcement could all relate to, perhaps discuss at roll call, and ultimately learn something from each other.” Yeah, just call me Sergeant Pollyanna…I forgot that by calling it a “women’s” column, not only will most of our male readers skip over it, but so will at least half our female readers. What?! Why in the world wouldn’t women read a “women’s” column?! Because, there are a lot of female crimefighters out there like me who have spent a lot of years just trying to blend in, to be “one of the guys” if you will…to be perceived as and conduct ourselves as “warriors,” not “victims.” We don’t want special treatment; we just want to be cops.