By Glenn Smith
The Charleston Post and Courier
When Eddie Driggers began his law enforcement career more than 30 years ago, cops didn’t want to be seen talking to counselors about the gore, grief and gruesome scenes they witnessed on the job. Police officers were supposed to be stoic figures who just sucked it up and moved on.
The problem was, holding that stuff in could eat you up, play with your emotions, mess with your thinking and spill over into other areas of your life.
Driggers got a taste of that several years back after a suspect rammed his cruiser during a car chase in Charleston County. The episode rattled him, and it took talking to a counselor to help him move past it. The retired sheriff’s deputy now brings that experience and understanding to his work as a chaplain, helping police officers and other first responders who are trying to cope with similar challenges.
“Law enforcement officers deal with the same things everyone else deals with, and then they have to go out and deal with the worst the world can offer,” said Driggers with the Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy. “They need to know they are not alone in that situation.”
More and more police departments are coming to that realization and are working to remove the stigma officers often have associated with seeking counseling and other assistance. Officials also are trying to reach officers on the front end, preaching the importance of ethics, integrity and upholding the standards of the badge. The idea is to reach cops before they make crucial mistakes that can ruin careers.
The spotlight has been on the latter issue because of an unusually bad run for North Charleston Police. A half-dozen officers have run into misconduct issues in the past six months, including four alcohol-related incidents. Four officers have been fired as a result, including a 10-year veteran accused of tossing a chair into a window at a cell phone store during an off-duty dispute. That officer had been involved in a fatal shooting and several other traumatic incidents over the years.
As a result of the recent misconduct issues, North Charleston Police Chief Jon Zumalt plans to have all officers meet with chaplains in coming weeks. The chaplains, along with majors and captains, will hold team meetings to discuss ethics, responsibility and how to deal with the strains of the job, financial issues and personal stress.
“We want to focus on organizational ethics and values, and try to get officers to understand the resources available to them,” Zumalt said. “We’ve been so focused on crime control and reducing the crime rate in our city. But now I think we need to focus a bit on some of our internal workings.”
Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen appreciates that difficult balance. Officers are continually under pressure to control crime on their beats while being scrutinized to ensure they do so within the letter of the law. Couple that with shift changes, special assignments and whatever challenges they may be dealing with at home, and the job can become a pressure cooker, he said.
When he took the helm in late 2006, Mullen sensed that some officers felt it was a sign of weakness to come forward with their problems. He said he has since worked to create a departmental culture where officers are encouraged to seek help with professional or personal problems before they become catastrophes.
“I don’t feel people coming forward is a weakness. In fact, I see it as a strength of character,” Mullen said. “We want them to know - It’s OK. We understand. You may have issues in your life. You’re human, not a robot.”
The police department has an eight-officer peer support team to provide confidential assistance and a clinical psychologist available when more in-depth counseling is needed. Any time there is an unsettling incident such as an officer-involved shooting or a severe case of child abuse, the team gathers the officers for a private debriefing to discuss their feelings about the event, he said.
The department also is stressing integrity and values, Mullen said. Prior to going to the police academy, new officers spend about three hours learning about the importance of ethics, the high-standard to which police are held and how their actions can reflect upon the community’s perception of the department as a whole. Those same themes are reinforced in annual training officers receive and in a leadership series that supervisors attend, he said.
“It’s a thread that runs through everything we do,” he said.
Still, problems crop up from time to time. One Charleston officer was fired and three more resigned last year in connection with misconduct issues, mostly involving untruthfulness, Mullen said. One officer, a veteran lieutenant, resigned after a drunk driving arrest, an unfortunate blemish on an impressive 30-year career, Mullen said.
Police try to use such incidents as educational opportunities to drive home to other officers the potential ramifications of crossing the line, Mullen said.
Like Charleston police, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office and Mount Pleasant Police incorporate ethics and value training into their regimen and have assistance programs for officers struggling with work or personal problems. They talk about everything from handling work demands to balancing their budget at home to avoid running into financial difficulties, officials said.
State Criminal Justice Academy Director Hubert Harrell said he is pleased to see such efforts, which compliment the ethical groundwork laid at the academy. It needs to be reinforced throughout officers’ careers to prevent them from becoming jaded and absorbing some of the unsavory elements they deal with, he said.
“You have to remind these guys, ‘You can’t become what you do,’ ” Harrell said. “In my speech before graduation, I always tell them, ‘If you don’t walk away from law enforcement with anything else, walk away with your integrity.’ You have to be honest. You have to be someone people can bet their lives on.”
Copyright 2011 The Post and Courier