Editor’s Note: In PoliceOne “First Person” essays, our Members and Columnists candidly share their own unique view of the world. This is a platform from which individual officers can share their own personal insights on issues confronting cops today, as well as opinions, observations, and advice on living life behind the thin blue line. This week’s feature is from PoliceOne Member Brian Roesti, a State Park Officer with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Parks and Recreation. Do you want to share your own perspective with other P1 Members? Send us an e-mail with your story.
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By Brian Roesti
State Park Officer
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Division of Parks and Recreation
Stuck in a rut? Does it seem as if the command staff has constructed a barrier between you and productivity? Has “Just do it” been replaced by “Just pass it to the next shift”? Well, you are not alone. The good news is you may not yet be “retired on duty.” The bad news? You could be teetering on the edge of “Pike Syndrome.”
The northern pike (Esox luscious) is a predatory fish found predominantly in the cooler lakes and streams of the northern hemisphere. Violently carnivorous, the northern pike responds to prey in much the same manner as cops do to an active shooter... decisively, with the maximum force and aggression when ones life depends upon it.
Captive pike have shown a particularly unusual conditioned response when an “invisible” glass barrier is placed between the predator and its minnow prey. The pike’s survival instincts naturally predispose the fish to attack, kill, and eat the minnows. However, each valiant attempt is spoiled as the fish races head-first into the undetectable obstruction. Having learned its lesson, the tired, battered, and bruised predator will leisurely sink to the bottom of its aquarium knowing those minnows are off limits.
In and of itself, the above reaction is not peculiar. The curious response emerges when the barrier is removed. Once again free to interact with the prey, the predator shows no interest. Conditioned to associate the prey with pain, and to avoid the pain of bashing into another invisible barricade, the pike will slowly starve to death with unimpeded food swimming mere inches away.
Many of us have run head-first into both visible and invisible walls only to knock ourselves silly. Some of us do it twice to be absolutely certain it was wrong the first time. But we find our limits and determine the lines that will not be crossed. Barriers are certainly healthy in any organization. While it does require barriers to agitate the symptoms, Pike Syndrome is not entirely about the walls we have beaten our heads upon. Pike Syndrome is much more about the imagined walls that tend to leave one gun shy.
Pike Syndrome creeps into an organization in a number of ways. It is incremental, taking its time to wear down the individual. Because gravitational force directs feces downhill, Pike Syndrome can affect each level in the chain of command but piles up most noticeably on front line employees.
Arguably, the most common precursor to Pike Syndrome is organizational change or a change in command staff. Duties and responsibilities often become reprioritized as the command staff philosophy dictates. Fighting the change compounds existing philosophical barriers. Fortunately, change is cyclical and over time the negative barriers can be deconstructed.
Organizational change can reveal an environment where substance is preferred over style. We all desire results but the ends do not always justify the means in which those ends are pursued. In this sense, command style can be an insidious source of Pike Syndrome conditions.
Feudalistic superiors who believe their leadership is only legitimized through command and compliance run the risk of building barriers. Pacification for the feudalist, and their close relative the egoist, relies upon employees answering exclusively to their master and doing exactly what they are told to do. The risk here is having employees who do only as they are told.
Granted, employees who do only as they are told will achieve results. However, there will be fewer results. Stripped of the freedom to make decisions the natural predatory instinct becomes stymied by an invisible mental barrier.
Command staff and administrators who micro-manage their lieutenants and sergeants can perpetuate a culture of micro-managers where competence is routinely questioned. This type of “Monday morning quarterbacking” develops distrust within the ranks. When in-the-field decisions are habitually questioned and second-guessed, unnecessary barriers are being constructed.
Unreasonably restrictive and/or ambiguous directives, policies, and procedures further direct an employee on the path to Pike Syndrome. Enacting a “no foot pursuit” policy or reprimanding an officer for utilizing too little force to make an arrest can effectively turn the predator into prey. The fear of reprimand or lawsuits virtually spays and neuters the previously productive predator.
Each of the limitless potential examples represents just another brick in Pink Floyd’s infamous wall. These are the tangible barriers that lead toward imagined blockades. Employees are capable of dealing with one or two of these institutional adversities at a time. It is when they begin stacking, and theoretical barriers are perceived at each and every step, that Pike Syndrome becomes a reality.
In the northern pike’s case, the predator refused to survive. The barrier had been removed and the fish was free to interact with the prey. Painful reminders of past experience developed distrust in its own basic survival instinct. Given the choice to die slowly or die painfully the predator chose slow death.
Chief Jeff Lehman of the Montpelier, Ohio police department ends all of his e-mail correspondences with “Losing is not an option.” Neither is quitting. Are barriers constructed every day? Absolutely. When you see them, avoid them. When you run head-first into the invisible barriers, remember them. Where there are no barriers, do not imagine them.
The imagined barriers are the direct result of the creeping nature of Pike Syndrome. To our detriment we tend to incorrectly lump those officers suffering from Pike Syndrome into the same category as the “retired on duty” officers. Pike Syndrome officers are not yet retired. They are simply suffering from a loss of, as opposed to a lack of, ambition and enthusiasm.
Find what sparks their fire and set them free with the assurance that many of the barriers are illusions or figments of an overactive imagination. You will likely be rewarded with a once again productive predator. But be honest and “have their back.” If you waiver on the commitment, you may find that predator belly-up with no way to move them out...and this is retired on duty.
Like hemorrhoids and acne, Pike Syndrome grants no immunity. Regardless of rank, title, or seniority, there may be times when each of us finds ourselves asking, “Why should we try?”
Because doing nothing, when there is nothing holding you back, is Pike Syndrome. Are you suffering?
