As I travel and teach, I frequently ask police officers, “What depletes your spirit?”
Their responses include:
- Politics
- Failures of management – lack of direction and involvement, micromanaging, management that takes all the credit, doesn’t back up officers
- Lack of resources, budget cuts, being asked to do everything with nothing
- Responsibility without authority
- Work that doesn’t contribute to the mission
- Negative people
- A public that doesn’t understand
- A justice system that doesn’t do justice
- Bureaucracy
- Communication and information-sharing problems
- Media
One thing that has never made this nationwide list is “criminals.” Police sign up and prepare for criminals. No matter how disproportionately cops are exposed to— in the words of Dr. Kevin Gilmartin — “the baddest, maddest, saddest” humanity can come up with, those people have never made the “what depletes your spirit?” list. And I’ve asked the question of a great many officers at a lot of departments.
This subject came up recently when I conducted a leadership seminar for an Idaho Chiefs of Police Association and Idaho and Montana FBI NAA Chapters Conference.
The morning after I presented in Idaho I was lucky enough to see some of Dr. Gilmartin’s session (if you haven’t heard the man, put it on your bucket list — he’s that good). Dr. Gilmartin reminded me that we lose more cops to their own hands than we lose to the bad guys.
- In the 1970s, officer deaths arising from felonies averaged 116
- In the 2000s that LODD average has dropped to 53
That’s not because the world is less dangerous. It’s because of advancements in gear and training and hard lessons learned.
In comparison, officer suicides annually average 123 to 484, depending where you draw the line. As Dr. Gilmartin explained, if you include a career officer who became depressed and alcoholic over time on the job and shoots himself within a few months of retirement, you get the higher number. If you only count cops who kill themselves while still on the job, you get the lower number.
Police Prepare for the Bad Guys Police-citizen contacts rarely result in the use of force. About one percent of people who had face-to-face contacts with police said that officers used or threatened force. An IACP study revealed a use-of-force rate of 0.0361 percent.
Beginning in the academies, the profession spends weeks of training for that rare use of force. The profession’s focus on preparing officers for that rare occurrence continues throughout their career. Why? Because, as rare as it is, it can be critical and the profession wants to do everything it can to prevent any name being added to the wall.
But what about those we lose for whom there is no wall?
Scenario-based training for your spirit
One way to prepare officers for the real heart stompers is with some scenario-based training. Here are just three scenarios that could be used in the application process or at the Academy. I’ve begun using them and it’s gratifying to see the awakening on recruits’ and officers’ faces.
1. You pour your heart and soul into a case and do a great job gathering proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but you can’t get a prosecutor to even look at it. Or you get a prosecutor to take it to trial and one juror hangs the jury and you’re told there aren’t enough resources to retry it. Or, clearing all those hurdles, the jury convicts and the judge gives the defendant a slap on the wrist.
How is that going to make you feel? Is it going to affect how you do the next case?
2. You use deadly force. A review determines you performed tactically and legally perfect. The decedent’s family sues you and the department. The department decides to settle and pay the family more than you will make the next three years rather than risk a large award by a jury. How will that make you feel? Will it affect your next potential use of force?
3. Your Chief discovers you running a personal errand on department time and chews you out. Then you learn that while the Chief attended a taxpayer paid conference he skipped out a couple of days to play golf (see, Gilmartin & Harris, Law Enforcement Ethics: The Continuum of Compromise).
How will that make you feel? Will it affect how ethically you behave in the future?
Prepare for what might drive cops to despair
We couldn’t imagine sending recruits out into the tactical dangers of law enforcement with little to no mental, emotional or physical preparation. What kind of chance would they stand?
We need to prepare and train officers for the circumstances that drive too many to suicide. Realistic scenario-based training is one means. Debriefing those scenarios with meaningful, winning solutions must be part of such training.
Making materials like Dr. Gilmartin’s book Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement required Academy reading and the subject of training throughout the changing challenges of an officer’s career and retirement is another means.
How can we do any less for our officers and their families?
