By Stephanie Samuels, MA, MSW, LCSW
Over 30 years in private practice and treating more than 1,500 officers have given me a deep understanding of the commonalities among police officers.
Here is the profile: the officer has grown up in crisis, does well in crisis, doesn’t know how to live without crisis, has issues with a father figure, or significant loss early in life. Additionally, the officer has a history of abuse, whether it is emotional, physical, sexual, or neglect to include domestic violence in his or her home. Any form of childhood abuse has been a subject that most people in society have stayed away from and most clinicians do not delve into appropriately.
Impact of childhood experiences
In 1987, researcher Gene Abel, Ph.D., was able to guarantee confidentiality and immunity from prosecution for all sex offenders if they identified their victims and the counts of contacts against them. This study revealed 377 child molesters who committed sexual acts against children outside of their homes. In total, these 377 adults victimized 4,435 girls and 22,981 boys. They were guilty of 5,197 acts of abuse against the girls and 43,100 against the boys. [1] Two years later, researcher Fuller confirmed these findings. [2]
Nationally, one out of three females are molested and one out of seven males. Those numbers are doubled in my practice. I have never met more vigilant officers than those who have been exposed to or have been physically or sexually abused themselves. These officers often seek positions to investigate crimes against children and interview potential perpetrators. It is said that children who are abused become one of, or a combination of, three things: abusers, protectors and/or victims. These officers are protectors and/or victims.
Resiliency vs. rigidity in officers
Now comes the issue of resiliency/rigidity.
Webster’s Dictionary defines resilience as 1. The capacity of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress; 2. an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.
I know of no population more resilient than law enforcement. It is well known that resilience is acquired from experiencing adversity for an extended period and finding coping mechanisms to survive it. Oftentimes those coping mechanisms are maladaptive since the trauma began in childhood and the individual didn’t have the cognitive maturity to process it. I say regularly, “The coping mechanisms that worked for you as a kid don’t work for you as an adult.”
Maladaptive coping mechanisms are common especially when one looks at the “general numbing of responsiveness,” which is a criterion in the diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Maladaptive, high adrenaline coping mechanisms can include but are not limited to, substance abuse, sexual behavior, impulsivity, overspending, speeding, etc. Looking at these behaviors, as well as a history of receptive head trauma, concussions Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI), is essential for supervisors as well as clinicians to properly address at risk behaviors on the job and properly diagnose and treat patients.
Post-traumatic growth in policing
The concept of post-traumatic growth, not found in standard dictionaries, is crucial in police work. Originating from the works of Viktor Frankl and further developed by Richard Tedeschi, Ph.D., and Lawrence Calhoun, Ph.D., it suggests that psychological struggle following adversity can lead to positive growth. In my practice, I emphasize “making sense of the senseless,” crucial for both officers and civilians in finding meaning in life. Each one of us, whether we wear a uniform or not, needs to find meaning in our lives. Wearing a uniform has helped many find that meaning, although it does not help them understand the etiology of that meaning.
The typical background of a police officer makes him or her resilient and has helped officers understand the importance of survival and post-traumatic growth. These officers see their glass as half full not half empty.
Rigidity: A challenge in modern policing
In contrast, some rigid officers can’t make sense of the senseless and can’t see the good in bad situations. Merriam-Webster defines rigid as “deficient in or devoid of flexibility; appearing stiff and unyielding.” Rigid officers have trouble with officer discretion on the job and view most people strictly as good or bad.
They struggle knowing they cannot control all situations and that limited emotional attachment, along with limited emotional intelligence, impedes the officers’ ability to experience emotional growth. These individuals would be reluctant to seek help and even if they did, in all likelihood, they would find fault with the helper. They also have difficulty accepting constructive criticism, admitting fault or wrongness, as well as utilizing all resources offered. These officers lack self-reflection and might be opposed to honest post-tactical debriefs. Looking into frontal lobe injuries from low-level blasts, contact sports, fights, MVA/TC is imperative to help identify possible neurological reasons for rigidity.
The rigid officer poses a significant threat to today’s law enforcement and necessary changes to policing. Learning from the past has been imperative for growth, not only in the law enforcement community but society as a whole. Critical incidents like the shooting involving Miami FBI agents in 1986, the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1996, the North Hollywood shootout with LAPD in 1997, Columbine in 1999, the attacks on September 11, 2001, the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, and the death of George Floyd in 2020, to name a few, changed protocols and policing.
When departments and officers don’t use the lessons learned from incidents like these, the results can continue to be deadly. In today’s society, this type of rigid personality will most likely struggle to navigate the current climate in policing and the ever-changing tides of society.
I hope that helping an officer understand his or her background, the role resiliency has played in their lives as well as the role head impacts and or injuries can play in their mental health will facilitate a psychologically more meaningful career. It can also increase the ability to navigate the multiple psychosocial stressors the officer experiences both on and off the job. I hope this understanding will build leaders, not just supervisors.
NEXT: COPLINE’s founder Stephanie Samuels on the role head injuries play in officer mental wellness
References
1. Abel G, Becker J, Mittleman M, Cunningham-Rathner J, Rouleau J, Murphy W. (1987.) Self-reported Sex Crimes of Nonincarcerated Paraphiliacs. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2:3-25.
2. Fuller K. (1989.) Child Molestation and Pedophilia: An Overview for the Physician”. JAMA, 261(4):602-606.
© 2022, Stephanie Samuels, M.A., MSW, LCSW. All rights reserved
About the author
Stephanie Samuels is a psychotherapist who works exclusively with police officers. Ms. Samuels has lectured all over the country on PTSD and vicarious trauma, including undiagnosed PTSD and the fallout from departmental silence after officers are involved in critical incidents, as well as how traumatic pasts play a part in an officer’s career. Ms. Samuels is part of a national research team looking into the role concussions play in the mental health of law enforcement officers and the potential connection to suicide.
Ms. Samuels began her career as one of the teens in the first focus group of Teen Line Cares, a mental health helpline for teens. Ms. Samuels understood that teens only trusted and confided in other teens. With this same concept in mind, Ms. Samuels went on to create two law enforcement officer hotlines. She is the Founder and Director of COPLINE, Inc., the first confidential national law enforcement officers hotline in the country answered by retired officers.
She is the general partner of The Counseling and Critical Incident Debriefing Center, LLC, which specializes in debriefing and long-term counseling of first responders and their families. She taught at the Monmouth County Police Academy for 16 years and has been a guest lecturer at the FBI Academy in Quantico. Ms. Samuels was hired after the Boston bombing as the Clinical Director of the Boston Police Department Peer Support Unit and co-founded the LEADER (Law Enforcement Active Duty Emergency Responder) Program at Harvard’s McLean Hospital.
Ms. Samuels has co-authored “Under the Blue Shadow: Clinical and Behavioral Perspectives on Police Suicide” with Dr. John Violanti and a chapter entitled “Police Trauma: Past Exposures and Present Consequences” in the book “Managing Traumatic Stress Risk: A Proactive Approach.”