First Responders: Do You Know the Difference Between Trauma and Tragedy?
Learning to distinguish trauma from tragedy is a must for first responders. Knowing the difference between trauma and tragedy can strengthen a first responder emotionally and minimize the effect of trauma. Maturing as a first responder requires accepting your own...
Leaving the Job: How Cops Can Transition to a New Career
30 years of police work is not for everyone. Here's how to make a graceful exit. Asking police officers to stay on the job for 20 to 30 years may be a mistake, costly to the officer, the agency and the community. Transitioning out of police work into the civilian...
17 Tips to Help Prevent Police Suicide
Police officers are twice as likely to kill themselves as to be killed in the line of duty. To prevent someone from killing themselves, don't mince words. Two crucial ways to intervene with a suicidal officer are to separate them from their weapons and to buy time. If...
Is New Federal Law Encouraging Cops to Commit Suicide?
On August 16th, President Biden signed two bills into law, the “Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Law Enforcement Training Act” (H.R. 2992) and the “Public Safety Officer Support Act of 2022” (H.R. 6943). There is much to be appreciated...
The Uvalde Massacre: What’s in Store for First Responders?
I hadn’t planned to write another blog this month, but the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, and the massacre in Buffalo, New York, compelled me to put my thoughts on paper. I’m thinking about trauma and first responders and the emotional wallop created by mass...
Growing Old in a Young Person’s Profession Pt. 1
One of the great pleasures of a long-lived career as a police psychologist is watching officers as they grow from wide-eyed, eager rookies to a more settled version of themselves. From recruitment to retirement, police work changes people and affects their families. A...