Examining the Police Personality

If you studied criminal justice in college, chances are that at some point you were forced to write a term paper on “the police personality.” I wasn’t a criminal justice major myself, but I know this because every time something new on the subject finds its way on to the internet I get a Google “alert.”  

Researchers have been intrigued with the police personality for well over 30 years, beginning with criminology professor Jerome Skolnic’s work A Sketch of the Policeman’s Working Personality in 1977. Most cops, on the other hand, don’t really care about the topic. 

It’s when we’ve made a commitment to ourselves to lead healthy, happy, productive lives that knowing something about the police personality becomes valuable. Most of the land mines police officers hit throughout our career (divorce, substance abuse, depression, coronary disease) have roots in our own personality. Simply put, cops are a “type,” and that type can lead to our own undoing.  

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Let’s be more specific and say that for cops, the unexamined life will likely lead to a shorter, sicklier and less happy life. 

  

Personalities - our well worn attitudes, beliefs and worldviews - mostly remain stable over time. Our moods are fickle. They change all day long. Personalities, not so much. We can change our personalities, it just requires time and effort.  

WHAT IS THE POLICE PERSONALITY?

The first question is, “Is there a police personality?” Yes, there is.  Okay, we’ve settled that, now let’s talk about two competing theories for how we “get” the police personality. 

Importation Theory says that the police personality is created by picking out from the sea of humanity, a certain type of person to be police officers. Pick, pick, pick. Remember the psych. tests you took when applying for the job? The ones where you felt they were trying to set you up?

True or False

1. I’d like to be a librarian?

2. Sometimes I hear voices that no one else hears?

Or,

Fill in the blank.

1. When my mother ___________ I feel ashamed.

2. Sometimes I cry when _________.

Those tests were meant to weed out “undesirable” types. Risk managers have decided that psychotic, impulsive, or timid people don’t make good cops. When all the schizophrenic, loose canon, introverts have been weeded out, the police department is left with us. Thus, we’re an “imported” type. You may be interested to know that police psychologists are much better at weeding “out” people than weeding them “in.” 

Then, there’s Socialization Theory, which states we’re not a type when we start the job but that the police culture shapes us into the police personality. I’ll leave it at that. A considerable amount of empirical support can be found for both theories. 

SO WHAT “TYPE” ARE WE?  [note: you’re probably going to think, “I’m not x or y!” Remember, there’s well over 900,000 cops in the U.S. alone. These traits are based on LARGE samples of law enforcement personnel].

Compared to the general population cops tend to be:

Pragmatic

Isolative

Prejudice

Conservative

Suspicious

Cynical

Assertive

Action oriented

Scientists have developed scales for every trait you see above. They can be measured and compared to others. 

Okay, so now we know what that the police personality is a type and what that type is. How can knowing this make you a happier, healthier human being? 

Let’s call the above traits, The Big Seven. If you “examine” your life as my man Socrates suggests, the first thing to do is commit the Big Seven to memory. Put ‘em on a flash card or something. Why? Because awareness is more than half the battle. That’s what I tell my therapy clients. Really. If you’re aware of a problem, symptom or in this case, a personality trait you can begin to see how it operates in your life. For some reason, simply being aware of it can lessen it’s harmful consequences. 

Take one trait that and pay attention to how it creeps into your life, even when your not on duty. Suspiciousness, for example, is part of a cops hardwiring. It makes us better officers. However, our spouses, friends and children may find it trying when we’re constantly scanning for nefarious activity while at the movie theater or restaurant. Don’t completely let your guard down, just be AWARE of it. Awareness will give you more options. Maybe, just maybe, the weird dude two houses down isn’t a pedophile. 

Awareness is an attitude. It’s not as easy as it sounds because it requires attention and some level of personal commitment. I hope you pay attention and have made a commitment to staying in shape physically. You better have your ass in the gym because you don’t get to pick the time some parolee wants to kill you. They get to pick the time. 

Likewise, I encourage you to make a personal commitment to your mental health. Paying attention to how the police personality can detract from your wellness isn’t as concrete as doing push-ups, but the benefits are similar. 

Tactical Police Psychology

Tactics are supposed to be the life blood of policing. Being 'tactical' not only applies to specific calls for service, but is extended to every aspect of our lives. Cops are forever vigilant about ‘officer safety’ and the safety of our families. The universal salutation of peace officers is, ‘be safe.’ Police tactics are based not in folklore, mysticism or intuition. They’re based in science and what’s termed the ‘scientific method of inquiry’. In fact, what Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman calls ‘Warrior Science’ has developed into its own industry within law enforcement.

The same science that informs our tactical practices has provided many insights into the psychological impact a career in law enforcement can have on individuals. The news isn’t good.

Police officers lead shorter and sicklier lives than the general population. We are prone to some types of cancer, heart disease, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, marital discord, alcoholism, early death and suicide. The list goes on.

For many, law enforcement was more of a calling than a career choice. We made a conscious decision to give up material wealth for the peace maker’s noble path. Unfortunately, we give up more than wealth or community recognition or fame. We also give up our bodies and our entire pre-law enforcement world view. We become pessimistic, cynical and jaded.

Modern science clearly points to a need for extending tactics beyond where we park during crimes in progress or how we clear a room. Those that study police psychology have articulated a need to apply to the same concern for the preservation of our physical integrity to the psychological realm. We’ve learned the hard way that officers are eaten up and spit out by ‘the job.’ The police personality, exacerbated by a ‘suck it up and drive on’ ethos within our well-defined culture has produced generations of officers suffering in silence.

Until recently, the stress-related diseases associated with a career in law enforcement were ignored. Officers suffering from cumulative traumatic stress, organizational hassles and years of seeing people at what Kevin Gilmartin calls ‘their maddest, baddest and saddest’ were left to their own devices. As an industry, we reaped inaction and sewed alcoholism, depression, suicide and disease. Such has been the historical lot of the police officer.

I’ve seen the infamous Officer Implosion from several angles. I watched my father, a proud California Patrol Officer, struggle with depression and alcoholism. He was injured on the job forcing his medical retirement and unceremoniously kicked out of the ‘police family’. I’ve seen well respected officers develop drug and alcohol problems. All too often they wait until their wheels are falling off before finally asking for help.

Now, the good news. A growing army of psychologically injured yet strong officers, retirees, researchers and police mental health professionals have been building bridges, connecting the science to the cop. Ivory tower social science research isn't worth the paper it's written on unless it's applied to real people.As the name suggests, ‘Tactical Police Psychology’ encompasses a set of practices and knowledge aimed at preserving officer's psychological integrity. A pre-requisite for utilizing Tactical Police Psychology is the capacity to be honest with one’s self. This is many times easier said than done. We ask questions like, ‘Do I drink too much?’ or ‘Could I be depressed?’ It also requires a willingness to take positive action to improve our mental health. It involves a sense of ‘not knowing,’ never easy for cops.

Using Tactical Police Psychology helps us ‘be safe.’ The spouses and children of officers benefit from our utilizing physical tactics because those tactics allow us to come home in one physical piece at the end of our shifts. They also benefit from our using psychological tactics because they allow us to come home in one piece mentally at the end of our shift. An emotionally broken, depressed, alcoholic warrior may still be able to push a patrol car around, but he's not much of a father or a husband.

Our mission is to bring primary mental health prevention to officers. Primary prevention is well known in community health initiatives. Until recently, it's been non-existent in law enforcement. We invite you to cross the bridge, free of charge. If you believe, as many do, that thoughts, feelings and attitudes are ‘touchy feely’ and therefore have no place in law enforcement, you’re wrong. You’re also in danger.

Policing is one of the helping professions. As such, it behooves us to treat our minds with the same great care we give to our bodies.

Drove down beautiful Highway 101 last week to attend the 15th Annual California Peer Support Association conference in Ventura. I was particularly fired up to hear two of the scheduled speakers, both from the east coast: Dr. John Violanti and Janice McCarthy.

Violanti is a professor at the New York State University at Buffalo, a researcher and a leading expert in police psychology. He was also a New York State Trooper for 23 years.

Policing is strongly influenced and dependent upon science. Everything from collision investigations to crime scene processing to criminal profiling is based on the scientific method of inquiry. John Violanti is here to say that the same scientific method is giving us good information about the mental health of police officers. The news isn’t great, but it’s actionable. As individual officers, supervisors and administrators we CAN do some things to make things better.

Dr. Violanti noted the important role of supervisors in knowing their people and being able to recognize the signs and symptoms of suicidality. He said suicidal people almost always communicate their intention to kill themselves before they act.

When we read news articles about officers committing suicide we frequently hear something along the line of, “It was a complete shock...it came out of nowhere.” To that the SCIENCE says, “BS!” If departments provided quality training to line supervisors in this area we could prevent some officer suicides.

Remember, suicide is the final act of a human being who has endured immense suffering. Alcoholism, depression, traumatic stress (the list goes on) are all correlated to suicidality, and they’re all treatable conditions. To paraphrase Violanti, suicide is “completely preventable.”

Janice McCarthy lost her husband, Capt. Paul McCarthy to suicide in 2006. A powerful speaker and a strong, determined woman, Janice gives a face to all those survivors of police suicide. Survivors everyone it seems would rather forget. She holds a mirror up to a law enforcement industry that generally hates introspection and says, “Here I am, this is real.”

Capt. McCarthy didn’t end his life because of “family problems,” as we so frequently hear. He died of an untreated psychological injury. Believe it. He was psychologically injured on the job, tried but was denied appropriate treatment, went back to work and repeatedly re-injured himself. Each time trying and each time being denied treatment. Risk managers know the importance of fixing broken tibias. They are at a loss about Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. In 2010 this is unacceptable.

Untreated PTSD can take your life. If you don’t believe me, talk to Janice. She’ll explain it to you in a way you won’t soon forget.

Serving as an emcee of sorts for the conference was Andrew O’Hara from Badge of Life. This organization emphasizes what in public health is called “primary prevention.” Let’s not wait until our officers are suffering, pushing their patrol cars around our neighborhoods while suffering quietly. Let’s do preventative mental health. Badge of Life is chomping at the bit to send you educational materials, or come out to your department to train you. Their website is chalk full of useful written material and videos. Badge of Life also directs their attention to retirees, another group that we seem to disown from the police “family.” All their material is free.

The conference was quite heavy at times. I don’t think I’m alone, however, in returning to my department with a renewed sense of how vital peer support is.

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if not now, when?"

-Hillel

A break in the action.

Haven't been posting anything new lately because I've been working on the book. Can't do weekly posts right now, but stand by.

What Cops Should Know about Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a formal psychiatric diagnosis. At the risk of stating the obvious, a key component to PTSD is exposure to traumatic stress. I bring this up because virtually all police officers are exposed to traumatic stress but not all develop PTSD. Traumatic stress is an occupational inevitability for cops. PTSD on the other hand is an occupational risk. Some research suggests police officers have an increased risk for developing PTSD at some point during their career.

There are a number of complicated variables that affect how we respond to traumatic incidents, some of which are dimly understood. For example, if an officer experienced childhood abuse which he or she successfully suppressed from memory, those memories may re-emerge upon exposure to a traumatic incident later in life. I’ve had clients painfully describe how previous traumatic memories have resurfaced after the incident that brought them in, like candy spilling out of a piñata.

Some of us are more vulnerable to post traumatic symptoms than others. Importantly, our increased vulnerability is not the result of mental weakness. They include constructs such as temperament, early childhood experience, social learning and coping styles.

Don’t try and diagnose yourself with PTSD. Leave that to the professionals. When is it time to seek professional help? If you’ve been exposed to a traumatic stressor and after several weeks,

1. You continue to have sleep problems (e.g., difficulty falling or staying asleep, sleeping too much).

2. You over eat or have difficulty keeping food down.

3. You continue having trouble with your mood (e.g., irritability/anger, sadness/crying,

panic response like your heart’s going to jump out of your skin).

4. Co-workers, friends or family members are expressing concern about you.

I shudder to think of how many police officers who know something is wrong with them try to white knuckle their way through PTSD. A recent study by the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center found veterans with PTSD were twenty five percent more likely to die within a year after surgery than non-PTSD veterans. This, despite the fact that the veterans were younger in age at the time of surgery and even after they had long separated from military service. The point? It ain’t goin’ away.

PTSD has an impact on entire families. It’s been described as ‘the gift that keeps giving’.

PTSD isn’t like the West Nile Virus or Yellow Fever. It’s a treatable condition. You cannot be treated for PTSD (or any other serious medical problem for that matter) unless you seek help.

As cops we pride ourselves in having common sense. We use reason instead of blind emotion, voodoo or tea leaves to arrive at the best ‘thing to do’ in any given situation. The greek philosopher Epicurus wrote,

Chance seldom interferes with the wise man; his greatest and highest interests have been, are, and will be, directed by reason throughout his whole life.

If you think you may have PTSD what do you think the wise thing to do is?

Next week I’ll end “The Body Keeps the Score” series with a discussion of how to strengthen our emotional kevlar for future exposure to traumatic stress.

"The Body Keeps the Score:" An introduction to psychological trauma for cops. Part Two

Stress and Traumatic Stress

Imagine your neighbor knocking on your front door. He’s irritated. The neighbor says your son, who’s been playing football with his friends in the street, hit his car with the ball. In this case you would likely experience stress.

Now, imagine your neighbor pounding on your door. He’s panicked. The neighbor says your son has been hit by a car and is badly injured. In this case you would likely experience traumatic stress.

It’s the experience of helplessness and horror that define traumatic stress. Exposure to traumatic stress is an occupational inevitability for police officers. Think of a horrifying event. Any event. Now, ask yourself, “would there be cops there?” Probably, right? We’re always at the horror shows, and all too frequently we experience as sense of helplessness about our ability to make it right.

The fact that police officers aren’t allowed a normal human reaction to traumatic stressors makes things worse. Let me tell you about an experiment done by Robert Sapolsky, a stress physiology professor at Stanford University.

He showed two groups of people a gruesome video (a leg amputation) and then measured their stress response after seeing it. He showed the video to the first group and measured them. As expected, their bodies were pretty jacked up. Then he showed it to the second group. However, before they saw it, the researchers instructed the group that they were to have no reaction whatsoever while watching the video. The stress reaction in this second group was significantly higher. Makes sense.

Chronic exposure to traumatic stress, if not actively managed can very bad for us. It resides in the body and will stay there if not worked through in some way. Trauma guru Bessel van der Kolk writes, “the body keeps the score.”

Some of us believe getting good and drunk after “one of those days” will help us deal with traumatic incidents. This is a dangerous and wrong path. I’d recommend participating in a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing or other means of emotional/social support. Talking it out usually doesn’t, as some suggest, make people worse or symptomatic. The vast majority of cops need to talk more, not less, about the emotional piece of this job.

Next week we’ll cover the best known and least desirable outcome of traumatic exposure: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

New Facebook Page

The good news: Police Mental Health now has a Facebook page. I'd like to encourage you - yeah YOU - to share what works and what doesn't work to improve police officers' lot in this world. So don't be a frickin' lurker.

The bad news: At present, the URL for the page is ridiculous: http://www.facebook.com/pages/PoliceMentalHealth/138185609550421?ref=ts

Apparently, if x number of people go to the page and hit "like" I can

abbreviate the web address to something more normal. So, can you

go there and, even if you think it's the dumbest thing you've seen in

awhile, hit "like."

Thanks.