Preying On Our Own: Damaging Gossip in Law Enforcement

“What are they saying?” This is a question Officers should never have to ask after a critical incident, but it is asked, almost every time. What are my fellow officers saying about me? Law Enforcement Officers, being hardwired perfectionists, are very concerned about how we are perceived by our peers. We know that gossip can develop into a “jacket.” Weak, stupid, butt kisser, bureaucrat...you get the picture. We often then believe (most of the time erroneously) that our entire career has been tainted by these easily earned and hard to get out of jackets. I’ve heard parolees lament, “It’s easy to get in the system. It’s ain’t easy to get out.” Same goes for the unfair labels we put on each other. 

Like it or not, we lead high profile lives. We have to put ourselves way out there in this profession. Soft spoken Officers have to learn how to bellow, “Get on the ground!” It may not feel natural but we do it because we have to. Ours is a difficult profession by anyone’s standards, and when we make our inevitable mistakes, it’s often right out there in the open. If you can’t stand the thought of looking foolish in public don’t even consider police work. 

The problem isn’t making mistakes, but rather what we fellow LEO’s do when we see or hear about the mistakes of our brothers and sisters in blue. And what would that be? We seek out all the gory details. Like chum thrown in shark infested waters, we swarm. A frenzy of gossip, exaggeration and trash talking erupts within the department. We love it. This is what we can and must change, one Officer at a time. 

Damaging gossip differs from the good natured, sometimes relentless ribbing we give each other as a sign of affection and acceptance. Damaging gossip on the other hand, serves as a destructive stress-reliever for pent up cops.  

We already have one of the most stressful jobs on the planet. We already have equipment that doesn’t work, felons trying to kill us, district attorneys that don’t charge our cases, reports that are kicked back, and defense attorneys trying to twist us up in court. The fact that one of our greatest sources of stress is knowing that our colleagues are disparaging us behind our back is completely unnecessary. 

One of the highest held principles in law enforcement is that of taking personal responsibility for our actions. I would like to invite every one of us to include in that inventory of personal accountability, the degree to which we tear down or build up our family members. 

We need to vent, no doubt about that. We need a few trusted co-workers who we can turn to and, in a confidential setting, blast our beat partner or supervisor to. That’s peer support in it’s rawest form and it’s part of what allows us to carry on in this work. But when we’re not thoughtful about the who, when and where of our tirades or gossip, we  we create additional stress for our fellow Officers. We prey on our own. 

Cops need two things when we screw up: we need to learn, and we need support. With regard to learning, we are often our harshest critics. Any tongue lashing we get from the Sergeant pales compared to our own harsh self-talk. 

We need someone in the group to stand up for us when we’re not there to defend our reputation. We need someone to say, “I did that same thing a few years ago and let me tell you about it,” or “I wonder what we can do to help Larry move on from this.” 

Speaking up for those who have made mistakes not only protects their reputation, it benefits you, as it is an act of kindness and compassion. It benefits you by giving you the feeling that you helped a fellow Officer in need. That “good feeling” we get when we stick up for others has real health benefits. For example, Dr. Stephen Post from Stony Brook University School of Medicine reviewed over 50 research studies on the health benefits of altruism and concluded, 

In total, the research on the benefits of giving is extremely powerful, to the point that suggests healthcare professionals should consider recommending such activities to patients.... If the benefits of volunteering or altruism could be put into a pill, it would be a bestseller overnight. 

A career in policing puts us face to face with a smorgasbord of stressors that are completely outside of our control, damaging gossip is one that we’re putting on ourselves. Let’s be mindful of what we’re adding to the culture of our department. Next time you’re in the locker room changing out to go home, ask yourself, “Who did I support today?” If we all adopted such an attitude we’d never have to answer our friend’s question, “What are they saying?” 

Police PTSD, Stress & Suicide Documentary

Looks like the group at Badge of Life (badgeoflife.com) is trying to get financial support for a documentary on the above topics. I think the completion of such a film would be a great way to educate administrators, er, I mean law enforcement professionals about the importance of proactive mental health. 

Here's the trailer,


Code 9 Officer Needs Assistance

The Laugh Challenge

I teach a police stress class. It's really easy to talk about all the ways police work destroys our health and happiness. That's the easy part. The more challenging aspect of the class is getting cops to practice the things that will make us healthier bipeds. More comfortable in our skin. Better partners, parents and friends. Case in point: laughter.


Laughter acts just like medicine. It changes the way our body works at the physiologic level. Think about how you feel after a really good laugh. You feel great, right? Your muscles are more relaxed, you've stimulated blood flow and just plain feel better.


It's no accident that cops laugh so much. We collect a lot of tension at work and naturally, albeit unconsciously look for things to laugh at. Co-workers, their recounting of a street contact or call they responded to, are usually a good source of laughter. "So, I roll up get out of my car and this guy runs up to me and [insert bizarre, goofy or stupid action here]." We also laugh AT our co-workers too, don't we? The point is, we intuitively know laughing is good for us so we do it a lot.


But "fake" laughter gives us the exact same benefits as real laughter. Enter the Laugh Challenge. 


THE LAUGH CHALLENGE: 
You're sitting at the dinner table with your family (or friends). Pick a random time when everyone's there, and start laughing. Don't wait for something funny, create something funny by fake laughing. And, yeah, it'll feel really fake and silly and a voice in your head will bellow, "This is STUPID, stop it!" If you head that voice you will fail the challenge. Keep on with the fake laughter. A lot of people can't get past their "comfort zone" here, but not you. You're going to push on and keep laughing. 


If you've made it this far you'll see the good stuff. Okay, so you're laughing like a complete moron and your family is looking at you like you've finally fallen off the deep end. Right about here your real laugh will probably kick in. MAJOR PRINCIPLE OF LAUGH THERAPY: fake laughing produces real laughing. Your kids, wife, friends or whoever is around you will start laughing for real. Now, you're laughing for real, they're laughing for real and tears will start coming down your face. 


When I've done this in the past, I find it becomes one of those truly crazy laugh episodes. The ones you where you can't STOP laughing. After the dust settles and people are wiping the tears from their eyes you can tell them about the challenge. 


You've given yourself and everyone around you the gift of a good belly laugh. Let me know how it works out. 


For more on this see,


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5165226

Another Good Video

On exercise. I know, you've heard it all before, but give this a look. 

Interview with former cop about PTSD

Haven't read the book but I'm guessing it's pretty good. Couple things to note about this brief interview. First, it highlights one of the ways people become traumatized. Namely, when you feel you're life is in immediate danger. You don't have to kill someone or be seriously wounded to get PTSD. If you experience an event in which you BELIEVE you are about to die or be seriously injured, that could be enough to trigger a trauma response. 


Secondly, notice the role of family in Jimmy Bremner's healing process. Research shows that police FAMILIES can either be an exacerbating or a healing force when confronted with PTSD. This is another reason working on our family relationships is so important throughout our police career. 


Finally, he's not talking about the shit bird that's a waist of oxygen and should have died except of course he didn't die because shit birds never die, because only the good people do... He says, "The gentleman" when referring to...er, the guy. He clearly hasn't let his experience as a police officer steal his compassion, as it does for so many of us. We could all learn something from Mr. Bremner. 


Happy Holidays!


Here's the link:

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20111220/jimmy-bremner-crack-in-the-armor-post-traumatic-stress-111220/

:) (click me)

Bureaucracy v.s. The Guy who First Starting Playing this Game

When I was in the academy they used to say, “10% of cops do the work for the other 90. Do you want to be part of the 10 or part of the 90?”  Back then, this 10 and 90 thing was just a curious abstraction. Now, after working the street for a few years, I realize what they meant. 

The typical trajectory for cops is that we start off our careers being proactive, but over time we become less so. In fact, most cops eventually become firefighters, answering calls on their beat but doing little else. Some of us spend more energy trying to get out of “taking paper” than it would take to just take a report. 

During my first few years of patrol I felt indignant at the 90% Sometimes still do. What I’ve come to realize though is that there are good reasons cops reinvent themselves as firefighters. One of those reasons is that the bureaucracy in policing discourages proactivity. The more contact an officer has with the public, be it a consensual encounter or a detention, the more opportunity he gives bureaucrats to nitpick, micromanage, correct or even punish him. One of the old vets who trained me put it this way, “They want you to spin your wheels, so spin your wheels.” 

Like you, I didn’t become a cop to spin my wheels. I became a cop to have an exciting, challenging career and to MAKE A DIFFERENCE. How does an officer who has lost this desire to make a difference get it back? In the film Jerry Maquire, Tom Cruise tries reconnect Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) to the enthusiastic ballplayer he once was,

...back to the guy who first started playing this game. Remember, way back when you were a kid? It wasn’t just about the money, was it?

At some point in their careers the 90% come to realize that it really has become about the money. Part of what got them to that point is the bureaucracy. 

Bureaucracy as Stress

We’re used to thinking of “stress” as feeling “stressed out.” Not so. The things that activate our fight, flight or freeze response are called “stressors.” For law enforcement personnel, part of what makes us sicker than others is the manifold nature of our stressors, including (but not limited to), 

Critical incidents.

Public scrutiny.

The administration.

Shift work.

Bureaucracy.

It’s the bureaucracy part we’re looking at today. It’s made worse by another stressor: lack of leadership. If your boss partners with you in acknowledging the good work you do as part of the 10%, looks for real reasons to compliment you on your work ethic, and then - and ONLY then - tells you that you forgot to fill out the green form (Form G7.2 to be precise) it reduces the officer’s felt stress.  But we know leaders are elusive, which is why the “leadership industry” is booming. If all we get is a curt e-mail “reminder” sent by a bureaucrat and cc’d to our boss, it can really dampen our desire to do anything more than a firefighter. 

Becoming a firefighter is bad for our health. It signifies a learned helplessness response. That’s when shit goes bad and you just stop trying. The concept of learned helplessness was developed in the 1960’s. Here’s my interpretation of the groundbreaking research in this area by Seligman and Maire: 

Put a dog over two metal grates with a small fence separating them. Give the dog a small electric shock and what does he do? Right, he bounces over the fence to the other grate. Shock him there and he jumps back over. If you keep shocking ol’ Buddy he’ll keep jumping over the fence to the side that’s not pissing him off. Eventually, guess what happens? Buddy just lies there and gets shocked. That’s learned helplessness and it should sound familiar. 

Now that you’re good and depressed, let me tell you what to do about combating learned helplessness and the bureaucracy. Here are four ways to keep your love of the game alive. 

1. Have at least two support people on your “team.” These are workmates who really get it and who will allow you to scream, “This place is sooooo fucked up!!” Use your teammates liberally. This moves toxic stress out of from under your sternum where it will make you sick, and into the air. Whew, that felt good. Don’t forget to thank your teammate for listening to your agitated tirade. It’s also good for your health to be on the support team of a few workmates. What goes around comes around type thing. 

The next three are key components of the what behavioral scientists have dubbed the “stress hardy personality.” They are, challenge, control and commitment. 

2. Challenge. This is where you make it a game. You want to win the game, right? Okay, so, given that by remaining or becoming proactive you expose yourself to the bureaucracy, how can you not give them a chance to get you? 

That’s a question.

While they probably didn’t teach you this in the academy, make it your job to know more about the bureaucracy than the bureaucrats. Keep the forms in your beat bag or your desktop and complete all of them. Then, go 10-8 and do more work. Ha ha, I won. 

3. Control. Related to challenge, control is when you don’t give the bureaucracy a chance to ding you because you already filled out the green form. You took CONTROL of the things you could. It’s far less stressful to control those friggin forms by taking the initiative on them, than it is to let a bureaucrat send you a “reminder” e-mail. When you control your destiny you can just send two words back to the bureaucrat: “Already done.” 

4. Commitment. Keep your eye on the ball, son. The ball isn’t just your retirement package, it’s “the guy who first started playing this game.” It’s arresting criminals, returning missing juveniles, making positive citizen contacts and looking good in your patrol car. Remind yourself about the reasons you got into police work. Commitment also relates to your religious views, your community, your family and friends. These are what you’re committed to...not form G7.2.