I received a heartfelt letter from a concerned police officer's wife. She was experiencing her what, for want of a better term, could be called spouse's police stress. Her husband had policed far more than his share of critical incidents, including accidents where numerous children were killed. He was withdrawing from her and questioning his belief in God. Why, in essence, ...

Congratulations. You made sergeant. At last, the end of police stress. If it suits you, it is potentially the best job in law enforcement. You probably are still in the union, you have status and responsibility over and above what you used to have. You can finally exercise your leadership with the credibility of those stripes, which you worked long and ...

You must always be prepared for the sudden explosive expression of fear and outrage peppered with every obscenity and insult you've ever heard on every traffic stop you make. Generally it is fairly easy to stand back and let the person vent. After all, you have the power to write a citation no matter how much the motorist offends you and ...

No discussion of police stress and dealing with shift work can be complete without looking at the universal need for sleep, and the consequences of both not getting enough sleep or having irratic sleep patterns. Police stress and shift work go together. Sleep news: scientific news related to sleep. It was reported last week in a reputable magazine, Science, that researchers ...

Police stress and corrections stress arises from two basic causes: the stress intrinsic to the job, and the stress associated with poor or even negligent management. In the former instances, officers may be reluctant to open up to police stress peer counselors (sometimes called "stress officers") because they are concerned about their confidences being shared with management. This concern is heightened ...

As a first-time attendee at Concerns of Police Survivors’ Surviving Spouses’ Retreat, Tiffany Cortez of Phoenix, Arizona, seemed intimidated and scared upon arrival, but within hours began to open up as she met some amazing people. Amazing people that were survivors just like her. The C.O.P.S.’ Spouses’ Retreat was held in Potosi, Missouri, at the YMCA Trout Lodge the weekend of ...

With the recent updates in funding in Homeland Security, one can only help wonder how evenly the funds will be distributed. Currently upgrade to the maritime port security initiative have stepped up with awesome and new technology however, we must begin to prepare for old history that tends to show itself over again. In this day in age, the piracy in ...

We have all had the experience where a person tells us something in private that he never would have told us in a public setting. It is well accepted that it is easier to talk about sensitive matters with only a single person present. Yet, how many times are victims interviewed in the presence of a family member, or a witness ...

Target Audience: Law Enforcement personnel who may be faced with the task of legal decisions relating to operations. Objective: Provide officers with essential knowledge of the law as announced by the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2005-2006 term (NOTE: See previous issue for additional cases) . Format: Roll-call/ supervisory training. Time: Five to ten minutes, but this may be expanded where ...

Target Audience: Law Enforcement personnel who may be faced with decisions that are impacted by the law from the United States Supreme Court. Objective: Provide officers with training on new legal standards announced by the United States Supreme Court. Format: Roll-call/ supervisory training. Time: Five to ten minutes for each of the hypothetical sections, but this may be expanded where agency ...

Target Audience: Law Enforcement personnel who may be faced with decisions that are impacted by the law from the United States Supreme Court. Objective: Provide officers with training on new legal standards announced by the United States Supreme Court. Format: Roll-call/ supervisory training. Time: Five to ten minutes for each of the hypothetical sections, but this may be expanded where agency ...

"Alabama Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission":http://www.apostc.state.al.us/ "Alaska Police Standards Council":http://www.dps.state.ak.us/apsc/asp/ "Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board":http://www.azpost.state.az.us/ "Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training":http://www.clest.org/aleta_home.html "California Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission":http://www.post.ca.gov/ "Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training Board":http://www.ago.state.co.us/post_board.cfm?MenuPage=True "Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training Council":http://www.ct.gov/post/ "District of Columbia Peace Officer Standards and Training Board":http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1232,q,541040,mpdcNav_GID,1523,mpdcNav,%7C31417%7C.asp "Federal Law Enforcement Training Center":http://www.fletc.gov/ ...

Having described the types of behaviors and techniques associated with riot behavior, both group and individual, it is now important to discuss those techniques that law enforcement must employ if it is to successfully contain and control this behavior. Like the individual and group activities that are a part of riot behavior, riot control involves actions both by the individual police ...

Suicide epidemic spreads through police ranks. The lengthy two part article by David Armstrong covered all the aspects of police suicide, though I was disappointed at first to see what I thought was a hint of a negative slant given to the well known fact that the statistics on police suicide are unreliable because of how many police suicides are reported ...

Between 5% and 10% of people in the United States will, at some point in their life, have a bout with depression severe enough to be of clinical significance. It is estimated that only a third of all those who are clinically depressed receive adequate treatment. It is not unusual for a therapist, or physician, to recommend a trial on an ...

Sometimes law enforcement officers who are suffering from police stress avoid seeking counseling, often for good reason (see my article "The Ugly Shrink"). But sometimes stress builds up to a point where they have an episode either of depression or panic that is so disturbing or so blatant that they reluctantly see a therapist. Often spouses convince their partners to get ...

CHELMSFORD, MA - The grim discovery of 6-year-old Camden Pierce Hughes lying dead on the side of a road in southern Maine and the subsequent arrest of his mother, Julianne McCrery, under suspicion of murder have attracted widespread attention and outrage. In fact, yesterday’s news of the 42-year-old woman’s capture at a rest stop in Chelmsford, Massachusetts may have eclipsed President ...