Tag: law enforcement agencies

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Police Officers Need to Learn to Manage Stress Before it Ruins their Lives and Careers

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Here we tell the story of Chris Prochut (pronounced “Pro-Hut”) who was a Commander for the Bolingbrook Police Department at the height of the Drew Peterson investigation, who nearly lost his life, but instead lost his career.  Watch this Fox News video then Page down to listen to our interview with Chris.

From age 10, Chris Prochut knew he wanted to be a police officer.
Upon graduation from High School in 1991, he was hired as a part-time animal control officer for the Bolingbrook Police Department.
He advanced to full-time status as a Police Cadet in 1993.
In 1995, Chris was selected to serve the Village of Bolingbrook as a 911 Police & Fire Dispatcher.
After graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice Chris was hired as a Bolingbrook Police Officer in April 1996.
In August 2002, Chris was promoted to the rank of Sergeant where he supervised the C.O.P.S. (where he had worked) Unit, Animal Control, and Code Enforcement Unit.
He attended the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command in January 2005 where he was chosen as Class President and was selected to receive the Kreml Leadership Award… Continue reading

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Things That Might Get You Fired as a Police Officer

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I recently had a very interesting interview with Gordon Graham. Gordon is a 33 year veteran of California Law Enforcement. His education as a Risk Manager and experience as a practicing Attorney, coupled with his extensive background in law enforcement, have allowed him to rapidly became recognized as a leading professional speaker in both private and public sector organizations with multiple areas of expertise.

In 1973 Gordon was selected as a candidate for a major west coast law enforcement agency. Thereafter, he proudly served as a motorcycle officer for most of his first ten years in the Los Angeles area. In addition to his patrol work, he helped design the first DUI task force, assisted in the development of the DRE (drug recognition program), was an instructor in the initial “Mod I and II” Haz Mat program, and wrote his first of many technical papers: “PCP–An Officer’s Survival Guide.”

Simultaneously he was furthering his formal education during his off hours. Spending two years at Long Beach State College under the tutelage of Dr. Richard Kaywood led to his receiving a Lifetime Teaching Credential.

Following this degree, he attended University of Southern California in their Institute of Safety and Systems Management.

After completing his Masters, his off duty time was then spent at Western State University School of Law, where he was graduated in 1982 with his Juris Doctorate. He passed the California Bar Exam the same year and opened his law offices in Hollywood, where he focused his efforts on family law, immigration and personal injury work.

In his law enforcement life, Gordon was promoted to Sergeant in 1982 and supervised his former unit–the motorcycle cops of his agency assigned to Los Angeles. He and his fellow Sergeants on “B” shift stressed the values… Continue reading

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Creating Peer and Family Support Groups for Police Agencies

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I had a chance to interview three people who are involved in the Evansville Indiana Police Department’s Peer Support and Family Support Groups. I spoke with Police Chief Brad Hill, Sgt. Dave Barron and his wife Lori Barron in what proved to be a very informative interview.

Sergeant Barron was involved in a fatal shooting in 2003 and was then instrumental in the creation of the the department’s Peer Support Team. Because of what happened to her husband and it’s effects on her and other members of their family Lori, who is a cardiac rehab nurse, was involved in starting the Family Support Group for their Police Department. Chief Brad Hill, a 29-year veteran of the Evansville Police Department, was sworn in to office as chief in January 2004 and has been instrumental in the development of both teams through his support and leadership.

If you are considering starting either or both of these kinds of groups for your department you might ask yourself:

How does your department support officers involved in a shooting?
What about other traumatic events like the injury of an officer or their partner, how do you support them then?
How do you handle the effects of major natural disasters or mass injury accidents on the members of your department?
Do you provide support to officers who have handled cases of injured or murdered children?

What about the family of those officers involved in any of the events mentioned above?

The Evansville Police Department in Indiana has experienced all of those things and they have learned from their experiences and recognized that they need to provide… Continue reading

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TPCG Helps Police Officers Manage Stress

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As the founder and CEO of Trance Personnel Consulting Group (TPCG) I am proud to be working with CopsAlive.com to help police officers and other law enforcement professionals learn to cope with the stress that you endure on a day to day basis.

TPCG has chosen a field thick with stress, trauma, denial, depression, overwhelming cynicism, abuse and suicide. Providing stress management and emotional survival tools to law enforcement agencies is not something that I take lightly. Never before have we encountered a group of people so steeped in all the many realms of societal dysfunction. These men and women are asked and expected to deal with worst case scenarios on a daily basis while many of us sip our morning coffee, contemplate our day, or tuck our children in at night. Of course there are other trauma-centric professions… Continue reading

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Family Support Groups for Law Enforcement Agencies

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It’s tough being married to a police officer or even being the parent or sibling of a law enforcement officer. There is fear and worry about what might happen to them. There are the moments every time you hear something about a police shooting or an accident involving a police car on the news and you don’t know if it’s your loved one or not. And there are just the everyday issues of dealing with someone who works nights, odd shifts or gets called into work on their time off. Then there is the issue of stress. Some cops share their stresses which can make their loved ones worry more; and some officers shut out their loved ones, and won’t talk about what’s eating at them, which also causes stress in their relationships. The good news is that all around the world there are groups and people starting groups to help these family members cope with these and many other issues. The other day I had a chance to interview two people who are working to do just that for their law enforcement agency…

It was my pleasure to interview Heidi Hansen and Michael Mejia. Michael is an officer with the Twin Cities Police Authority which is a combined department of the communities of Corte Madera and Larkspur California, and Heidi works at a local hospital. I met Heidi through the National Police Wives Association (NPWA) where she was on the board of directors until just recently. Michael and Heidi are living together and raising a child together and both are attending college full time while working full time as well. In addition to all of that, they are working to form a Family Group at the Twin Cities Police Authority to help support family members of the law enforcement agency. Continue reading

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Stress Management for Police Officers

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I had a chance to interview Lisa Wimberger of Trance Personnel Consulting Group the other day about stress and stress management for police officers and it was a fascinating discussion.

Lisa works on a national level with law enforcement officers suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, both at the agency and individual police officer levels. Lisa’s ability to bring tools to law enforcement agencies offers a proactive solution to stress management and crisis intervention. She provides techniques that are a simple pathway to a healthier police officer and their law enforcement organization as well.

The Denver Post covered one of her recent classes… Continue reading

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Crisis Intervention for Police Officers

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Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Sean Riley the Founder and President of Safe Call Now, a crisis intervention program for law enforcement personnel located in the Seattle area of Washington State here in the U.S..

Safe Call Now works with over 400 volunteers to help law enforcement officers, fire fighters and other emergency service workers navigate through any crisis that might challenge their lives and careers.

The program has a very notable board of directors and has the backing of many state, local and federal organizations.

According to Washington State Lt. Governor Brad Owen
“the program was set up to help officers and their families through difficult circumstances. This confidential service… Continue reading

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Visual Listening with author Rik D. Middleton

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We recently had a chance to review the book “Don’t Look at Me in That Tone of Voice” and found it fascinating. We interviewed Author Rik D. Middleton who wrote the book at the urging of a friend who is with the Glendale California S.W.A.T. team and the state secretary for California Association of Hostage Negotiators. She had heard him speak on communications and asked if he could do the presentation for her team. Now using the book as part of his program Rik travels the country training law enforcement teams on “The Art of Visual Listening”. Rik is President of Sage Cadre Publishing and the Chief Operating Officer of ExecutivExpression Inc.

ExecutivExpression offers services that include accent reduction, as well as focusing on important subtle cultural and functional aspects of language and communication.

You can learn more about his training programs at:
www.visual-listening.com

You can listen to our complete interview with Rik by clicking the Replay botton below

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Police Suicide is an International Problem

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We’ve mentioned this before but as I have been watching the news lately there seems to be a preponderance of evidence to support this claim and I wanted to share some of the links with you.  To begin with you will find an excellent article in yesterday’s Boston Globe Sunday Magazine that has an excellent perspective on the issues.  CLICK HERE to read their article.  Forgive the links showing below but I wanted you to see where they are coming from.

Switzerland – January 26, 2010 – Police chief found dead on eve of Davos meeting
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g7hN7U5Anz-aL4lR33WLhzfDYsDg

Taiwan – A policeman shot himself to death early January 23, 2010 at the Hsinsheng South Road police substation of the Daan Precinct in Taipei, marking Taiwan’s second police shooting suicide in 10 days.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/taipei/2010/01/24/242073/2nd-police.htm

Philadelphia – January 25, 2010 Police in Philadelphia say an off-duty officer who died following a crash earlier in the week apparently killed himself.
http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=3638927

India – December 22, 2009 ‘Harassed’ by senior, cop commits suicide. A sub-inspector with the… Continue reading

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What’s it Like to Be Married to a Police Officer?

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Yesterday I had a chance to talk with Linda, a police officers wife, and a member of the board of directors of The National Police Wives Association.  Linda and I had an excellent discussion about what it’s like to be married to a cop and what it means to be in a relationship with someone in a law enforcement career.  As a police wife, Linda told me that she has to be part of an entire law enforcement agency’s family and all that comes with it.  She told me about creating an support network with other police wives and how she deals with stress.  We talked about raising kids in a police family and about how cops deal with line of duty deaths.

You can learn more about The National Police Wives Association or contact Linda directly by CLICKING HERE to visit their website at www.NationalPoliceWivesAssociation.org.

If you would like to listen to our interview please click the replay button below or RIGHT CLICK HERE (that’s CONTROL CLICK if you use a Mac) to download (SAVE LINK AS…) a copy of the mp3 file.