The Importance of Developing Resilient Law Enforcement Officers

Can A Career In Law Enforcement Be More Than Just Dangerous, Can It Be Toxic?

The importance of developing resilient law enforcement officers is something that we all must work toward. Many in law enforcement suffer in silence from the hidden dangers and toxic nature of this career. Many allow the negative effects of this profession to undermine their abilities to maintain their composure, control anger, fear and frustration and offset the sadness and depression all influenced by the tragedy and trauma they endure. They struggle to maintain their physical, emotional and spiritual health as all the negative things they see every day slowly erode their ability to perform their jobs at the required high level of performance.

We want to help you or partner with you to fix this problem. The Law Enforcement Survival Institute is ready to help you build individual and agency resilience and we are here to partner with you to build a strong and positive law enforcement wellness culture. We have initiated several excellent training programs and research projects and we are looking several strong partners to begin long-term law enforcement training and research relationships.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

Current news reports are rife with stories about issues of police officer suicides, PTSD, depression, alcohol problems, citizen complaints, excessive force, police misconduct and “cultures of aggression”. The problems are serious and the solutions all require strategies of building integrity, professionalism along with mental and emotional strength.

The challenge facing the future of our law enforcement profession centers not around the question of how our officers are dying but, rather more importantly, how they are suffering?

Challenges like police officer suicide, fatigue, depression and PTSD are serious problems. A growing body of research on law enforcement professionals seems to indicate that this profession is very toxic with side-effects causing an increase in heart disease, diabetes and cancer and even a lower than normal life expectancy. If you include other worries like alcohol and drug abuse, depression, relationship problems, domestic violence, anger management, financial mismanagement, and other issues that affect officers, on and off duty, then you might even see signs of a crisis.

We should also be asking how effective and professional our law enforcement officers can be while… Continue reading

Pain Behind The Badge Seminars

The Pain Behind The Badge organization has a number of upcoming seminars.  I will be attending the seminar in Las Vegas and you are encouraged to attend any of these that you can.  This is excellent training about the issues of law enforcement suicide and the prevention of those police officer suicides.  Whether you work in law enforcement, corrections, probation or parole or you represent a law enforcement agency this is “must attend” training for you.

Editors Note: You can learn more about Sgt. Clarke Paris and The Pain Behind the Badge organization by reading our CopsAlive.com article about them and listening to our interview with Sgt. Paris at: https://www.copsalive.com/the-pain-behind-the-badge/

October 7 & 8, 2010
Grossman Paris Seminar, Las Vegas, NV
Special Seminar combined with Retired LT. Col. Dave Grossman

Colonel Dave Grossman will present his ‘Bullet Proof Mind ‘ program on October 7th and on October 8th, Clarke Paris will present his ‘The Pain Behind The Badge’ program.

Sgt. Clarke Paris is the Creator/Producer of The Pain Behind The Badge and has 24 years of experience as a police officer.

Retired LT. Colonel Dave Grossman was an Army Ranger and is a former West Point Psychology Professor. Now the director of Killology Research Group, he has published several books to include ’On Killing’, ‘Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill’, and ‘On Combat’.

October 11 & 12, 2010
The Pain Behind the Badge Seminar, Houston, TX

The Pain Behind The Badge Seminar is presented by Clarke and Tracie Paris, and was created to bridge the gap that exists between law enforcement officers and the help that is currently provided by their respective agencies. Clarke is the Creator/Producer of The Pain Behind The Badge and has 24 years of experience as a police officer. Tracie has been a Registered Nurse for 25 years and has experience in E.R./Trauma and Ambulatory Care.

October 18 & 19, 2010
The Pain Behind the Badge Seminar, Seattle, WA

The Pain Behind The Badge Seminar is presented by Clarke and Tracie Paris, and was created to bridge the gap that exists between law enforcement officers and the help that is currently provided by their respective agencies. Clarke is the Creator/Producer of The Pain Behind The Badge and has 24 years of experience as a police officer. Tracie has been a Registered Nurse for 25 years and has experience in E.R./Trauma and Ambulatory Care.

For more information visit:
http://www.thepainbehindthebadge.com/seminar.html

Webinar on Police Suicide

On Friday September 4th CopsAlive is honored to be able to interview Robert Douglas the Executive Director of the National Police Suicide Foundation in the United States in our next LIVE webinar/teleseminar.

Robert is a retired police agent from the Baltimore City Police Department. He served as Chaplain for Baltimore City from 1988 until 2002. He is currently serving as Chaplain for ATF in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.  During his time in these positions, he became aware of the need for assistance for police and emergency workers as well as the families of suicide victims. Rev. Robert Douglas, with the help of his wife, Carolyn, survivors of police suicide and friends, formed the National P.O.L.I.C.E. Suicide Foundation, Inc. They feel many of these suicides occur because… Continue reading