Fort Collins Police Services is seeking a full time Police Psychologist or Mental Health Specialist

Our friends at the Fort Collins Police Services (FCPS) is seeking a full time Police Psychologist or Mental Health Specialist. The position provides confidential counseling to all staff, crisis intervention services, supervises the peer support team, and provides training to many areas of the department. The successful candidate will have clinical and crisis‐management experience as well as training, presentation, and leadership skills.

For years Fort Collins Police Services has been a leader in providing the best in law enforcement psychological services and they have employed a full‐time in‐house Police Psychologist for over 30 years. Their Peer Support Team began operation in 1986. As a result, they have created an atmosphere of self‐care and acceptance of mental health services. Psychological services are fully integrated into their system including proactive intervention to support staff after a critical incident. Most recently, they’ve added bi‐annual voluntary mental health check‐ups for all staff, and this program has been very well received. Due to the pending retirement of their outstanding Police Psychologist Dan Dworkin they now have an opening.

Minimum Qualifications:
Master’s degree… Continue reading

Police Primary and Secondary Danger

A finalized report of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund website shows a total of 129 police officer fatalities in 2012. Of these, 52 are specified as “traffic-related”. This is in contrast to 49 officer deaths specified as “firearms-related”. The remaining 28 officer deaths are attributed to “other causes.” This is a reported decline of 22% compared to 2011, when 165 officers died in the line of duty (72 firearms-related, 60 traffic-related, 33 other causes).

These fatalities are representative of the primary danger of policing. The primary danger of policing is comprised of the inherent risks of the job, such as working in motor vehicle traffic, confronting violent persons, and exposure to traumatic incidents.

Sadly, there is an insidious and lesser known secondary danger in policing. This danger is often… Continue reading