Tomorrow I am teaching an 8 hour continuing education class at Tarrant County College’s Criminal Justice Training Center. Police officers in Texas are required to complete a certain amount of approved coursework every year in order to keep their certification current. Tomorrow’s subject matter includes: death notifications, line of duty deaths, stress in law enforcement, and suicide.
Will the students go home feeling totally depressed after a day of such subject matter? Hopefully tomorrow’s time in the classroom will be productive as well as preventive.

The average citizen envisions a police officer doing one of two things: Either that officer is sitting in a donut shop or he is writing some innocent citizen a speeding ticket. (By the way, if they are receiving a citation, there is a really good chance that they are anything but innocent.) I would challenge anyone who perceives officers in that light to spend one shift in the front seat of a patrol car.

A typical shift entails dealing with people that have all kinds of problems. What is an officer supposed to do with an 18 year old kid who is sleeping in a public restroom at night, because he no place to go? That same officer fails to win a popularity contest when he takes an abusive husband to jail for family violence. The abused spouse may have obvious signs of a physical assault, but she still loves Bubba. Officers arrest individuals for theft at local retail stores nearly every single day. They stop drivers that are driving at dangerous levels of intoxication every singe evening without exception. Those are all very routine calls for service. What about the more intense situations?

When a 19 year old girl comes home to find her deceased father in the floor of their home, she is going to call 911. A police officer will likely be the first one on scene. When a depressed 50 year old man takes his own life at his home, his aged mother will greet a police officer at the front door. When an injury car crash occurs, officers will carefully work their way through snarled traffic in an attempt to arrive on scene as quickly as possible. They never know what to expect in such situations. The police additionally deal with people who are irrational and dangerous.

Officers periodically are called to face off with people threatening others or themselves with all kinds of weapons. Such individuals are never in a rational state of mind. Intoxication often factors into such situations. The mental state of that person is often in question. They all have one thing in common: they are imminent danger to themselves and to others. They are capable of doing anything.

Will tomorrow’s time together be depressing for the officers in attendance? I really don’t think that will be the case. The class may actually serve as a safe place to discuss stressful events of the past. I hope I can provide some helpful resources. Believe it or not I think it will be a great day for everyone involved!