Here Are Ways To Help
for honoring Law Enforcement throughout the year!
| We took a survey of Law Enforcement in Michigan to find out ways that they appreciate being – well, appreciated! Following ideas are a reflection of many of their suggestions. Every community can choose to recognize Law Enforcement during Police Week in their own unique way. The purpose of this site is simply to help get Michigan’s grateful citizens in motion. Together we will send a powerful message during Police Week – and throughout the year – when we let our Officers know that we appreciate them. Have a unique idea of how you are choosing to honor Law Enforcement? TELL US! – your story will inspire others. |
Turn Off Social Media And Avoid The News
This age of keyboard warriors has added a challenging dimension to critical incidents. Everyone has an opinion and thinks they are a professional photographer or videographer, and the media tends to be slanted against law enforcement. Have someone you trust who is further removed monitor media and report back anything important. For example, if an officers name or any other identifying information is released, or a pertinent video is released.
Overview Of The Police Force And The Different Types Of Police Officers
The following texts describe the various types of police officers and the police force as a whole. Police officers are people who are always in uniform, while peace officers are people who can join a police force. A peace officer is a police officer who enforces laws and ordinances as a result of their positions. Police officers are responsible for keeping the public safe and enforcing the law while on duty. Peace officers may be called in to assist police officers in some cases if they are needed to provide backup. A civil standby is an option that can be used in some cases to prevent a violent encounter or another conflict from developing. Typically, a sheriff or police officer is accompanying the person who wishes to reclaim property. Civil standby is primarily used by people who are certain that no resistance will be encountered when they reclaim their property. It is good for two years after an officer resigns if they have their police certification. Certificate of completion issued to a police officer who has completed less than two years of service is valid for up to two years after the officer leaves service. If an officer has served for more than two years in a row, his or her certificate is valid for four years after he or she leaves the force.
Read Also: What Happens When A Police Report Is Filed
Tips For Supporting A Spouse Through Critical Incident Stress
The support that can come from the officers primary relationship can be especially impactful
Typically when a police officer is involved in a critical incident they are tied up for hours being interviewed after the event. They may have the opportunity to speak with a police chaplain and/or a member of a peer support team, but more often than not they receive a stack of papers that explain what they can expect to experience following the stressful event and are told to head home. What happens after that point is largely dependent upon the policies and culture of each individual department. There can be huge gaps and inadequacies in providing support and care for individuals and their families in the days, weeks, months and even years after such an event.
When the officer arrives home after a critical incident, they may be met with a partner who has little to no knowledge of how to help the officer cope with the stress they may be experiencing. If they are lucky, other officers and their spouses reach out to offer support. Peer support at work and at home is invaluable. Some officers and their families also wisely seek professional counseling. Aside from the support an agency, peers and professionals can provide, the support and resilience that can come from a police officers primary relationship can be especially impactful.
Here are some practical things a spouse or significant other can do in the wake of a critical incident.
Police Stress: 9 Tips For Avoiding Officer Burnout
By Brianna Flavin on 05/14/2018
Everyone experiences stress on the job at some point. Whether you work in finance or food service, education or engineering, youre bound to have days that elevate your blood pressure. But some careers are more stress-inducing than others.
Working as a police officer is one of them. In fact, Time magazine ranked policing as the fourth most stressful profession, under firefighting and piloting jobs. This probably isnt that big of a surprise. Police officers step into dangerous situations and interact with dangerous people as part of their jobs.
But stress is a serious matter. Its detrimental to your happiness as well as damaging to your health. No matter how you spend your days, minimizing stress is an important endeavor. But if youre a police officer, then finding a way to manage stress before it becomes an issue is essential for a successful career.
Stress is accumulative, says retired lieutenant and police instructor Brian McKenna. Its like you are a balloon filling with air. Some people can take more air than others, but all balloons will eventually pop if they dont find a way to let air out and relieve the stress.
Part of managing stress as a police officer is education. The more you know, the better prepared you will be. Maybe you can even start some of these preventative tips today.
You May Like: How To Become State Police Officer
Breaking The Stigma And Silence About Mental Distress And Suicidality In Police
Posted April 7, 2020
According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, middle-aged men have the highest rate of suicide in the US. In fact, 2018 statistics indicate that men died by suicide 3.6 times more often than women.
Some groups of men may be at particular risk of suicide, with some research indicating that police officers have a higher rate than the general population. Indeed a recent report found that more police officers die by suicide than die in the line of duty. Another study found that 1 in 4 police officers have thoughts of suicide during their lives.
Such suicides are often related to mental distress. Police officers must regularly deal with disturbing and traumatic events including murder, rape, and violence. They are often at risk of assault and abuse and can work long, unsociable hours under constant physical and mental strain.
Taking Action
Fortunately, there is a growing recognition that more action is needed to foster positive mental health in the police. For example, the International Association of Chiefs of Police has developed considerable resources for mental health and suicide prevention for police across the world.
For every one person that dies by suicide, 280 people think seriously about suicide but go on with their lives. These stories of hope are not being told, but they’re so vital and can help change the way we think about suicide and mental health.
Engaging the Media and Entertainment Industry
Keep Learning About The Law
It might surprise you to learn that the biggest stressor many police officers report isnt the risk of bullets, but rather plain, old-fashioned bureaucracy. The biggest stressor for a lot of police officers is the work environment, oddly enough, McKenna says. Its the politics, poor supervision, things coming down from administration that dont make sense and so on.
Many officers expect to feel stress on the street, but facing it in the department can be overwhelming. You have the normal problems any organization might have, like favoritism or bad managers, McKenna says. But on top of that, you also have restrictions that are confusing and sometimes unreasonable.
While restrictions are in place to keep people safe, there are some that cause confusion or lack clarity. McKenna says many police departments now have a policy that officers are not allowed to shoot from or into a moving vehicle, which is clearly to keep everyone safe. But then you have these situations where you are surrounding a car and the driver tries to plow through you, McKenna says. Its unlikely that the laws were made with extreme situations in mind. But they make you hesitate, because if you fire on that vehicle, you could be exposed to legal action.
As frustrating as some restrictions can be, officers who understand the laws are better equipped to make smart decisionsand that makes the job less stressful, McKinnon says.
Don’t Miss: What To Study To Be A Police Officer
How You Can Show Your Support For Local Police
Police officers put their lives on the line every day they show up for work. But in spite of the sacrifices officers routinely make, their contributions often go unnoticed.
Police officers jobs might be thankless, but that does not mean people cannot express their gratitude to the men and women in blue who keep their communities safe. The following are a handful of ways to show support for the police officers who work hard to protect and serve your community.
Police officers have difficult jobs that require them to make considerable sacrifices to protect the communities where they work. But it doesnt take much to show your support for local police officers and express your gratitude for the sacrifices they make every day.
You Can Overcome Stress: The Key Is In Your Relationships
One common resource for police officers are employee assistance programs . Such programs are important and should be promoted by police agencies. Since every officer is different and not everyone will come to their police agency if they are unable to sleep or if stress is having an adverse impact on their lives, multiple options should be made available to police officers through their agency.
Read Also: What To Do To Become A Police Officer
Getting Started Identify The Problem
You’ve got to address specific problems. The first step, then, is to identify exactly what the police problems are in your city. What’s wrong with your police department is not necessarily the same as what’s wrong in that of another city. Police departments differ in size, quality of management, local traditions and the severity of their problems. Some departments are gravely corrupt others are relatively “clean” but have poor relations with community residents. Also, a city’s political environment, which affects both how the police operate and the possibilites for achieving reform, is different in every city. For example, it is often easier to reform police procedures in cities that have a tradition of “good government,” or in cities where racial minorities are well organized politically.
The range of police problems includes
1) Excessive use of deadly force.
2) Excessive use of physical force.
3) Discriminatory patterns of arrest.
4) Patterns of harassment of the homeless, youth, racial minorities and gays, including aggressive and discriminatory use of the “stop-and-frisk” and overly harsh enforcement of petty offenses.
5) Chronic verbal abuse of citizens, including racist, sexist and homophobic slurs.
6) Discriminatory non-enforcement of the law, such as the failure to respond quickly to calls in low-income areas and half-hearted investigations of domestic violence, rape or hate crimes.
7) Spying on political activists.
A Love Letter To Police Officers
You come home by two, only to find your husband making his way out of the closet, where hell be sleeping for the week, in hopes of actually resting in a loud house of two little boys and a Great Dane. You know this will be the only hour you see him before you have to go pick the oldest up from school and before he leaves to work part of his 20 hours of ODE that somehow got scheduled the same week as everything else.
You want to muster a smile, a hello, anything other than explaining why the two-year-old is crabby from not napping, how you desperately tried to entertain him while the doctor measured the size of your growing belly, why hes sticky from eating two meals in the car today. If you could just get a nap before dinner, you may not cry before the end of the night.
Oh, the joys of being a law enforcement family.
I once joked that if I could just keep a dentist appointment without some state mandated training popping up that day or a DUI at the end of the shift which causes a shift in sleep schedules, it would be a miracle! My sweet dentist has learned after so many reschedules, dont call me, Ill call you! I will call them every six months, probably the week of, and take whatever cancellation they have that lines up with our current schedule for the week.
Here are five tips that I use to help keep our family close and support my officer.
Protect that time, even if it only comes every 12 days.
You May Like: What Does A Police Drone Look Like
Police Say They Share Values With At Least Some Residents Where They Work
Overall, about seven-in-ten officers say at least some or most or nearly all of the people in the neighborhoods where they routinely work share their values and beliefs.
Significant differences emerge when these results are broken down by the officers rank: About two-thirds of rank-and-file officers believe that some or most of the people living in their patrol areas share their beliefs. By contrast, three-quarters of sergeants and 85% of administrators say the same thing.
When the analysis is limited to rank-and-file officers the group that arguably has the most direct daily contact with citizens views differ significantly within key demographic groups. Most notably, younger rank-and-file officers and those in larger departments are less likely than older officers or those in small police departments to say they share common values and beliefs with at least some of the people in the areas they patrol.
About six-in-ten rank-and-file officers ages 18 to 34 say some or most of the people in the neighborhoods where they work share their beliefs and attitudes. By contrast, about three-quarters of rank-and-file officers ages 50 and older express a similar view.
Ways Police Departments Can Help Officers Cope With Stress And Trauma
It is imperative that agencies implement strategies to help police officers address the adverse effects of job-related stress
By Dr. Jarrod Sadulski, Faculty Member, Criminal Justice at American Military University
Police officers are often exposed to a high level of trauma that can negatively affect their ability to perform their job. As a result, police agencies spend a great deal of money and time conducting background investigations and psychological screenings of police candidates. The unique and stressful circumstances to which officers are commonly exposed during their careers make such screening mandatory.
In addition to hiring officers who are suitable for police work, police departments and agencies have an important role in maintaining officer health and wellness. The need to make resources available to officers who routinely experience traumatic events in the field is often overshadowed by the complex and dynamic factors that police administrators handle every day.
Recommended Reading: Where To Become A Police Officer
Guidance On Death In Service
Two guidance documents are available which are designed to ensure that, in the event of a death of a serving officer or member of staff, an effective process is in place to manage the impact with minimum distress to relatives and colleagues, and to minimise disruption to the force.
These circulars also provide information on the available support groups and advise forces as to how they can support surviving family members:
Police Integrity And How To Improve It
A police force with integrity is one with little or no misconduct or corruption. In the past, most studies viewed the problem of misconduct as one of individual problem officers, the so-called bad apples on the force. More recent studies show that whites generally see misconduct as episodic and confined to individual officers, while blacks tend to see misconduct as a more entrenched aspect of policing.
Don’t Miss: What Qualifications Do I Need To Become A Police Officer
How To Support Local Police
Local and national law enforcement officers across various disciplines put their lives on the line to keep others safe. Police make many sacrifices, often putting their physical and mental well-being on the line to protect and serve.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund says there are more than 900,000 sworn law enforcement officers now serving in the United States. Since the first recorded police death in 1786, more than 21,000 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty. A Statistics Canada study released in 2010 found that, with the exception of taxi drivers, police are the most likely Canadians to die on the job.
Unfortunately, hateful and violent crimes against police continue to make the news. In recent years, a California University student painted cops as pigs for an art project, while an Atlanta gym and a Brooklyn doughnut shop refused to serve police. As recently as January of 2020, anti-cop protesters vandalized New York City subways and elsewhere to bring attention to supposed over-policing.
Communities can turn the tides and help the world focus on all the ways individuals can support and thank law enforcement. Here are some ways to give back.
Stand outside a local police department or courthouse and say Thank you or I appreciate your work to any law enforcement agents you come across.
Wear blue in solidarity with police.
Create A Framework Of Incentives
Police departments can create incentives to promote officersâ mental health. These incentives could include completing voluntary stress management courses while off duty, participating in an exercise program or in stress-reduction activities such as yoga.
Although providing paid time off as an incentive to engage in a wellness program could result in budgetary or administrative concerns, such an incentive reduces the risk of agencies losing officers due to burnout and frequent absences.
Police work is one of the most stressful careers because it often involves exposure to trauma. Police departments play an important role in helping officers effectively manage emotional stress and trauma. When police agencies provide their officers with support and resources, they can greatly improve those officersâ stress and mental health.
About the Author: Dr. Jarrod Sadulski is an adjunct professor with American Military University . He has spent more than two years studying police stress and its influence on the lives of police officers. Sadulski conducted a review of approximately 300 peer-reviewed scholarly articles that focused on topics associated with police stress and officer wellness. He interviewed veteran officers who have served in domestic and international law enforcement.
You May Like: How To Get Police Report After Accident Online