Sunday, April 21, 2013

It's OK to feel OK when you have to take a life

Submitted by:
Chuck Remsberg, PoliceOne Columnist

The officer who approached international trainer Brian Willis at a speaking engagement recently is not unique, unfortunately. He’d shot and killed a suspect who was trying to kill him—and he was troubled because he didn’t feel any anguish about it. He worried that that made him “some kind of a psycho.”
“We make a mistake by telling officers that if they kill an offender they’re going to have emotional turmoil afterward,” Willis says. “For a long time, we’ve heard statistics quoted about the high percentage of officers who take a life and then leave the profession because they can’t cope.
“But research conducted by Dr. Audrey Honig, the chief psychologist for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, has proven that’s a myth. The majority adjust very well after a shooting and are fine with what they’ve done. Yet by continuing to emphasize the negative possibilities, we create the expectation that you’re supposed to feel bad. If you don’t, you question yourself.”
With rare exception, Willis points out, assailants are killed because they pose a mortal threat to the officer involved or someone else. “In a critical moment, the officer does what needs to be done and he saves a life by doing it.
“It’s okay to be at peace with that. It’s okay to be okay.”
He cites the case of an officer who was attacked from behind by a suspect and knocked unconscious.
“When he came to, the suspect was beating him with a flashlight and had the officer’s sidearm out of its holster. The officer fought desperately to keep the suspect from shooting him.
“Then he remembered the rescue knife he carried in the trauma-plate pocket of his vest. He pulled it and slashed the suspect’s throat. Then he gained control of the gun and shot him dead.
“That officer was roasted in the media for what he did. But he had this perspective: ‘What I did was lawful, what I did was reasonable, and what I did saved my life. I can live with that.’ He wasn’t gloating by any means, but he was emotionally at peace with what he did and how he did it.”
Willis believes it’s important for officers to hear from trainers, supervisors, and administrators that it’s okay to be in that frame of mind after a fatal shooting. “By the same token,” he says, “it’s okay not to be okay. It is critically important to seek professional counseling if you are troubled. It’s a courageous sign of strength to recognize the symptoms of post-traumatic stress and to get help if you are bothered, rather than destroy yourself, your family, and your career.”
In training, Willis says, “we tend to dance around the word ‘kill’ and instead just talk about ‘stopping the threat.’ But the reality is that you may have to take a life someday as part of your duty. And that moment may be very up close, even at contact range.
“Thinking about that possibility and its personal implications well in advance can help you achieve the peace of mind afterward that you will likely deserve.”