5 things cops need to know about PTSD

An estimated 10 to 30 percent of first responders will have some type of traumatic stress injury during their career

Jun 27, 20

When I was in the academy I never heard anything about the psychological effects of a police career, and now at least we have started to have a conversation about this threat. The continued stress of a 20-plus year career — with the daily ups and downs — slowly wears away at our psyche. Add in a major traumatic incident such as the death of a co-worker, child, or someone attempting to take your life and you will likely feel the backlash of trauma. It is estimated that between 10 to 30 percent of first responders will have some type of traumatic stress injury during their career.

Awareness is the key to managing traumatic stress. June 27 is PTSD Awareness Day — as a matter of fact, the Senate has designated June as National PTSD Awareness Month. In preparing for this article, I read the Senate Resolution designating this day. It was initially created for military veterans, but like raid tactics, medical techniques, and equipment that has been so readily adopted by law enforcement agencies and its members across the country, PTSD Awareness Day needs to be adopted as well. 

PTSD is just as real of a threat to law enforcement officers and other first responders as it is to military members. Like any other injury sustained in the line of duty, it is not automatically the end of a career or your life; but to maintain both of these things you must be aware, prepare in advance, and seek immediate care if things are becoming unmanageable.

Here’s what we need to be aware of: 1.    It’s normal: Like every other system in your body, the mind will do what it believes is necessary to maintain itself. Unfortunately as the brain tries to protect itself, the manifestations can have some adverse effects. The backlash from the traumatic incident may result in anger, memory issues, sleep disruption, depression, or any number of other stress responses.

2.    Early intervention results in a better outcome: If you are bleeding from a GSW, do you want to see a doctor now or a month from now? Rapid assistance from a professional counselor or peer support team members is more likely to lead to more rapid recovery.

3.    Knowledge is power: Knowing the signs and symptoms can help us identify traumatic stress injuries in ourselves or others. We need to recognize that something is wrong before we are aware that we need help.

4.    We can (and should) intervene: We wouldn’t let our supervisors, subordinates, or co-workers, take on an armed subject by themselves if we had the option of being there, even if we were never requested over the radio. Someone dealing with the fall out of post-traumatic stress needs us to be there even if they didn’t call for us.

5.    There is no single answer: What works for me may not work for you. Each of us manages stress in our way and while some may benefit from one type of therapy others may need a different kind. The key is to handle the stress and not let it control us.

Someone you know will benefit from your awareness and that someone may be you. Traumatic stress injuries can be just as dangerous as physical ones and are more likely to occur to someone at your agency. You don’t have to have all the answers; you just need to know that the stigma of mental health issues is harming first responders. If your department does not have a mental health plan for officers and dispatchers, be proactive about getting your administration on board. Find local resources now before they are needed. 

Get help via the mobile-friendly 1st Alliance site, which just launched 1st help. It can anonymously help you find PTSD assistance in your area. 

About the author

Jeff McGill is a 20 year veteran of law enforcement having been assigned to Patrol, Street Crimes, Sex Offenders Unit, Gang Intelligence and as a U.S. Marshal Task Force Officer. He now works full-time in training. Jeff is a state certified law enforcement instructor, teaching legal, firearms, first aid, law enforcement medical trauma care and reality based training. He has a Master’s degree and is currently a full-time Doctoral student in Criminal Justice concentrating in Organizational Leadership. Jeff is a founding member of 1st Alliance and co-author of “The Price they Pay.”

Civilian self-defense vs. police excessive force: It's not that simple

Resisting officers is becoming more prevalent and socially acceptable by certain groups

Does a person being detained or arrested by a police officer have the right to self-defense if the person feels the officer is using excessive force? The answer to this question as written is obviously "no," but with the current climate of resisting officers becoming more prevalent and socially acceptable by certain groups, the question needs deeper exploration.

The follow-up question that is not as simple is: "Does a person have the right to self-defense if the officer uses excessive force?" Notice the subtle difference in the two questions: The first includes the subject’s subjective belief while the second is more generic and definitely needs clarification if asked.

First, it is important to understand that every person has the ancient and esteemed right to self-defense in general. But even this does not fully answer the question

In California, there are several pertinent penal code sections that shed some light on the not-so-easy topic that some want a simple yes or no answer for. The Model Penal Code, developed in 1962, eliminated the right to resist an unlawful arrest on two grounds. First, there were better alternative means of resolving the issue; second, resistance would likely result in greater injury to the citizen without preventing the arrest. By 2012, only 14 states allowed a citizen to resist an unlawful arrest. These states are Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

The first section is an unknown section to those it applies to, California Penal Code Section 834a. This section clearly places a statutory duty and obligation upon a person to not physically resist an officer’s arrest.

Note that the section does not specify lawful arrest as a condition but only arrest. I believe this is due to the fact that the lawfulness of an arrest is not to be argued in the street but in a court of law. If the subject feels like the arrest is unlawful, there are other remedies that the subject can seek. In a civilized society, resorting to force or violence to argue the validity of an arrest - during the arrest - is not acceptable.

The next section is directly related to the first. California Penal Code Section 148(a)(1) is the punitive section that covers the situation when a subject resists an officer in the discharge or attempt to discharge any duty of his or her office, including trying to arrest a subject. From these two sections, it is clear that there is no right to physically resist or assault an officer during an arrest.

WHAT IF THE OFFICER IS USING EXCESSIVE FORCE?

So back to the question: What if the officer is using excessive force? Some experts will point to other statutory laws to support their view that a person can resist if they feel the force is excessive. They look at California Penal Code Sections 692 and 693.

While these sections are self-defense protections for citizens primarily related to situations outside of "police brutality" claims, some experts will claim the public offense (crime) is related to an assault/battery under color authority type of crime. Note that in section 692, the resistance must be in response to the actual commission of the public offense.

An officer’s force response in the grand majority of arrests falls far from this standard and the published statistics bear that out as well. It is a rare circumstance when this assault/battery under color of authority actually occurs and an officer is charged, not because of some great law enforcement driven conspiracy but because it rarely happens. 

Section 693 requires that even if the officer were committing a public offense (crime), only that "self-defense" force that is sufficient to prevent the offense may be used. In other words, the subject may only use force to simply stop the assault/battery under color of authority and never any more than that.

Quite honestly, physically resisting an officer that a subject "feels" is using excessive force is a dangerous game of chance in most cases. If the force is found to be reasonable (as it is in the majority of cases) but the subject continued or increased his resistance because he believed the force was excessive, that subject will not prevail in his claim of self-defense and most likely exposed himself to more injury.

In order for a claim of self-defense to be valid, a finding of excessive force must be made by the trier of fact first. That is the jury (jury trial) or judge (bench trial). The excessive force must be to a degree that the trier of fact would believe it is excessive, not just the subjective belief of the person in the field resisting the officer at that moment. Only after a finding has been made that the force was excessive can the "self-defense" actions of the subject be excused as not being a criminal act. In other words, the physical resistance can be "forgiven" as self-defense only if the force is found to be excessive after the fact and not the other way around.

REASONABLENESS IS VIEWED FROM OFFICER'S PERSPECTIVE

Another way to examine this is to understand that the evaluation of the reasonableness of an officer’s force response must be made from the perspective of the officer and the totality of the facts and circumstances known to the officer at the time. It is not made from the perspective of the subject. It would be impossible for the subject to fully understand the officer’s perspective and therefore impossible to determine if the force is excessive.

I do not believe the majority of society is willing to accept the idea of a subject with a mere singular and subjective belief (and honestly a self-serving and in most cases an uninformed belief) that somehow an officer’s force response is excessive and therefore the subject has the right to defend him/herself with force. This thinking is clearly a "putting the horse before the cart" type of rational. If society were to accept this thought, every person being arrested in the future could freely physically resist with impunity from criminal culpability on charges of battery on an officer by simply stating, "I felt the force was excessive."

About the author

Ed Flosi is a retired police sergeant from San Jose, California. Ed has a unique combination of practical real world experience and academic background. He has worked several assignments including Field Training Program, Training Unit, Narcotics, Special Operations — K9 Handler, Research and Development and Custody Facility Supervisor. He has qualified as an expert witness in state and federal courts in police practices/force options and is the Principle Instructor for PROELIA Defense and Arrest Tactics. He has a Master of Science degree from California State University Long Beach. Ed is a Certified Force Analyst through the Force Science Research Center.

The safest place to be in a vehicle ambush attack

TESTING DEFENSE TACTICS

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend an eight-hour program on vehicle defense tactics which was sponsored by the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors. This block of instruction focused on how to effectively fire from a vehicle, exit the kill zone and exactly what parts of contemporary vehicles represent true cover. We were also afforded the opportunity to fire a few different rounds utilized for law enforcement applications at vehicles and to assess the results.

Many diverse materials make up modern vehicles, including various types of metal, plastic, rubber and glass. It’s probably a safe bet that today’s cars are smaller and lighter than the heavy metal American-made cars of the ‘60s and ‘70s. We were all curious to see exactly what, if any, protection a vehicle could provide against incoming fire.

First, let’s consider glass. Many people fail to recognize that angled, windshield glass is a formidable obstacle. Windshields are made of laminated glass and a bullet impact will cause it to crack and spider web, but not shatter. Windshields often play havoc with bullet performance and results could include jacket/core separation, deflection from the point of aim and inconsistent expansion qualities. Side windows are made of tempered glass and a single bullet impact will typically cause them to shatter.

During the seminar, a few different handgun, rifle and shotgun rounds were fired at vehicle windshields and doors. A target was placed on the passenger seat to determine if the rounds fired deviated from the point of aim. It should hardly be a surprise that all the rounds fired penetrated and struck the target. Both a non-bonded 9mm jacketed hollowpoint and a .223 Remington soft point exhibited signs of jacket failure, but still struck the targets. Handgun rounds featuring a bonded bullet, rifled slugs and a .223 Remington round traveled true to the target without any issues.

Firing at an open door did produce some surprising results. A casual observer might consider that the sheet metal of a car door wouldn’t be much of a barrier, but there is a lot more to the door than meets the eye. Car doors contain windows, electric motors, locks, brake stays, lift mechanisms, as well as inner panels and arm rests.

In the test, four different handgun rounds were fired from a distance of 10 yards at a door open approximately 45 degrees. Rounds included two examples each of 9mm and .45 ACP, with both bonded and non-bonded bullets. A single example of each round was fired at the open door.

The most surprising result was that none of the handgun rounds penetrated the door. This was by no means an exhaustive test nor am I suggesting that car doors are bulletproof. But based on this informal test, and what we’ve witnessed in actual police action shootings, even the best handgun rounds are “iffy” penetrators on car doors. On the other hand, both the .223 Remington rounds and 12-gauge rifled slugs  easily penetrated the door.

TAKEAWAYS FROM TESTING TACTICS

So what can we learn here? While not true cover, a door might provide some limited ballistic protection in a frontal attack. Exit the kill zone, stay low and move to better cover at the rear of the car and beyond. Doors provide absolutely no protection from centerfire rifle rounds and shotgun slugs. But this cuts both ways. If you absolutely need to get inside a motor vehicle by punching through a door or windshield, rifled slugs have no peer. For rifles, consider one of the popular barrier breaching rounds from the major manufacturers.

If you have to shoot through the windshield while sealed behind the wheel, a well-designed bullet will punch through the glass, track true and expand when it strikes the threat. Again, premium quality rounds specifically designed for law enforcement applications are readily available and performance is light years beyond what it was a generation ago.

True cover in a vehicle remains the engine block and brake drums. But taking a good defendable position behind them can be difficult. If and when possible, move to better cover away from your vehicle. At the very least, your vehicle could provide you with a measure of concealment.

Have a plan, should you come under attack when in a vehicle. Get yourself in a defendable position as soon as possible and take the fight to the assailant. That might include firing through the side windows or windshield. When working with a partner or backup, those timeless concepts of cover and contact still ring true. Define those roles and make sure somebody is watching the immediate area, as well as what is beyond. Stay switched on to stay safe.

About the author

Captain Mike Boyle served 27 years with the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife, Bureau of Law Enforcement. Mike was responsible for all aspects of pre-service and in-service training and also supervised the internal affairs section of his agency. Mike has also been an assistant police academy director and continues to participate in both recruit and instructor level training. He is a certified instructor in multiple uses of force disciplines including handgun, shotgun, rifle, SMG, impact weapons and unarmed self-defense. 

Officer safety in the modern age: 10 critical lessons to live by

Here are ten lessons learned from generations of law enforcement – ranging from the old west to present day – to help you protect yourself, your family, and your fellow officers. 

1.    Stay in control of your emotions and reduce residual ill-will all around. Taking things personally and acting on those feelings in a negative way when dealing with or handing off a subject to others endangers other law enforcement officers in the future. 

One of the hardest things to do as a law enforcement officer is to stay objective and respond appropriately. It may be hard to do, but it is precisely how you need to train yourself to be. Anger, fear, and cynicism lead the way to overreaction.

2.    Accept that you are a target and make yourself a hard target. Have someone you trust do an assessment of your and your family’s vulnerabilities. On the job, at home, outside doing activities, in the vehicle, parking and anything else that comes to mind. Then take immediate steps to mitigate that vulnerability whenever possible. Look at your routines and reassess them.

3.    Start using Cooper’s color code. There are people who want to hurt you. Pay attention and stay aware of your surroundings at all times. Expect to be attacked. Formulate a plan whenever you going to a call or encounter suspicious people or circumstances. You may be attacked but you should never be surprised.

4.    Pull your head out of your smartphone or laptop. Don’t look at it for more than a few seconds when you are in your vehicle or out and about in a public area where anyone is around you. If it helps, just think of some attacker coming up from behind and blowing your brains out every time you are looking down to do some texting or an email check in public.

If you need to use your laptop or phone, park where you cannot be approached unseen and look around every few seconds. Make it a habit. 

5.    Stop the social club nonsense. As a law enforcement officer in uniform, you have no business sitting in a restaurant booth with four of you chit-chatting. Keep it to a maximum of two to a booth or table. Seat yourselves out of the way of the general traffic flow in and out of the restaurant or cash register area. 

Have the other officers seated far enough away to provide protection if anyone tries to target any two officers. Stand up when people approach you. Officer presence does not have to be threatening to get the point across you are ready.

6.    Upgrade your overall hand-to-hand skills. Nothing inspires confidence and decreases the likelihood of excessive force like being able to defend yourself against just about anybody using just hand-to-hand skills. This confidence carries over into the firearms and other weapon categories. Well trained people with good values aren’t usually the ones getting into trouble in police departments.

7.    Upgrade your performance with firearms — particularly handguns. Learning to fight effectively with a handgun is more than just upgrading your qualification scores. Significant training in gunfight speed reactive shooting with proper tactics results in far fewer rounds fired and far fewer problems with “excessive force” complaints. 

If you are being targeted with deadly force, commit to the fight, stay mentally calm and stay deliberate in your shooting. Every round has a purpose.  Don’t let fear of consequences —legal or otherwise — rule your decisions. Hesitation is a killer.

8.    Start carrying a gun off duty you can shoot as well your duty gun. A gun that’s too small is far harder to shoot quickly and accurately than a bigger gun. Use a proper holster and mag pouches. Wear appropriate clothing to hide it effectively. Think about wearing a vest every time you are outside when living in areas of active unrest. Carry two extra magazines as well as one in the gun. For single-stack magazines, carry three extra.

9.    Remember your values and uphold them — you will live and die by them. Review my articles on “the warrior and the merchant” and “the tactical decision equation.” Now is not the time to withdraw from society — it is not “us against them.” Most people respect you and are on your side. Some will fear you. Anarchists are the enemy — not society in general.

Start learning how to properly use the Tactical Decision Equation. Critical thinking under pressure is trainable and necessary. When you start using the equation you will be able to come up with acceptable options in any situation and be able to justify your actions — both to yourself and to the public. 

It provides a common language between the police and the public that will help the public understand what you were facing and how you decided on your course of action. It is also a tremendous after-action tool to go over your incidents and become a better tactical thinker.

10.    Protect your home and your family. Train your spouse and kids how to think and what to do. Have a plan for incidents in and out of the home or at school etc. Teach them self-defense skills and the use of firearms if they are old enough to learn. Harden their minds to the use of force and teach them how to fight. Feeling helpless is debilitating at any age.

About the author

Ron Avery is President and Director of Training for The Practical Shooting Academy, Inc. and Executive Director of the non-profit, Rocky Mountain Tactical Institute - both training institutions dedicated to professional firearms and tactics courses, higher police standards and training and use of force research.

Contact Ron Avery

Conduct professional, safe traffic stops

1. Remember your training. No traffic stop is routine. When conducting a stop, consider when and where to initiate the stop and the best location for the driver to stop.
2. Notify the dispatcher. Make sure that the dispatcher knows your location and the stopped vehicle’s license, make and model before making contact with the driver.
3. Create a safety lane for yourself. Be sure to offset your vehicle behind the stopped vehicle to create a safety lane. Turns tires out and consider a passenger side approach to contact the driver.
4. Communication is critical. Remember that the first words spoken by an officer may very well determine the tone of the encounter and even the eventual outcome. Similarly, the last words are also very important and may be the basis of a lasting impression of the officer and agency.
5. Stops at night or low light conditions: Use your takedown lights, and/or spot light to light the interior of the stopped vehicle. Placing the spot light directly into the rear view mirror of the stopped vehicle can help cover your approach.
6. Pay attention to the verbal and physical cues from the driver. Excessive repetition of requests or instructions by the driver can be an indication of a problem, as is taking a long time to find documents such as driver’s license, registration or insurance card.
7. Control the stop. You control that vehicle and its passengers for the duration of the stop. If you feel it is necessary, request assistance. Review case law for Brendlin V. California and Maryland V. Wilson as they relate to what an officer can and cannot do during a traffic stop.

Courtesy National Law Enforcement Memorial 

How to survive the FTO program

1. Be a sponge

Recognize you’re new and everybody else will almost certainly know more than you. Accordingly, ask as many questions as you need to before entering your final phase of training when your FTO will merely be shadowing you and is no longer a resource for answering your questions.

2. Be eager to learn

In addition to asking a question, it’s probably more important to be the type of employee that wants to learn and challenges themselves to constantly be learning in our ever-changing career. For instance, if you take on a case where the investigation requires a search warrant, tell your FTO you want to pair up with a detective and help write the search warrant. Don’t wait for somebody to ask you, take the initiative.

3. Don’t get cocky

Few things are more frustrating than a new officer who thinks they know everything when they’ve been an officer since breakfast. Humble yourself and make your bones during field training without bragging or pretending you’re Supercop.

4. Accept criticism and praise without being defensive

You’re new and you’re going to mess up, often. The purpose of the FTO criticizing you is not to merely inform you, but to improve you so it doesn’t happen again. Making mistakes is expected. The key is to not make the same ones repeatedly. When you’re criticized, your FTO is letting you know you didn’t meet an expectation, which is extremely valuable for you to be informed of so you know exactly where the bar is set. If you’re able to offer a mere explanation of your actions, without being defensive and while remaining receptive to the criticism you just received, that may be appropriate. Similarly, if you’re given praise, don’t gloat or let it go to your head … say thank you and know that’s the expectation from then on.

5. “Look sharp, act sharp, be sharp”

The all too familiar line from the TV series “Southland.” There are documented interviews in the FBI’s LEOKA (Law Enforcement Officers Killed in Action) report which state numerous felons imprisoned for murdering law enforcement officers did so simply because “they knew they could.” Some felons specifically stated the officer’s uniform and/or boots appeared unkempt, which caused them to assume the officer was lazy and cared about their job as much as their uniform. This is of course untrue and no excuse for the felons’ actions, but it’s important to note that something as menial as the creases in your uniform shirt can have an impact on how a suspect responds to your command presence.
On a lighter note, your field training evaluation will likely have an “appearance” category, so press your uniforms, shine your badge and polish your boots often, if not daily, because that’s an easy category to score points in. A former Recruit Training Officer once told me the academy is where the best snapshot of you will occur. You’ll be fit, focused and non-complacent. As officers, we tend to let ourselves slip, however gradually, after we leave the academy and there’s no longer academy staff keeping us in line. I personally challenge you to stay fit, know your stuff and remember that complacency kills.

6. Be respectful

Simply put, everybody is “sir” or “ma’am” unless you are told to call them something else. Even then, maybe let them tell you a couple of times before you stop. Respect both seniority and rank. Understand the senior guys with a few years left before retirement are not lazy, in fact they’ve likely spent the last 25 years doing exactly what you’re hoping to. Let them have their coffee and respond to their beat calls; you can go chase “Johnny Troublemaker” over fences and know the senior guy will still be there to help. Respect rank, regardless of your opinion of the person.

7. Switching FTOs

When you pass a field training phase, you’ll get another FTO. One of the most frustrating things you can do is tell your current FTO that you did something a certain way because your last FTO told you to do it that way. There are a million ways to do this job and achieve the same result, count yourself lucky you’re going to experience a mere three to four ways of doing it with your FTOs. The point is to expose you to different ways, so that if you pass the program, you can take what you liked and add it to your bag of tricks. So if your current FTO tells you something different than your last FTO, that’s fine, do it.

8. Roll with the punches

Coworkers may have fun at your expense. As the new guy who enjoys pranks and comedy, I always found it amusing. In fact, I’ll humble myself with a quick story and maybe it’ll foreshadow the shenanigans you may encounter as the new guy. I was fresh off training and took a burglary where the suspect defecated in the victim’s toilet and didn’t flush it. Knowing (mostly) excrement doesn’t contain usable DNA, I photographed it and left it alone. My sergeant, after reading my report, called me into the office, where he and a former Crime Scene Investigator spent the next 20 minutes convincing me I had left valuable evidence in the toilet. Even worse, because my department was out of “collection kits,” I’d have to make due with a plastic bag and a plastic spoon. I got halfway back to the house after calling to tell the victim not to flush her toilet before my sergeant called me, nearly in tears, telling me I didn’t in fact need to scoop poop out of a toilet with a plastic spoon. If you’re thinking “Wow, what an idiot!” that’s fair. When I got back to the station, my sergeant wrote “Doo Doo Collection Bag” on the bag I took and placed the plastic spoon inside. That bag still hangs from my locker today, even at my new agency. So, roll with the punches and see the humor in things, even if you’re the victim!

9. Keep your FTO happy

This one comes at the end of the list because it was more important for you to retain the above items first before I tell you to keep your FTO fed and caffeinated … but do it. Find out how your FTO likes to ease into their shift or wind down. Whether its food, coffee or tea, find out and if possible, get your FTO what they need. Some FTOs don’t care about any of those frills and just want you out there doing your job. If that’s the case, pack a Red Bull and stay busy.
What if you’re a lateral transfer? As somebody who has lateraled to a different agency, I can tell you my approach was nearly identical to what it was when I was a new guy. I did just about everything the same way, but if my FTO, a senior guy or a supervisor told me to cut it out because I wasn’t a “boot,” I’d oblige and silently appreciate their gesture. I was fortunate enough to land at an agency where my lateral FTO experience was great; they treated me like an experienced officer and respected my time on the job. If you find yourself having a different lateral experience, try embracing the “new guy” way again because things like “be respectful” and “Keep your FTO happy” will never lead you astray.
Often times, trainees leaving the academy feel as if they know everything because they’ve conquered the academy experience. Do not fall into that trap. The reality is the police academy prepares you to enter a field training program, it doesn’t guarantee you’re ready to succeed in it. That responsibility falls on your shoulders. Strive for success and embrace being the new guy; be humble, be hungry and be the hardest worker in the room. Upon completing field training, take pride you’ve landed amongst the closed ranks of law enforcement because it’s the greatest job on Earth.

About the Author

Officer Samuel Miceli is a police officer with the Santa Clara Police Department in Santa Clara, California, and is assigned to the patrol division. Officer Miceli has approximately four and a half years on the job and still considers himself the new guy

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Shoot a Fleeing Felon!

What in the world is it that some police officer, even senior officers, don't understand about, You Can Not Shoot A Fleeing Felon?  It is one of the first things you learn in the academy.  No matter how bad he or she is, you are never going to win that fight in court.  When a felon flees your weapon becomes your radio and your feet.  Use them both!