PTSD WAS NOT EVEN OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED UNTIL 1980

What Is The Extent Of The Mental Health Crisis In Law Enforcement?

LAPPL News Watch
June 7, 2019

Police officers experience many traumatic events throughout their career. A 2015 study found that on average, law enforcement officers experience 188 critical incidents over the course of their career.

In response to critical incidents, officers can Police officers experience many traumatic events throughout their career. A 2015 study found that on average, law enforcement officers experience 188 critical incidents over the course of their career.

In response to critical incidents, officers can develop negative coping mechanisms, experience symptoms of and/or develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other co-occurring psychopathological disorders.

Additionally, factors such as organizational stress, stigma surrounding mental health within the department, a lack of mental health literacy on the part of the officer, and a lack of leadership surrounding mental health in the department can also lead to an officer developing PTSD and/or using poor coping mechanisms.

Factors contributing to the ignorance and dismissal of the mental health crisis in law enforcement stem from mental health stigmas held across the United States and within the law enforcement community. Other contributing factors are the unwillingness to establish a mental health baseline in currently operating officers based on the fear that some of them may be unfit to serve.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Nowadays, everyone seems to be suffering from PTSD, starting with the kid who sees a playmate skin his knee. We have become a nation of pussies.

PTSD is certainly a legitimate affliction for soldiers who experienced the horrors of war. But it has gotten so that the TV newscasts won’t show a body under a sheet for fear of causing some viewer to develop PTSD.

Before PTSD, most cops managed to experience ‘critical incidents’ pretty well. The experiences did make cops callous with a negative attitude. of society as a whole. And there was a high rate of alcoholism among cops … but so was the alcoholism among house painters. What kind of critical incidents do painters experience ... run out of paint?

The high rate of divorce among cops has always been a myth in that the divorce rate most nearly equaled that of the general population. Many of those divorces resulted because cops loved their jobs more than their wives or because of the affairs they had with their groupies.

I really cannot remember any of my fellow cops being unable to cope with the critical incidents they experienced. And since I was active in a number of law enforcement associations, that goes for the cops in those organizations too.