How Can A Police Officer Make A Life-Threatening Decision

Have you ever wondered what’s it 's like to be a cop? Or what cop’s families go through on a day to day basis? This book Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement written by Kevin M. Gilmartin, Ph.D. gives us an outline on the difficulty and stress that law enforcement officer and their families face on daily basis. Dr. Gilmartin discusses the stages of hypervigilance. And the long-term effects of hypervigilance and the toll it takes on the officer and his or her family.

Critical incident stress results from the crisis of a critical event such as a death of a loved one, a traumatic incident, or an officer-involved shooting. A crisis for an individual is defined as “the perception or experiencing of an event or situation as an intolerable difficulty that exceeds the person’s current resources and coping mechanisms” (James & Gilliland, 2013, p. 8). For a law enforcement officer, “Mitchell (1991) said that a critical incident is one in which the officer’s expectations of perfect performance suddenly are

Police use of deadly force in the United States has been growing at a rapid pace due to several incidents that have taken place over the last few years. The biggest question today remains why has this been such a relevant topic across the U.S. lately? The use of deadly force is specifically important because it directly affects the publics’ attitudes and behaviors towards the police and government. Some will blame police policies, some will blame abuse of power, and some even claim the use of deadly force is necessary to in order to properly defend themselves. The use of deadly force continues to increase due to lack of what the true definition of “use of force” and what actually means. This lack of definition creates

The Book Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement by Dr. Kevin M. Gilmartin is a guide for officers and their families on the journey through law enforcement and how to coop with the ever demanding job officers face. This book discussed the demands of the job and how officers change throughout the course of their career. I will elaborate on several factors that were discussed in the book and how officers, with the proper training, can help combat the stress of the high demand place on them.

United States Law Enforcement officers are constantly under pressure. Their job requires them to serve and protect mankind, under any circumstances, at all times. Because of this, officers run the risk of putting themselves in harmful situation. This may include apprehending a violent assailant, or entering harmful locations. In this study, I used books and articles such as, Criminal Justice Today, to get an understanding of the dangers Law Enforcement Officer face in the line of duty. When performing task outside the prescient, office4rs are put into dangerous situations because of their surroundings, offender’s actions, and officer mistakes. Due to the high stress of this job, it not only affects their performance, but their health as well.

Performing well under distressing circumstances is not easy. Yet in a few callings, it can be of fundamental significance that one has the capacity do as such. Case in point, when police officers are confronted with a furnished and hazardous attacker, they are required to act rapidly and viably to shield themselves and other individuals from damage. Getting included in such circumstances is unpleasant (Anderson, Litzenberger, and Plecas, 2002). Although police officers are required to perform well under stressful circumstances, a

Protecting and serving is the promise guaranteed by police officers, who put their lives in potential danger daily. Police officer’s right to use lethal force is being questioned due to a current bad reputation. A few negative cases should not triumph the countless positive things that police officers do for their community. A police officer who cannot use lethal force cannot easily protect the public and themselves in a dangerous situation. Police officers deserve the right to use lethal force to protect themselves, maintain public safety, and for an intimidation effect.

“Because the concept of "off duty" does not exist for most law enforcement officers, they experience a higher rate of divorce, alcoholism, and suicide. Stress is simply defined as an elevation in a person's state of arousal or readiness, caused by a stimulus or demand. As stress arousal increases, health and performance actually improve. Within manageable levels, stress can help sharpen our attention and mobilize our bodies to cope with threatening

As crime coexists with humanity, the presence of the police force ensures the suppression of crime and the safety for our society. Every occupation has its own work stress. What is unique is all the different stress found in one job. Aside from the heroic services police officers perform in their duty, they experience overwhelming stress in their daily duty. Police stress refers to the negative pressures related to police work (Police Stress, n.d.). In order to maintain peace and order, there must be an effective police force up and running. For that to happen, departments need to be aware and deal with the negative effects caused by police stress. Whereas, police officers must conquer their stress in order to work at their

Courtney Brown PSYCH 2302 8 December 2014 Chapter 14: Psychology of Law Enforcement There is no doubt that being a police officer is a stressful job. Every single day, a police officer not only has to protect himself, but the community around him. He, or she, vowed to protect that area, and the town’s safety lies on their shoulders. I don’t know about anyone else, but that seems like a heavy burden to carry.

In a potentially threatening situation, an officer will quickly tailor a response and

Lights flashing, sirens blaring through the streets of Albany, New York. A cop is involved in a high speed car chase. In order to escape the crook breaks through the fence of a local airport. The cops blocked him in the middle of the runway and sent him to jail. This is one of the high stress situations that cops are involved in every day. They have ways of dealing with these stressors. Cops know that there are stressful and scary things to come from working as a police officer. Even when police officers deal with high stress dangerous situations on the job they can still live a healthy personal life.

The rescue and fire fighters at East Haven Fire Department keep their emotions balanced in several ways. The dispatcher uses a script for 911 calls. This helps her to stay focused on her job, not on her emotions about the call. They also use a debriefing for the emergency calls they go on. This goes over what happened, and lets them voice what they went through, so the stress does not build up. They stated that a very important factor in helping them deal with stress is humor. Not only do they laugh at themselves, they joke and have fun with their co-workers. (NKP Media for Pearson

1. Describe a professional or personal issue you need to resolve in the coming month that involves at least one other person.

In Law Enforcement, an essential skill is tactical breathing because it helps lower a person’s heart rate. An officer should be in condition red, which means being at their physical and mental high. If an officer heart beat goes up, then their skills begin to deteriorate as he or she enters condition gray. Tactical breathing can lower the heart rate and return the officer to condition red. This tool is useful in getting law enforcement officers to calm down, and mentally gather himself or herself back together.