In law enforcement, cops are used to having Dispatch call their crew number, followed by the word, “checkup.” This is done when an officer is on a call for a certain amount of time, even if it isn’t a serious call for service.
Our department had it programmed into our dispatch platform to automatically notify the dispatcher to check up on a crew 10 or so minutes after arriving on a call, and again at the 30-minute mark.
It wasn’t because the dispatcher thought the crew was slacking off or taking too much time on a call. It was a systematic way of keeping track of our folks and checking up on their status.
If a crew did not respond, more crews were started their way and the dispatcher cleared the channel of all radio traffic until the dispatcher or responding crews made contact with the officer.
Sadly, many agencies do not have the same type of systematic way of checking up on the physical, mental and psychological status of their officers until after there has been a critical incident.
While doing so after a critical incident is extremely important, it falls short of the care, compassion and concern we should have for our folks on a day-to-day basis throughout their careers.
We impress upon our officers, from the day they start the academy, there is no such thing as a “routine call’.
Every call has the potential to turn critical in an instant and we should be mentally and physically prepared to act. That alone can create a lot of stress on even a trained professional.
Think of the impact on officers – physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually – from “just doing their job”, every day for 20 or more years. The latest term used in the corporate world is the “infinite workday.” For cops, it can become the “infinite work career.” There is a fine line between situational awareness and paranoia when you think you are expected to be on alert 24/7.
We all became cops because of something greater than ourselves. We genuinely wanted to protect and serve our communities. Give back to our communities and make them a safer place to live, work and raise families.
Try asking a veteran cop with 7 or more years on the job why they are still a cop. The odds are pretty good it isn’t to protect and serve.
Many, if not most, cops with more than 7-10 years on the job have become disillusioned with being a cop.
They still love catching bad guys but are disillusioned with the politics of the job, the media, the lack of leadership from the top down in their agencies, the challenges of life at home and more.
Life isn’t what they expected it to be at this stage of their careers.
You see it in their attitudes and behaviors, on and off the job. The ones that are always complaining about everything, including life at home.
The ones who are constantly getting citizen complaints for being rude on calls for service. The ones who fly off the handle for no legitimate reason, The ones who abuse sick leave, tagging sick days onto their regular days off.
The ones who simply don’t give a flock, about themselves or others – including fellow officers. You know who I’m talking about – and it might just be you, too.
The same officers, struggling with their disillusionment, will eventually have to resolve this stress (physical, mental, social, spiritual) by making some choices.
Many will choose to retire on duty – do the least amount of work, stay out of trouble the best they can, and collect their paycheck.
They have their KMA letter (Kiss My….) in their back pocket and know the exact day and time they can retire – and will let you know they can’t wait for that day to arrive.
Some will quit the job or try for a medical disability, to at least have some sort of pension that “they owe me.” Some will lateral to another agency, thinking and hoping it has to be better than staying where they are.
Some will take the ultimate out and commit suicide. Some will redefine their idealism for being a cop and work on their attitudes and behaviors to get back to that reason greater than themselves they had when they first joined up.
Now before you tell me I am full of crap and don’t know what I’m talking about, let me share with you I went through the above disillusionment, several times, in my 26-year career.
We all have bad days. I’m not talking about simple bad days.
I’m talking about prolonged bad days that affect us in our daily living – on and off the job. And, no, you can’t just “suck it up.”
A lot of my disillusionment was a combination of life, on and off the job. I did not have a critical incident (OIS). I did see and experience a lot of death – I have been on hundreds of death scenes.
Murders (had 4 homicides in one 12-hour shift as watch Commander); suicides; overdose deaths; traffic deaths (including pedestrians struck and killed and body parts separated); in a 5-year stretch, the death of my birth mother, father-in-law, and both parents.
Also, my wife being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
And, I experienced three line-of-duty deaths of cops that I had worked with. There is even more, but you get the point.
I’m not special or unique. Every cop in our department saw and experienced this, if not more or worse than I did. At home and on the job.
And we all responded in our own ways, usually alone and on our own. You don’t want to look weak or get tagged as “having issues” and risk getting sent to EAP (Employee Assistance Program). Nope, most of us just “sucked it up.” Some got fired. One committed suicide after quitting, in lieu of being fired.
I quietly had a few visits with a psychologist because of the panic attacks I was having when a Deputy Chief came after me and tried to get me fired.
Fortunately, because of a commitment to strive to do the right things, at the right time, the right way and for the right reasons, I was completely exonerated when the matter went to arbitration and the city was ordered to destroy any documentation accumulated during the investigation.
While I am appreciative of the final outcome, the journey through it for over a year was brutal and took its toll on me.
Ultimately, what kept me on track was my wife’s unwavering support and not kicking me to the curb and her faith in God. She encouraged me to not fall away from the church, to go to Mass every Sunday as a family, to join some men’s faith groups and she constantly prayed for me.
I learned that the value of good work (being a good cop and trying to help people) is meaningless without Faith.
That has also sustained me in my retirement and some very challenging times – including the death of our youngest child while serving in the USAF overseas in 2015.
The bottom line to all this, is we need to systematically check up on one another – on and off the job.
We are all facing challenges and it is only through a true community of each other, who are living a life behind the badge, that we will be the Warriors, Servants, and Leaders we signed up to be.
Protect and serve each other, not just your community.
Don’t be Kermit the Frog meme, sipping his Lipton tea and saying “It’s none of my business.” The Blue Line may be thin, and it is also can be broken if we aren’t checking up on each other. Do the right thing, at the right time, the right way and for the right reasons.
About the Author:
From being left in an orphanage in Dublin, Ireland at 3 days old, to being adopted to the USA 16 months later, Pat Welsh has been on a lifelong journey to become a Warrior, Servant, and Leader.
His journey has led him to a 40+ year professional career as a lawyer, police executive, and nationally recognized speaker/trainer in the criminal justice arena.
Personally, his journey includes being married to his soul mate for over 44 years, helping raise 5 kids, and being blessed with two granddaughters.
Pat credits his faith for getting through tough challenges, professionally and personally – including the loss of their youngest son while serving overseas with the USAF.
In the Warrior Servant Leader Podcast, Pat shares the inspiring stories and lessons learned, personally and professionally, as he features TACO TUESDAYS - Take Action Crush Obstacles. Buckel up, he doesn’t hold back.
Contact Pat: pjwelshllc@gmail.com or at https://www.thewarriorservantleaderpodcast.com
If you want to learn more about my journey and how faith has sustained me, even when I was lost, check out Warrior, Servant, Leader: Life Behind the Cross, available on Amazon.
Our department had it programmed into our dispatch platform to automatically notify the dispatcher to check up on a crew 10 or so minutes after arriving on a call, and again at the 30-minute mark.
It wasn’t because the dispatcher thought the crew was slacking off or taking too much time on a call. It was a systematic way of keeping track of our folks and checking up on their status.
If a crew did not respond, more crews were started their way and the dispatcher cleared the channel of all radio traffic until the dispatcher or responding crews made contact with the officer.
Sadly, many agencies do not have the same type of systematic way of checking up on the physical, mental and psychological status of their officers until after there has been a critical incident.
While doing so after a critical incident is extremely important, it falls short of the care, compassion and concern we should have for our folks on a day-to-day basis throughout their careers.
We impress upon our officers, from the day they start the academy, there is no such thing as a “routine call’.
Every call has the potential to turn critical in an instant and we should be mentally and physically prepared to act. That alone can create a lot of stress on even a trained professional.
Think of the impact on officers – physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually – from “just doing their job”, every day for 20 or more years. The latest term used in the corporate world is the “infinite workday.” For cops, it can become the “infinite work career.” There is a fine line between situational awareness and paranoia when you think you are expected to be on alert 24/7.
We all became cops because of something greater than ourselves. We genuinely wanted to protect and serve our communities. Give back to our communities and make them a safer place to live, work and raise families.
Try asking a veteran cop with 7 or more years on the job why they are still a cop. The odds are pretty good it isn’t to protect and serve.
Many, if not most, cops with more than 7-10 years on the job have become disillusioned with being a cop.
They still love catching bad guys but are disillusioned with the politics of the job, the media, the lack of leadership from the top down in their agencies, the challenges of life at home and more.
Life isn’t what they expected it to be at this stage of their careers.
You see it in their attitudes and behaviors, on and off the job. The ones that are always complaining about everything, including life at home.
The ones who are constantly getting citizen complaints for being rude on calls for service. The ones who fly off the handle for no legitimate reason, The ones who abuse sick leave, tagging sick days onto their regular days off.
The ones who simply don’t give a flock, about themselves or others – including fellow officers. You know who I’m talking about – and it might just be you, too.
The same officers, struggling with their disillusionment, will eventually have to resolve this stress (physical, mental, social, spiritual) by making some choices.
Many will choose to retire on duty – do the least amount of work, stay out of trouble the best they can, and collect their paycheck.
They have their KMA letter (Kiss My….) in their back pocket and know the exact day and time they can retire – and will let you know they can’t wait for that day to arrive.
Some will quit the job or try for a medical disability, to at least have some sort of pension that “they owe me.” Some will lateral to another agency, thinking and hoping it has to be better than staying where they are.
Some will take the ultimate out and commit suicide. Some will redefine their idealism for being a cop and work on their attitudes and behaviors to get back to that reason greater than themselves they had when they first joined up.
Now before you tell me I am full of crap and don’t know what I’m talking about, let me share with you I went through the above disillusionment, several times, in my 26-year career.
We all have bad days. I’m not talking about simple bad days.
I’m talking about prolonged bad days that affect us in our daily living – on and off the job. And, no, you can’t just “suck it up.”
A lot of my disillusionment was a combination of life, on and off the job. I did not have a critical incident (OIS). I did see and experience a lot of death – I have been on hundreds of death scenes.
Murders (had 4 homicides in one 12-hour shift as watch Commander); suicides; overdose deaths; traffic deaths (including pedestrians struck and killed and body parts separated); in a 5-year stretch, the death of my birth mother, father-in-law, and both parents.
Also, my wife being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
And, I experienced three line-of-duty deaths of cops that I had worked with. There is even more, but you get the point.
I’m not special or unique. Every cop in our department saw and experienced this, if not more or worse than I did. At home and on the job.
And we all responded in our own ways, usually alone and on our own. You don’t want to look weak or get tagged as “having issues” and risk getting sent to EAP (Employee Assistance Program). Nope, most of us just “sucked it up.” Some got fired. One committed suicide after quitting, in lieu of being fired.
I quietly had a few visits with a psychologist because of the panic attacks I was having when a Deputy Chief came after me and tried to get me fired.
Fortunately, because of a commitment to strive to do the right things, at the right time, the right way and for the right reasons, I was completely exonerated when the matter went to arbitration and the city was ordered to destroy any documentation accumulated during the investigation.
While I am appreciative of the final outcome, the journey through it for over a year was brutal and took its toll on me.
Ultimately, what kept me on track was my wife’s unwavering support and not kicking me to the curb and her faith in God. She encouraged me to not fall away from the church, to go to Mass every Sunday as a family, to join some men’s faith groups and she constantly prayed for me.
I learned that the value of good work (being a good cop and trying to help people) is meaningless without Faith.
That has also sustained me in my retirement and some very challenging times – including the death of our youngest child while serving in the USAF overseas in 2015.
The bottom line to all this, is we need to systematically check up on one another – on and off the job.
We are all facing challenges and it is only through a true community of each other, who are living a life behind the badge, that we will be the Warriors, Servants, and Leaders we signed up to be.
Protect and serve each other, not just your community.
Don’t be Kermit the Frog meme, sipping his Lipton tea and saying “It’s none of my business.” The Blue Line may be thin, and it is also can be broken if we aren’t checking up on each other. Do the right thing, at the right time, the right way and for the right reasons.
About the Author:
From being left in an orphanage in Dublin, Ireland at 3 days old, to being adopted to the USA 16 months later, Pat Welsh has been on a lifelong journey to become a Warrior, Servant, and Leader.
His journey has led him to a 40+ year professional career as a lawyer, police executive, and nationally recognized speaker/trainer in the criminal justice arena.
Personally, his journey includes being married to his soul mate for over 44 years, helping raise 5 kids, and being blessed with two granddaughters.
Pat credits his faith for getting through tough challenges, professionally and personally – including the loss of their youngest son while serving overseas with the USAF.
In the Warrior Servant Leader Podcast, Pat shares the inspiring stories and lessons learned, personally and professionally, as he features TACO TUESDAYS - Take Action Crush Obstacles. Buckel up, he doesn’t hold back.
Contact Pat: pjwelshllc@gmail.com or at https://www.thewarriorservantleaderpodcast.com
If you want to learn more about my journey and how faith has sustained me, even when I was lost, check out Warrior, Servant, Leader: Life Behind the Cross, available on Amazon.
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