Police Stress Reports

Stress Report One day, officer Jim Harris and his trainee were called to a bar disturbance. When the two got there, they went inside with the owner. Once inside, Harris turned to check on his trainee, giving the bar owner time to move behind his desk and start drawing a handgun from one of the drawers. When Harris recalled the moment when he saw the gun, he remembered feeling as though that gun was posing a threat to not only him, but everyone else in the bar as well. He quickly sought cover and did what he thought was necessary--he fired. The bar owner immediately raised his hands to his head and dropped the gun. He staggered over to Harris and said, “I wasn’t going to shoot you.” Then he collapsed to the ground and died. Harris remembered …show more content…
For example, he had all the other officers in the department to talk to, as well friends outside law enforcement. He also had his wife who wanted to support him and help him deal with the pressure. She offered physical condolences and tried to get him to talk about what he was feeling. The department psychologist was available to him as well. But, as is true with all stress, there were negative resources available too. Examples of negative resources would be alcohol, drugs, violence, self-harm, and separating oneself from the rest of the world in order to ignore the …show more content…
Coping with stress takes time and if all an officer does is work, it will only mask the stress by providing a temporary distraction, or it will make the stress worse instead of it being resolved (Kennedy). I’d also make it a rule that the officer must see the department psychologist at least once after the incident . Any further visits would be optional, but the initial session would not only provide an analysis of whether or not the officer is mentally able to return to work, it would get the officer exposed to a positive resource for dealing with his stress ("Five Ways Police Cope With Stress"). It would also be a good idea to send out an email or written notice to all personnel within the department to stay positive and try to create a supportive atmosphere for this officer when he does come back to work. This would make it easier for the returning officer to keep his focus on good things rather than thinking about the stressful incident, as well as increasing overall department morale and productivity