NCJ Number
93847
Journal
Police Marksman Volume: 9 Issue: 2 Dated: (March/April 1984) Pages: 28-29,31-33
Date Published
1984
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) can help police officers overcome postshooting trauma by showing that their fears and anxieties are irrational. This approach is also effective in group counseling programs.
Abstract
A major assumption of RET is that what individuals say to themselves has a major impact on the way they feel and act. Consequently, the therapist in RET tries to change this self-verbalization, helping the individual to confront irrational beliefs that either are empirically false or cannot be verified. Postshooting trauma occurs after an officer has been involved in a police combat situation. It has many symptoms, including sleep pattern disturbances, flashbacks, depression, and episodes of self-doubt. RET can help an officer overcome guilt about taking a life by pointing out that police combat is a very personal encounter, similar to military combat, where the officer's foremost obligation is to prevent crime and apprehend criminals. Officers can be shown that they did not lose control of the situation because they probably never were in control of the circumstances and were just pawns in life's game of destiny. RET also helps officers come to grips with their own emotions, accepting that killing another human being is a traumatic event. The Suffolk County (New York) Police Department has started a unique peer support program composed of officers who have been involved in police combat. They meet once a month to discuss problems stemming from postshooting trauma. Whenever an officer is involved in a shooting, he or she is invited to the next meeting. Officers can reveal their problems to this group, learn they are not unique, and use the group's support to cope with irrational thinking patterns. The article includes eight references.