When we see these men and women with their crisp uniforms and heavy belts with guns and other gear, we appreciate their presence and commitment but tend to pass them with minimal notice. We know these public servants are not paid enough for the work they do. We acknowledge the danger in their daily life: they run toward trouble when we instinctively run away. We clearly affirm their importance for civility and safety in the community. We appreciate their devotion.
But do we think about them as persons, about their humanity?
The newspaper headlines remind us of the trauma of police work. “Police officer shoots suspect.” “Car crash kills local teen.” “Drug bust leads to shootout.” “Trooper dragged down highway.” “Escapee kills deputy.”
The women and men in law enforcement find themselves on the front line, first responders to the turmoil, violence, and gore.
How do police officers cope after shooting someone, even a criminal in self-defense? How do they sleep after seeing the gruesome results of a violent crime or a nasty crash? Who cares for them beyond the tight circle of law enforcement? Who even knows the depth of their pain?
Following the horrific shootings in 2007 on the Virginia Tech campus, where I served as chaplain at the Blacksburg Police Department, I wrote and received a grant from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to help with the care and support of traumatized officers. Is it the church’s job to care for traumatized officers? Would not state or federal funds be available to help police officers recover from critical incidents and trauma? Is it the church’s role to provide seminars, therapy, and recovery for public servants?
Those remain legitimate questions. Even following the tragedy at Virginia Tech, the leadership at Presbyterian Disaster Assistance pressed those questions. But my role as volunteer chaplain connected me to the trauma of these committed servants. The department’s debriefings were helpful to a point, but clearly more support and care was needed for these first responders into the carnage following the shootings on that campus.
I persisted, and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance promised support; the grant money arrived. We begin planning a Post Critical Incident Seminar (PCIS) for traumatized police officers in the Commonwealth of Virginia. In our planning in Virginia, we built upon an effective model from South Carolina, a model that had been used also in North Carolina. It also was funded primarily by donations from churches, foundations, and individuals (not state funds). The program has a proven record of helping police officers deal with their critical incidents, and returning to work and life with more health and commitment. Across the recent years, dozens of officers can testify that this seminar has been restorative. Leaders in law enforcement in these states can document the success of this model.
Involving a combination of peer team support and learning about the effects of trauma on the body and spirit, PCIS includes therapy, small group conversations with other affected police officers, and a retreat setting that builds trust for healing. The real success is police officers helping police officers with the challenges and trauma only police officers understand.
With PDA funding covering more than half of the total cost, and with additional funds coming from another denomination as well as other helping agencies, the Commonwealth of Virginia recently held its first PCIS for police officers at Second Church, Richmond. The Virginia State Police, Blacksburg Police, and Fairfax County Police departments also coordinated and endorsed this venture.
Every police officer comes to the PCIS with a story: the specific details of a traumatic event that turned quickly dangerous, even deadly. Each of these stories begins with the routine work of police, like a random call to a domestic dispute that quickly erupts into shooting; or a traffic stop that led to physical violence; or a car crash that proved to be particularly grotesque, or any number of traumatic events involving images and intensity that have seared themselves into the psyches of police officers. At the PCIS, participants tell their stories in a confidential setting surrounded only by law enforcement officials and others with skills and credibility to offer help and healing. The common stories and the setting create a close community unlike anything else. Police officers remain notoriously suspicious of psychologists and chaplains; but they will share deeply with one another. The mutual respect and sharing of pains and loss, and the peer support provide a fertile ground for healing and movement beyond the trauma.
Another central component of PCIS involves psychotherapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which helps with people who have been exposed to extreme trauma. In moments of real intensity, when the body is on high alert, like a shooting or an accident, the visual images of those moments gain overwhelming prominence in the memory and on the brain. This psychotherapy works to reprocess those moments so these horrific images can move along in the memory and not dominate, not flashback, until they lose their prominence. EMDR therapy has proved effective in facilitating help and healing for traumatized officers.
“I have been given my life back,” commented one officer who had been so overcome by a critical incident. Another officer reflected: “I did not want to come to this seminar. But I feel like I have lost 100 pounds of burden and doubt.” One more: “EMDR seems crazy. But it has changed my life. I feel like I can be myself again with no more flashbacks, no more haunting thoughts in the night.”
We all know police officers are human beings. Human beings need help with trauma.
Isn’t this what the church should be about? Did not Jesus extend himself to the hurting, the hopeless, the lost? It seems to me that the church’s role is to be the church – to embody light and love, peace and purpose in the world, to tend to the needy, to bind up the broken. The church extends itself with Christ’s devotion, for healing and hope for all people, including police officers.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance provided the major funds for this initial seminar in loving and caring response to the disaster at Virginia Tech. But every day, police officers find themselves in critical incidents. It may not be a scene of public horror, like a mass shooting on a college campus, which generates compassion and dollars from around the world. But our violent world, and our vulnerable lives, guarantee that Post Critical Incident Seminars for police officers are needed on a regular basis.
Where will funds for future seminars come from? Compassion and dollars often flow with news-making tragedies. But who thinks about the woman officer who shot her partner in a dark house looking for a bad guy? Who thinks about the psyche of the policeman who, in his first week on the road, came upon a car crash and discovered a decapitated 16 year-old girl? These events are not “disasters” that trigger help from compassionate people or agencies; but they are traumatic events that can paralyze lives and prohibit effective work.
In this day of budget cuts in local, county, and state budgets, God keeps calling us to step up, to reach out, to be the church. The church is called to offer compassion and care for the women and men in law enforcement, to those who strive to care and protect our communities. We need sources of funding and plans of action that help the traumatized in our midst. Undoubtedly, local and state agencies must come forward with increased care and support. But God calls us as the church to serve with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love in all our work. That calling demands that we partner with helping agencies and anyone else in the care and support of traumatized people in law enforcement.
Police officers. Those who serve as first responders deserve the very best our communities and churches can offer. We must respond with compassion and commitment, affirmation and help enabling police officers and others to live and serve with effectiveness and purpose.
ALEXANDERW. EVANS previously served as pastor of Blacksburg Church, Blacksburg, Va., and chaplain of the Blacksburg Police Department during the time of the shootings at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. He continues to work with victims’ families, police, and others. He serves now as pastor of Second Church. Richmond, Va.
