Law enforcement education: Critical incidents and post-traumatic stress disorder

Law enforcement officers are part of an occupational group that bears the risk of being involved in stressful and traumatic situations. The domestic battles that officers deal with can be as traumatic as those seen in combat on foreign soil. Current research typically focuses on officer involved shootings and examines how PTSD manifest based on the severity of a critical incident over the length of a law enforcement career. Little research has been done on educating law enforcement prior to, or after, a critical incident.;This applied research project sought to designed as an intervention to enhance understanding of the impact, physiologically and psychologically on law enforcement officers, administrators and other law enforcement personnel. The project is an organizational development intervention that will impact the culture of an organization. The project began with the question and intention to identify what does an officer that has been involved in a critical incident experience and what is the impact that follows? A total of 10 evaluators, two-licensed psychologists, two professional executive life coaches, and six active police officers working in a municipal district participated in the 9 question survey. Evaluators provided specific comments on each session of the workshop. Common themes were identified from the responders' comments. The responses provided by the evaluators answered the following: 1) if the information provided in the workshop was conducive to law enforcement and 2) if the workshop was applicable to the types of critical incidents law enforcement officers' experience. The qualitative data obtained was transcribed from each evaluator's recorded comments, indicating their response and coded by identifying and highlighting specific keywords, and themed accordingly. The quantitative data was collected and summarized and percentages of ratings were captured and used to determine the results. The results and the feedback session indicated that all the evaluators identified the importance and necessity of providing continual training with regard to mental health and critical incidents. Additionally, the evaluators identified a need to bring this information to the officers' family members. Additional research needs to be completed once the workshop has been conducted.