Tag: Officer Psychology: Page 2

Training

The P-Word

Panic has little place in the modern world, and for a crime fighter it can be a killer; action is our mantra, and preparation is our antidote.

May 13, 2013

Patrol

The Hazards of Sleep

If he worked in one of those small towns that prohibits the exhibition of elephants in a city park on the Sabbath, you could bet that he'd somehow find a way to be booking a pachyderm into evidence Sunday night.

May 1, 2013

Patrol

If You Don't Learn This, You'll Die!

It's been said that the street cop wears many hats: psychologist, sociologist, counselor, arbitrator; electrician, firefighter, judge, jury, and even executioner. But how much formal training has he or she been exposed to in these various capacities?

March 11, 2013

Patrol

What Will You Regret?

There are things that I have wondered about such as those occasions when I found myself second-guessing a last second decision not to stop a car near the end of my shift: What might I have missed out on? Invariably, there is no answer to this question.

December 5, 2012

Patrol

Dreams, Schemes, and Other Interesting Things

Recently, I had a dream in which I was once again working patrol. But rather than writing or dictating our reports, we were drawing them.

November 15, 2012

Patrol

Knowing the Ending

While in fiction Sherlock Holmes' magnificent intuitive leaps lead to remarkable arrests, we would make a huge number of mental errors if we tried the same tricks. Worse, we might make assumptions that would get us or someone else hurt.

October 15, 2012

Careers

The Gift of Forgetting and Helping

You're not alone. There's always some help, and we have your back. As a police officer, you will see horrors second only to those who have been in combat. You can suppress some of the most horrific days of your life for a while. But a similar incident can create a recall and these memories will come roaring back.

October 8, 2012

Patrol

N.J. Detective Back On the Job After Shooting

Detective Rachel Morgan's psychological recovery has been helped by her membership in the "Swiss Cheese Club," a group of officers shot in the line of duty who provided timely support.

September 1, 2012

Patrol

DA: Pa. Cop Faked His Own Shooting

A Pennsylvania police officer has been arrested and will undergo a psychiatric evaluation for staging a shooting in which he claimed to have been saved by his ballistic vest.

August 28, 2012

Patrol

Realistic Optimism

Real optimism isn't just expecting good things to happen; it is how you internally explain to yourself the bad things that happen and what you do about them. Everyone is going to suffer bad events.

July 9, 2012

Patrol

Are You a Coward?

That oath did not spare the lives of some officers who failed to live up to it. I will refrain from listing their names herein as they have already paid the ultimate price for their reticence to do what obviously had to be done.

May 13, 2012

Patrol

Trapped on an Escalator

Your "locus of control" is your sense of controlling your own future, your own happiness, your own life. Too often people blame the commander, the sergeant, the department, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a husband, a wife, or a partner, maybe even all eight of them for their unhappiness or unfilled dreams.

May 7, 2012