As stated in my previous post in December (scroll down to read), there are many similarities between military operations and those of law enforcement.
Perhaps the most famous and most quoted study of the effects of prolonged exposure to combat was that done in 1946 by Drs. Roy L. Swank and Walter E. Marchand. Studying Army combatants who fought at Normandy, they found that after 60 days of continuous combat, 98% of the surviving soldiers had become psychiatric casualties. The remaining 2% were identified as "aggressive, psychopathic personalities". Thus, it is not too far off the mark to observe that there is something about continuous, inescapable combat that will drive 98% insane. The other 2% were crazy when they got there.
Perhaps the most famous and most quoted study of the effects of prolonged exposure to combat was that done in 1946 by Drs. Roy L. Swank and Walter E. Marchand. Studying Army combatants who fought at Normandy, they found that after 60 days of continuous combat, 98% of the surviving soldiers had become psychiatric casualties. The remaining 2% were identified as "aggressive, psychopathic personalities". Thus, it is not too far off the mark to observe that there is something about continuous, inescapable combat that will drive 98% insane. The other 2% were crazy when they got there.
Combat stress is a term usually associated only with military forces fighting a war. But, police today describe themselves as being "at war". In fact, the Federal government says this is so. We have the "War on Drugs" and the "War on Crime". The equipment and many of the tactics used by police are those used by the military. Police train with the military. Why then does law enforcement not recognize the presence of combat stress in their profession?
Prior to his retirement from the Sterling Heights, MI police department, Sgt Glenn French served 22 years in law enforcement, including 14 years in Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) He served as a Sniper Team Leader, REACT Team Leader, and Explosive Breacher. Prior to entering police work, French served in the U.S. Army. He is uniquely capable of commenting on the level of combat stress experienced by police officers.
In an article written in October, 2012, Combat stress in law enforcement: Does it exist?, French put it this way:
Prior to his retirement from the Sterling Heights, MI police department, Sgt Glenn French served 22 years in law enforcement, including 14 years in Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) He served as a Sniper Team Leader, REACT Team Leader, and Explosive Breacher. Prior to entering police work, French served in the U.S. Army. He is uniquely capable of commenting on the level of combat stress experienced by police officers.
In an article written in October, 2012, Combat stress in law enforcement: Does it exist?, French put it this way:
"Why does the military have a system in place for preventing, recognizing, and treating combat stress and many law enforcement agencies don't? The fact is many police agencies send officers to see a counselor or therapist only after an 'officer involved shooting' or an officer's death."
The Department of Defense defines combat stress as follows:
"The expected and predictable emotional, intellectual, physical, and/or behavioral reactions of service members who have been exposed to stressful events in war or military operations other than war. Combat stress reactions vary in quality and severity as a function of operational conditions, such as intensity, duration, rules of engagement, leadership, effective communication, unit morale, unit cohesion, and perceived importance of the mission."
As applied to police, the operative term in the above definition is "operations other than war". The job of law enforcement can best be likened to what the military terms Stability and Support Operations (SASO). These involve military forces providing safety and support to friendly noncombatants while suppressing threatening forces. SASO operations can occur in everything from natural disaster areas (earthquakes, storms and flooding) to insurgencies (revolts, social upheavals). The extent of SASO operations can range from interacting with the local population to military operations with specific rules of engagement.
According to the U.S. Army Medical Department:
"The day-to-day stress that comes with stability and support operations (SASOs) can at times be as bad as that of major combat. Emotionally distracted soldiers can endanger the mission, the unit, and themselves."
In their daily struggle to protect and to serve, police officers are exposed to dangerous situations on various levels and duration, depending on their assignment. At some point, most police officers are exposed to some type of traumatic incident. The difference between the military and the police is that the military recognizes this and combat soldiers are taken "off the line" to rest and recuperate, or are reassigned altogether. For police, the stress goes on day after day, year after year.
According to the U.S. Army Medical Department:
"The day-to-day stress that comes with stability and support operations (SASOs) can at times be as bad as that of major combat. Emotionally distracted soldiers can endanger the mission, the unit, and themselves."
In their daily struggle to protect and to serve, police officers are exposed to dangerous situations on various levels and duration, depending on their assignment. At some point, most police officers are exposed to some type of traumatic incident. The difference between the military and the police is that the military recognizes this and combat soldiers are taken "off the line" to rest and recuperate, or are reassigned altogether. For police, the stress goes on day after day, year after year.
Yet, police officers go home at the end of their shift after dealing with the previously-mentioned traumatic incidents, only to act is if nothing happened during their tour that day. They are expected as fathers, husbands, wives and citizens to go to Johnny's soccer practice, to see a movie with a girlfriend, attend a family BBQ, and every other daily function without any emotion or reaction to what they have just seen.
Another phenomenon associated with prolonged combat stress is a loss of perspective and judgment. Individuals can become so focused on the perceived threat to their own safety that they forget the very ideals for which they are fighting in the first place. We witnessed this with the massacres of women and children by American forces at My Lai in Vietnam and Kandahar in Afghanistan. Tragically, such incidents occur in war, despite the best efforts of leaders to prevent them. But, THEY SHOULD NOT HAPPEN HERE!
As stated above, prolonged exposure to the stress of combat will incapacitate 98%. But, there's also that 2% who were crazy when they got there. Those who have served in the military know that there are some individuals who should not be in the military at all. Despite all the screening and testing, they complete basic training and are sent to a unit. It is only then that their true character is revealed. Since law enforcement officers come from the same pool of human beings, why would anyone think that police departments would be immune from the same recruiting mistakes? Tragically, all too often those mistakes are uncovered only as a result of police misconduct or poor judgment that results in the death of an innocent person. Even then, they often go unpunished. Those who follow the Cato Institute's "National Police Misconduct Reporting Project" are aware that such incidents are on the rise.
The irony is that those most apt to give unqualified support to police officers, seemingly without regard to blatant instances of police misconduct, are those who wore our country's uniform to defend our basic freedoms - American veterans.
Strident calls to "Support Our Police", especially from those who served in the Armed Forces, give the impression that conduct we would not tolerate in a comrade-in-arms on a foreign battlefield is somehow acceptable here at home. When a police officer pulls up on a scene with gun drawn and shoots and kills a 12 year old boy in less than 7 seconds, or shoots an unarmed man 16 times as that man lays in bed and the officer is not held accountable, each of us is diminished as a free person living in a free society. These are actions more closely resembling those of the secret police in the old Soviet Union. When such an event is "explained away" as simply a mistake made while following proper procedure, we must begin to ask how such procedures came to be considered "proper" in the first place.
Since institution of the All-Volunteer Force in 1973, the percentage of the American population who have served in the military has remained relatively constant at 1%. Everyone who volunteered did so with full knowledge they would be making a sacrifice for a higher ideal. Many of them made the ultimate sacrifice. For those in the 99th percentile, whatever station in life they have achieved, they did so living under the freedoms the 1% sacrificed to protect and defend. When police place their own safety above the rights of the citizens they are sworn to protect, our basic freedoms are jeopardized.
Given those percentages, it means that the vast majority of local elected officials never served in the military. Neither did the attorneys that advise them nor the police union representatives who defend the most egregious behavior, placing a higher priority on an officer keeping a job than on serving the public. Many were never exposed to the stress of combat. Neither were they ever called upon to make a sacrifice for that higher ideal. If they can't or won't take the steps necessary to rein in their police and hold them accountable, then it is up to the veterans in the community to band together to force that action. In communities where police have overreacted and/or otherwise violated the basic rights of citizens, veterans must stand up in City Council meetings and say, "Wait a minute. This is not the freedom I served to protect."
Recognizing and criticizing police misconduct is not an indictment of all police officers. It is simply recognition of lessons learned the hard way by our military. Law enforcement must recognize the effects of combat stress and implement procedures to deal with it as the military has done.
As stated above, prolonged exposure to the stress of combat will incapacitate 98%. But, there's also that 2% who were crazy when they got there. Those who have served in the military know that there are some individuals who should not be in the military at all. Despite all the screening and testing, they complete basic training and are sent to a unit. It is only then that their true character is revealed. Since law enforcement officers come from the same pool of human beings, why would anyone think that police departments would be immune from the same recruiting mistakes? Tragically, all too often those mistakes are uncovered only as a result of police misconduct or poor judgment that results in the death of an innocent person. Even then, they often go unpunished. Those who follow the Cato Institute's "National Police Misconduct Reporting Project" are aware that such incidents are on the rise.
The irony is that those most apt to give unqualified support to police officers, seemingly without regard to blatant instances of police misconduct, are those who wore our country's uniform to defend our basic freedoms - American veterans.
Strident calls to "Support Our Police", especially from those who served in the Armed Forces, give the impression that conduct we would not tolerate in a comrade-in-arms on a foreign battlefield is somehow acceptable here at home. When a police officer pulls up on a scene with gun drawn and shoots and kills a 12 year old boy in less than 7 seconds, or shoots an unarmed man 16 times as that man lays in bed and the officer is not held accountable, each of us is diminished as a free person living in a free society. These are actions more closely resembling those of the secret police in the old Soviet Union. When such an event is "explained away" as simply a mistake made while following proper procedure, we must begin to ask how such procedures came to be considered "proper" in the first place.
Since institution of the All-Volunteer Force in 1973, the percentage of the American population who have served in the military has remained relatively constant at 1%. Everyone who volunteered did so with full knowledge they would be making a sacrifice for a higher ideal. Many of them made the ultimate sacrifice. For those in the 99th percentile, whatever station in life they have achieved, they did so living under the freedoms the 1% sacrificed to protect and defend. When police place their own safety above the rights of the citizens they are sworn to protect, our basic freedoms are jeopardized.
Given those percentages, it means that the vast majority of local elected officials never served in the military. Neither did the attorneys that advise them nor the police union representatives who defend the most egregious behavior, placing a higher priority on an officer keeping a job than on serving the public. Many were never exposed to the stress of combat. Neither were they ever called upon to make a sacrifice for that higher ideal. If they can't or won't take the steps necessary to rein in their police and hold them accountable, then it is up to the veterans in the community to band together to force that action. In communities where police have overreacted and/or otherwise violated the basic rights of citizens, veterans must stand up in City Council meetings and say, "Wait a minute. This is not the freedom I served to protect."
Recognizing and criticizing police misconduct is not an indictment of all police officers. It is simply recognition of lessons learned the hard way by our military. Law enforcement must recognize the effects of combat stress and implement procedures to deal with it as the military has done.
