This year got off to a rough start for law enforcement in many areas. Police dispatcher Dawna Natzke of Arkansas was found murdered on New Year’s Eve, and four law enforcement officers were shot and killed in the line of duty during the first week of January: Sergeant Abimael Castro-Berrocales of Puerto Rico, Park Ranger Margaret Anderson of Washington, Officer Jared Francom of Ogden City, Utah, and Deputy William Coleman of Maricopa County, Ariz.

I remember a time when the bad guys used to run from us. In my little corner of the world, we would have foot chases on just about every shift and the occasional vehicle pursuit on the more serious charges. Criminals did their best to get away from us. Now it seems we are running across a criminal element that has no fear of law enforcement. They are turning to fire on us now instead of running. Officer-involved shootings were few and far between but times are changing.

The offenders are also getting younger and younger. Law enforcement officers are being pushed into a corner and being forced to treat children as adults as they are exposed to juveniles who have no respect for any type of authority. Just recently, Texas officers were forced to shoot an eighth grader who refused to drop a pellet gun that looked real. Where and when do these kids go wrong? More than once in a week I dispatch deputies to parents who ask for assistance getting their child (some as young as six or seven) out of bed for school in the morning. So maybe the problem lies with the parenting.

In any event, the impact on those left behind can be devastating and sometimes overwhelming. That’s where a Critical Incident Stress Management Team comes in. Even though formal CISM programs have been around for years (my team just marked its 23rd anniversary), field personnel are still sometimes reluctant to participate in defusings or debriefings. They fear that they will be regarded as somehow weak or no longer fit for duty. Fortunately, that mentality is slowly fading away.

For those who may not have any experience with CISM, briefly, it is a group of individuals trained to support public safety personnel who have been involved in critical incidents and assist in mitigating long-term effects of stress. It is facilitated by a mental health professional and is successful mainly due to its peer support system.

Peers provide to their fellow workers:

a readily available enhancement of individual strengths,

an increase in social support,

a boost of environmental and physical resources in times of duress and

a guidance system for people to extricate themselves from painful human experiences.

According to Jeffrey T. Mitchell, PhD, clinical professor of emergency health services, University of Maryland Baltimore County and president emeritus, International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, “Experts in crisis support services are overwhelmingly in favor of peer-provided crisis intervention services and they back up their enthusiastic support with a long history of studies that indicate the incredible value of properly trained crisis intervention peers.”

Telecommunicators are often forgotten when things go bad. I’d like to think that, most of the time, it’s because there is so much going on in the field. Supervisors are immersed with officer safety, securing or preserving the scene, and making sure all the proper notifications are made so they tend to forget that for telecommunicators, what we hear is all we have. Sitting in a dark room with our monitors, what we hear, or more importantly, what we don’t hear and our imagination is all we have to go by. And I swear, with the invention of cell phones, the worse things get, the less radio traffic we hear; and being left out of the loop makes us even more anxious. Nothing is more stressful for a dispatcher than the feeling of not being in control.

Just like law enforcement officers, telecommunicators don’t like to admit that they might need a break or that the job is getting to them. Personally, I went through years of stress before I realized what was happening to me. Before I joined the Tri-County CISM Team, I never realized what the physical symptoms of accumulative stress could do to your body and mental well-being. “I’m a veteran telecommunicator. If I can’t handle this call, then what will my peers think of me? What will my supervisors think of me?” When I finally realized that what I was going through was normal, I wanted to help others. I don’t want good people to suffer in silence as I did. One of my team members, retired fire Deputy Chief John McMahon, sums it up perfectly: “CISM is crisis intervention for emergency service workers who are experiencing normal reactions from an abnormal event.”

You might be lucky enough to go your whole career and not have to handle a line-of-duty death, but realize that there are other calls that can affect you just as deeply. If you feel like something is not right and that you might be experiencing the effects of stress, please take action. You owe it to yourself, your co-workers, your department and the people you serve to be the best that you can be. Seek out assistance. If your department doesn’t have access to a CISM team, reach out to your EAP. Don’t let it fester. Supervisors, get to know your staff so that you can recognize when someone is being affected by long-term stress or a critical incident. Make sure your people are mentally healthy after a particularly hard call. If you know your people, it will be easier to notice when something is amiss. It might be as simple as letting them take a walk to let them shake it off or it could involve a little more assistance. As a telecommunicator, if the incident involved an officer, I find that it helps if you are able to see or talk to the officer after the event is over. We sometimes just need to see for ourselves that they are OK.

I have listed some symptoms and resources for you to take advantage of if you should find that you need them. I encourage you to take care of yourself and each other. You deserve it.

Physical Symptoms

(Any of these symptoms may require medical attention.)

• Chills
• Headaches
• Elevated BP
• Thirst
• Fatigue
• Chest Pain
• Rapid Heart Rate
• Nausea
• Fainting
• Muscle Tremors
• Twitches
• Shock Symptoms
• Grinding of Teeth
• Visual Difficulties
• Profuse Sweating
• Difficulty Breathing
• Vomiting
• Dizziness
• Weakness

Cognitive/Mental Symptoms

• Confusion
• Nightmares
• Uncertainty
• Hyper-vigilance, Watchful
• Suspiciousness
• Intrusive Images
• Blaming Someone
• Poor Problem Solving
• Poor Abstract Thinking
• Difficulty with Numbers
• Poor Concentration/Memory
• Disorientation of Time, Place or Person
• Difficulty Identifying Objects or Person
• Heightened or Lowered Alertness
• Increased or Decreased Awareness of Surrounding

Emotional Symptoms

• Fear
• Guilt
• Grief
• Panic
• Denial
• Anxiety
• Agitation
• Irritability
• Depression
• Intense Anger
• Apprehension
• Emotional Shock
• Emotional Outbursts
• Feeling Overwhelmed
• Loss of Emotional Control
• Thoughts of Suicide/Homicide
• Inappropriate Emotional Responses

Behavioral Symptoms

• Withdrawal
• Antisocial Acts
• Inability to Rest
• Intensified Pacing
• Erratic Movements
• Change in Social Activity
• Change in Speech Patterns
• Loss or Increase of Appetite
• Hyper-alert or Sensitive to Environment
• Increased Alcohol Consumption
• Change in Usual Communications

Be safe my family, and stay healthy.

About the Author

Cindra Dunaway is a 9-1-1 dispatcher for the Lee County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office. Contact her via e-mail at cdunaway@sheriffleefl.org.

Resources

• The International Critical Incident Stress Foundation www.icisf.org
• Dr Jeffery Mitchell, PhD www.drjeffmitchell.com