Provides a comprehensive and up-to-date look at a number of law enforce. stress programs that have made serious efforts to help departments, individual officers, civilian employees, and officers' families cope with the stresses of a law enforce. career. The report is based on 100 interviews with mental health practitioners, police administrators, union and assoc. officials, and line officers and their family members. Provides pragmatic suggestions that can help every police or sheriff's dep't. reduce the debilitating stress that so many officers experience and thereby help these officers do the job they entered law enforcement to perform -- protect the public.

Understanding and Supporting Law Enforcement Families, through a synthesis of the research literature, presents and explores some of the challenges faced by police families as well as developments that have taken place to support them in balancing family and work life. There are demands and requirements from the job over which family members have little control. Shift work, negative public perceptions of law enforcement, changes in the officer’s personality as well as living with the potential that their loved one may be injured or killed are among the unique challenges law enforcement families face. These extraordinary life events are discussed as well as the potential physical and psychological reactions to these stressors. In addition to an overview of support programs and services, specific resources from national organizations are provided on support for family members of an officer killed in the line of duty, and organizational policies for the funeral of an officer who commits suicide, and officer domestic violence. This book examines the existing research as a means to clarify issues faced by law enforcement families and discusses the availability of resources to provide the support these families need and deserve. A great deal of realizing that potential will be dependent upon actively including the law enforcement family in all aspects of the support process. It is not a conventional self-help book but intended for researchers, practitioners, students, and others with interest in the study and support of law enforcement families.

This book is designed to help law enforcement professionals overcome the internal assaults they experience both personally and organizationally over the course of their careers. These assaults can transform idealistic and committed officers into angry, cynical individuals, leading to significant problems in both their personal and professional lives.

Power: Police Officer Wellness, Ethics, and Resilience collectively presents the numerous psychic wounds experienced by peace officers in the line of duty, including compassion fatigue, moral injury, PTSD, operational stress injury, organizational and operational stress, and loss. Authors describe the negative repercussions of these psychic wounds in law enforcement decision-making, job performance, job satisfaction, and families. The book encompasses evidence-based strategies to assist law enforcement agencies in developing policy programs to promote wellness for their personnel. The evidence-based techniques presented allow officers to get a more tangible and better understanding of the techniques so that they apply those techniques when on and off-duty. With forewords authored by Dr. John Violanti (Distinguished Police Research Professor) and Dr. Tracie Keesee, Vice President of the Center of Policing Equity, this book is an excellent resource for police professionals, police wellness coordinators, early career researchers, mental health professionals who provide services to law enforcement officers and their families, and graduate students in psychology, forensic psychology, and criminal justice. Platinum Award Winner 2019, Homeland Security Awards - American Security Today Provides reader with evidence-based strategies to promote officer wellness Covers compassion fatigue, moral injury, PTSD, operational stress, and more Written by established scholars and professionals from a law enforcement context

Testimony from a Congressional hearing on police stress and how it affects the well-being of the officers, their families and their work, is presented in this document. An opening statement by Representative Patricia Schroeder is presented. Statements are included from Representatives Frank D. Riggs, George Miller, and Frank R. Wolf. Testimony and/or prepared statements from these individuals are included: (1) Beverly J. Anderson, clinical director/program administrator, the Metropolitan Police Employee Assistance Program, Washington, D.C.; (2) Anthony E. Daniels, assistant director, Training Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Quantico, Virginia; (3) Leanor Boulin Johnson, associate professor of family studies, Department of Family Resources and Human Development, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona; (4) Jeffrey A. King, officer and peer counselor coordinator, the Metropolitan Police Employee Assistance Program, Washington, D.C.; (5) James T. Reese, supervisory special agent, Assistant Unit Chief, Behavioral Science Services Unit, Training Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Quantico, Virginia; (6) Cathy Riggs, former police officer, Santa Rosa Police Department and wife of Representative Frank Riggs (former police officer), Santa Rosa, California; (7) Ellen Scrivner, director, Psychological Services Division, Prince George's County Police Department, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and president elect, Division of Psychologists in Public Service, the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.;, (8) Gary W. Sommers, sergeant, training services, Prince George's County Police Department, Landover, Maryland, accompanied by Kay Sommers, Landover, Maryland; (9) Aristedes W. Zavaras, chief, Denver Police Department, Denver, Colorado; (10) Suzanne F. Sawyer, executive director, Concerns of Police Survivors, Upper Marlboro, Maryland; and (11) William K. Stover, police chief, Arlington County Police Department, Arlington, Virginia. (ABL)