North State Voices: Dear Rookie...

North State Voices: Dear Rookie: Get ready for a challenge
Chico Enterprise-Record (Chico, CA) - Thursday, September 23, 2010

Dear Officer:

Congratulations on your new career. You're only one of 12 or so graduates from your police academy who actually got a job as a law enforcement officer.

You've passed a physical test, a background check and a psychological screening. Those are no easy feats.

As you enter this new field though, there are a few things I thought you should know.

Your first five years will be the most exciting of your life. You will look forward every day to going to work. You will show up early and you will go home late because the job is so much fun. What could be better than this?

Come about four to five years, though, something will start to change. It will be subtle and very difficult to understand. What's changing is you. More specifically, what is changing is your ability to deal with what you see. As psychologist Bobby Smith teaches, your cup will become full and there will be no room for anything else. Each new drop causes the cup to overflow.

You see, you are entering a field where approximately 52 bad guys kill officers in America every year. While this is a terrible number, the amount of officers who die by their own hand every year is on average 482.

You are entering a career field that is great at teaching you to defend yourself from violent encounters, but lousy at teaching its own officers to deal with the stresses caused by what they encounter.

The public you have sworn to protect and serve has no idea of what things you deal with. They have no clue that "those" types of things happen in "their town." The truth is they don't want to know. That's what makes them feel safe. And that's OK.

When you tell people what you do, they will assume they know everything about you. Their idea of law enforcement is largely gained by watching television and from that "one time" they got pulled over and got a ticket. And I guess that's OK too.

You will go inside "homes" that will make you sick. You will see filth and death and inhumanity in its worst forms. You will be judged by people. You will be yelled at, called a racist, a liar, a thief, a pig and told by people who pay no taxes that they "pay your salary." You will be expected to hold your tongue, stand tall and not let it bother you.

You will maintain a constant state of hyper-vigilance at work. You will crash harder than most others when you get home. You will carry a burden of stress continually from week to week, which eventually comes to feel "normal." This is a wicked cycle that takes a horrible toll.

You are not the only one who will pay for your career choice. Your wife and children will suffer consequences too. Your sons will suffer a greater likelihood of attention deficit disorders and type-2 diabetes. Your family will often not have daddy home for major events and holidays. Your wife will suffer many lonely nights, wondering if she will get the knock at the door, telling her that her world has just been turned upside down. She'll put on a good front, but inside it will tear her heart just a little every time you kiss her goodbye.

So, how do you survive? How do you keep from becoming one of the 482?

Exercise. Eat only good foods. Sleep well (good luck with that). Familiarize yourself with the works of modern police psychologists. They will give you the skills necessary to counteract the constant diet of negativity "the job" feeds you.

Perhaps the best thing you could do is to serve. Truly serve. The best moments in your career will be the times you show compassion and truly help someone. So many won't accept your help, but those times you connect with someone and make their lives better are the times that bring true satisfaction and make the costs of "the job" worth it.