Police officers make life-and-death decisions. Their mental health should be a priority

Those of us in law enforcement have a rather complicated relationship with the people we swear an oath of honor to serve. A vast majority of the time, police officers do an outstanding job interacting with the most volatile and unpredictable substance known: people. Every day, officers save and positively change lives. But something else is occurring as well: the continued and shocking instances of abuse at the hands of police.

In many places, communities may be facing a reckoning about how to reconfigure their law enforcement agencies to best serve the people. Without question, racism and disparity exist in policing. It’s up to individual communities to determine how pervasive these issues are and then find a way to address them. Increased oversight, transparency and community partnerships are all excellent approaches that can be tailored to local needs. So is reexamining what we are asking officers to do in the first place. I think one crucial element that has been left out of the equation is the officers’ mental health.

Most police officers enter the profession with the heart of an idealist seeking to make a real difference in the lives of the people in their communities. Then they spend most of their days interacting with people who are not always happy to see them, and they often see the ugliness of human nature. Some individuals are abusive and combative, testing officers’ patience and endangering their safety. During the same shift, officers may survive a dangerous confrontation, have to a make life-and-death decision, find themselves dispensing directions, and also provide a shoulder to lean on. It is not an easy life. All of this can nibble away at the idealism they brought tato the profession.

Over the years, we have asked officers to take on more responsibilities. Among other tasks, today’s officers are expected to be social workers, mental health professionals, therapists, skilled investigators and tactically sound operators when they run toward the gunfire — and they must seamlessly switch back and forth among those roles. We repeatedly send them back out, shorthanded and working overtime, to cover for vacancies and heavy call loads. Often, they get little time to decompress.

It is no wonder officers may become disconnected from the community members they serve, callous and at risk for primary and secondary post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition to racism and bias, these factors need to be accounted for when examining the bigger picture of how officers treat and interact with the communities they serve. Are we setting them up for failure?

If I had to write the most basic job description for a police officer, it would be “professional decision-maker.” Almost everything officers do involves decision-making, and a large body of research exists describing how judgment is affected by stress and fatigue. In addition to making sure recruits possess the emotional intelligence attributes of empathy, impulse control and self-awareness when they join the force, reimagining policing should include reducing the amount of time officers spend in front-line response.

Perhaps a workweek should include no more than 20-30 hours responding to calls. The other time should be dedicated to stress management and self-care, scenario-based training and reinforcement, professional development, nonconfrontational community activities, completing reports, conducting follow-ups, job coaching and myriad other functions that get pushed to the side in officers’ busy work schedules.

Many other high-stress professions utilize approaches such as these to help workers achieve balance in their lives. That lesson has yet to be consistently applied to law enforcement, yet police officers’ decisions can have some of the biggest consequences for our society.

Tarik Khatib retired as the chief of police from the Lawrence Police Department in 2017 after 25 years as a law enforcement officer.

This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Police officers make life-and-death decisions. Their mental health should be a priority."