Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers 1

Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers
Collin Lyle
University of Texas at EL Paso
Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers 2

Abstract

Use of force in the line of duty is a serious mental health hazard to the officers. Research done

with retired and or active duty officers gives examples of the warning signs of mental health

deterioration. I asked them a series of questions that pertain to the topic to get responses that

further my hypothesis and make my research more concrete. Each question asked was done for a

reason not only to get the officers opinion but to also do a survey to see if the data gathered from

one individual matched another the results were shocking. Both officers that have been through

the same situation have relatively similar answers. After talking to numerous sources and

gathering data on the matter I have been able to determine that police do in fact change their state

of mind after an altercation has happened and they had to use force. With this data we also intend

to find solutions to the problem of officer suicide.

“For a few moments, this place was Armageddon… There was a firefight!” he later explained

the events that unfolded Firsthand accounts of a retired FBI agent. If this doesn’t give you an

accurate account of how hectic a crime scene can become, I don’t know what does. In this short

epic I will be discussing some statistics from both sides if police should use force when handling

suspect to answer the question should police be able to do what they do now with now. Rowdy

or dangerous everything must be met with only an equal amount of force that is presented upon

them.

I believe former president Barack Obama once said “Understand, our police officers put

their lives on the line for us every single day. They’ve got a tough job to do to maintain public

safety and hold accountable those who break the law.” An inspirational quote from one of the

most beloved presidents of our generation shinning a light on the hard work that goes to be a
Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers 3

cop. That being said. The officers go through on average twenty-one weeks of training to earn

their badge.

What types of repercussions do you experience after someone gets hurt or worse when you

do your job?

“Throughout the twenty-one weeks a large portion goes to gun safety and regulations on

when and where to use the appropriate amount of force. But what they don’t train you for is the

emotional trauma that comes with drawing and using your fire arm against a suspect. The endless

nights thinking if you made the right call and just imagining the grief the family must feel. Not

only that if we happened to make the wrong call we must stay up wondering if our job is on the

line. The endless amounts of paperwork that you must fill out second guessing yourself at every

moment knowing that if this was a mistake you couldn’t not only be fired but be put in jail a

place where officers are not too kindly received.” – Officer Alverez (2018).

How do you feel after you have done all that you can, and the suspect must be eliminated

for the public’s safety?

Officer Alverez’s interview hit home with me the most you can see how using force

against a suspect has taken a toll on him emotionally and physically. He almost seems depressed

and with the slew of anti-depressants and other prescribed drugs you can tell that this troubles

him deeply and the shots that he fired still ring in his ears at night when he sleeps. It is a true

testament to the trials and tribulations that these officers must go through every day when trying

to make a living.
Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers 4

Lucky for us Officer Alverez was one of the lucky ones, many lose their battle mentally

an take the route many don’t travel with suicide. I believe that that if the officers were provided

with the proper closure with the victims and or their families it could improve the relation

between the public and the police as stated best with a quote from Robert Peel “The police are

the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are

paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of

community welfare and existence.”

Figure 1 Police Suicides

Lyons, A Police statistics retrieved

from
https://www.slideshare.net/citinfo/c
hcs- sharedepartmentsjail-
diversion2009-diversion-initiatives1-
cit-international-conference-20101-
power-pointspower-pointsamy-lions-
officer-down-short-version-4452133

That being said the statistics of suicide rates amongst officers that have used deadly force as a

means of apprehending the suspect are as follows. In 2008 alone one hundred and forty-one

police officers ended their own life due to poor mental health. What is staggering is that if you

take a close look every year the number increases. Looking through different police statistics I

found the statistics of police officer suicide and the facts may astonish you. Twenty-three out of

every one hundred thousand officers decide to take their life due to work related causes. Fifteen

out of every one hundred thousand officers in the New York City Police Department decide to do
Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers 5

the same and a staggering twenty-five officers out of the Northeastern Police Department out of

one hundred thousand. This statistic is staggering and should not be taken lightly; it really shines

the light on the whole police being people too. Despite what some outraged citizens may have to

say about them being cold unfeeling killing machines.

Rarely these statistics make it out to the general public so many of those who are

outraged do not see the mental and physical hurdles that police officers have to constantly go

through to even get the courage they do to strap on their fire arm and procedure to work. Being

from a law enforcement family I have spoken and mingled around many officers growing up and

it wasn’t until me bringing up this assignment to my family have, I got to experience a multitude

of recollected events from my childhood. Turns out as a child my Family had friends that were

always invited to every get together and party so much so that I thought they were my actual

family. But no, they were a grieving family whose son was killed when their son was being held

hostage during a police standoff.

Do you think you could benefit from group therapy with the victim’s family?

I got into contact with the grieving family after many years to ask some basic questions

you know formalities and such but after that was over, I got straight to the point and asked them.

Why didn’t they hold malice towards my family for not being able to save their baby boy? The

simple response was it was in the past sure they grieved for him but they understood that the

officer did all he could for their son and even though they lost a big part of their lives they

wanted to check up on the officer for they saw that their grieve was passed on to him and he had
Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers 6

no outlet for it. So, keeping up with him making sure he was ok was the best way to honor the

memory of their son.

Do you feel the use of force is a necessity?

Broadly speaking, the use of force by law enforcement officers becomes necessary and is

permitted under specific circumstances, such as in self-defense or in defense of another

individual or group. – National Institute of Justice. But when asked an officer of CDPD officer

McMillen’s he gave me a long a drawn-out answer, “Yes, it is needed, when a threat pulls out a

weapon you must do the same. But the great determining factor is was it really a weapon or did

you mistake an object for one after all in a dark car even something as simple as a phone can be

mistaken for a firearm. Luckily, I have never had such an incident happen, but I have heard many

accounts of it going down like that it is usually ends extremely badly.” -Retired Officer

McMillen. Hearing these words from an officer’s mouth was astonishing and let me get a grip on

the situation at hand even officers have to worry about items being mistaken. It just comes to

show you that when an officer stops you its best to drop everything and wait for his instructions.

And do you think that most of officer related suicides are due to the fact that they must

perform a service that many people do not want?

Each year, more law enforcement officers die by suicide than are killed in the line of

duty. This quote from cops.usdoj.gov very own Phil Keith the director of the program utters a

harsh dose of the reality of police life. This staggering statistic is irrefutable evidence that police

suicide due to the job is at an alarming amount and should be looked at when reading about

police related deaths. The same website provides some interesting ways to spot and potentially

help it states that if you see an officer start turning to excessive drinking or being unmotivated
Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers 7

when dealing with everyday task these signs should immediately be confronted and dealt with

for, they may be housing dark thoughts and need the comfort of their friends and family

immediately.

I interviewed a current undercover agent due to his job he requested that his name be

concealed and the department he works for not mentioned for it could jeopardize the safety of his

family and friends. But officer J is a part of an elite task force that deals with troubled persons

who are known as frequent flyers. Or people who are constantly apprehended by the police and

have an extensive rap sheet. He befriended one of the frequent flyers because he saw he has been

in and out of the game (criminal life) since he was about eight years old. Before he continued

about the frequent flyer, I asked what made him so special? He gave me a stern I have picked

him up a few times while working the streets he honestly was born in a bad situation poor

neighborhood, abusive father, sick mother this kid was just given the shit end of the stick as he

put it. But he saw potential in him he knew he could be an upstanding citizen if he truly tried.

Well one night he gets a call on the radio saying there is a hostage situation at his

residence and officer J being the closest to the scene responded as quick as he can. He pulls up to

the scene and ask the negotiator what is happening? The negotiator gave him the layout of events

said boy killed his father with the weapon that his family owned and is now frantic. Officer J

pulled the megaphone from the negotiator to try to talk to the kid but saw he was frantic against

all protocol he rushed in in attempts to stop the kid from doing any further harm to himself or

anyone in the vicinity but as soon as entered the premises and reached the room where the kid

was being held up he turned the knob to access the room it was blocked but he could see a sliver

through the crack he called out to the kid but in fear of being tried and executed he put the gun to

his head and pulled the trigger.

Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers 8

Officer J held himself accountable for the longest time maybe if he was quicker maybe if

he was more attenuative to the neighborhood he could of prevented this tragedy the final bullet in

the preverbal gun that was loaded at officer J’s head was that the kid was found with burn marks,

bruises, and other various welts and cuts on his body but some of those were there for a couple

weeks and weren’t caused on the night of the incident. He blamed himself maybe if he would of

saw this, he could have questioned the father and none of this would of ever happened. Officer J

contemplated suicide for a few months after that attempted twice but bother times were a failure

it wasn’t until he went out and looked for help from his fellow officers were his demons behind

him.

After he felt more comfortable with the situation he went to the family and extended

family of the kid to offer his condolences even though a couple months have passed since the

incident they welcomed him in like a member of the family. He went with them to a family

cookout in the kids honor they sat around and just having all these people around they knew he

was a cop and arrested the kid on several different occasions but that didn’t matter to them. They

accepted him into their home cooked for him and even shared some stories that alone is what

brought officer J back from the abyss knowing that even though he couldn’t stop the chain events

leading up to that moment the family harbored no resentment towards him and to this day the

family and him still keep in close contact and practically inseparable.

Conclusion

Police officers after a long day on the job are still people too, they battle the same

demons everyone else does. Through thorough examination of the date provided by the
Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers 9

numerous websites in the reference page and testimonies of people who have lived through the

ordeal it is clear to me that we are the cure they need. They see stuff that no man should ever

have to see but, yet they put on their uniform day in day out and ask for no thanks in return. It is

our jobs as citizens to help our fellow man even if you don’t agree on everything some of these

officers have been to hell and back and have had to take someone’s life by the use of force and I

guarantee every officer that has had to experience the recoil of their firearm while it is pointed

towards a suspect needs someone to help them. They may not want it, but it never hurts to offer a

helping hand because you never know what dark thoughts may lay in their heads.
 Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers
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References

A, Alverez, personal communication, October 23, 2018

Lyons, A (2009, June 5) Police statistics retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/citinfo/chcs-

sharedepartmentsjail-diversion2009-diversion-initiatives1-cit-international-conference-20101-

power-pointspower-pointsamy-lions-officer-down-short-version-4452133

J, Matthew (2016, April 23) Bureau of Justice Statistics retrieved from https://www.nij.gov/topics/law-

enforcement/officer-safety/use-of-force/Pages/welcome.aspx

C, Mcmillens, personal communication, October 24, 2018

Deal, K (2014, June 12) officer suicide statistic retrieved from https://cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/06-

2014/preventing_officer_suicide.asp

Suicide and law Enforcement Federal Bereau of Investigating retrieved from

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/193528-193589.pdf

Officer J, personal communication October 27, 2018

R, Rufo (2016, February 4) Police suicide: is police culture killing our officers? Boca Raton : CRC

Press, Taylor & Francis Group, [2016]

 Police Use of Force and The Emotional Impact It Has on The Officers
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K, Caruso Police Suicide Prevention and Awareness (2015, March 27) Retrieved from

http://www.suicide.org/police-suicide-prevention-and-awareness.html

A, Hara (2017, October 3) It’s Time We Talk About Police Suicide retrieved from

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/10/03/it-s-time-we-talk-about-police-suicide

Interview questions
1. What types of repercussions do you experience after someone gets hurt or worse when
you do your job?
2. How do you feel after you have done all that you can, and the suspect must be
eliminated for the public’s safety?
3. Do you think you could benefit from group therapy with the victim’s family?
4. Do you feel the use of force is a necessity?
5. And do you think that most of officer related suicides are due to the fact that they must
perform a service that many people do not want?