Police Officers and Severe Mental Illness

That law enforcement officers, like anyone else, can be touched by mental illness is a topic we’ve addressed and explored many times before.   Depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction and substance abuse disorders are all real, with their signs, symptoms, and risks something all police officers should be aware of; knowledge of mental health disorders and how they can strike even the most well-adjusted among us – as well as what to do when it happens – should be part of every department and individual officer’s survival set. 

All of us probably know or have known someone with even severe depression or anxiety who nonetheless functions well at work, fights through their illness but is a survivor, or has taken the steps necessary to get help and control it through therapy and/or medication.  We can all name a colleague or friend who struggles with addiction, usually alcohol in law enforcement although prescription addictions are a growing and dangerous threat to everyone, with cops being no exception.  And our understanding of PTSD and how insidious and devastating it can be is growing, along with the knowledge that many in law enforcement suffer its effects.  These are common and even predictable, so much so that a growing number of police agencies are making great strides in offering acceptance and nonjudgmental help to their officers.  Officers themselves are more than ever likely to offer support and empathy to their peers impacted by mental illness, armed with greater knowledge and the understanding no one is immune.  But what about when the mental illness is more severe or debilitating, or begins to manifest in highly destructive ways, showing up as criminality, psychosis, or otherwise shattering one’s very ability to function not only on the job but personally?  

A mental illness is a disorder of the brain characterized by disturbances in thoughts, feelings, or social adjustment.  The full spectrum of mental disorders range from those that are common, mild, and easily managed to chronic and even life threatening.  The most acute mental health crises are seemingly less likely to surface among law enforcement officers – perhaps due to the screening and training that goes into police hiring, high levels of social support, preventive measures and good habits personally chosen or enforced by departmental policy, or some other factors – but are not unheard of.  It may be the predictors of future problems are somehow related to those things that wash out prospective cops very early on in their careers, who are then quickly forgotten.  But when they do surface the results can be especially devastating; police officers need a high degree of emotional stability to function and its loss, along with the impaired reality testing that sometimes accompany or are a feature of certain severe mental illnesses characterized by thought disturbances (schizophrenia, psychosis, etc), can be career ending.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is what often comes to mind when officers experience severe, debilitating mental health crises, with good reason.  Driven by external events, it is widely accepted that a single, overwhelmingly intense traumatic event can overpower coping mechanisms and lead to PTSD and this is often what most of us think of when we consider it (the soldier’s psyche cracking in the fog of battle, an accident victim unable to adapt post-incident, or the cop rendered ineffective by the memory of a horror witnessed and worked). 

It is true a single trauma might overwhelm someone’s ability to cope and effectively integrate the experience, leaving them with all the signs, symptoms, and negative effects of PTSD, but we’ve come to learn there is much more behind many cases of PTSD and how it develops.  Researchers studying the effects of chronic stress on neurobiology are finding strong correlations between chronic stress and the development of PTSD and how it also has the capacity to overwhelm normal coping mechanisms as does the classic “traumatic moment in time” most of us have been conditioned to think about.   The more likely reality of a long series of unrelated and dissimilar events that, over time and with diminishing defense mechanisms, overwhelm an officer’s ability to cope is something far more cops will someday face. 

PTSD is a serious problem.  It is actually a brain injury, restructuring neural function with potentially severe symptoms ranging from anxiety and depression to psychosis.  Not all such severe problems stem from PTSD, however, and the genesis of mental illness can be abrupt and without clear external causes. 

A few years ago our department investigated what began as a retail theft but turned into an armed robbery when the offender, while fleeing loss prevention agents attempting to stop him, turned and both announced and displayed he was carrying a gun.  The LPs backed off but were able to get his license plate as he drove off, and his identity was quickly uncovered as a police officer from a neighboring city.  A highly decorated, well-regarded, and recently named “Officer of the Year” officer.  He was arrested and charged, his career was over, and those closest to him were left in shock at what a sudden and precipitous fall he had taken.  Looking closer, the signs of something going awry were evident some time before he acted out in such dramatic fashion.  Whether family, friends, or coworkers intervening could have stopped him from committing a felony and throwing away his career will probably never be known for certain, but what if someone had tried?

How often do we see the highly public, highly shocking downfall of a “Cop Gone Bad” in the media?  The public excoriates him for betraying his trust, or as just another example of police corruption brought to light.  Fellow officers scorn and dismiss him for “tarnishing the badge” and betraying the fraternity of officers who suffer for the distrust his actions heap on the whole of the profession.  Sometimes the scorn and excoriation is deserved, for sure, but sometimes I look on and am sure I’m seeing someone whose emotional stability simply shattered.  That is not to excuse behavior.  Public corruption is what it is, and should be dealt with severely.  I have no sympathy for cops who willfully betray their oaths or society, I also don’t think that explains every case.  I have empathy for those whose actions are not the result of willfully corrupt behavior, but rather from a loss of control and altered judgment, and also how easily someone can get there – how easy it might be for some of US to get there.  Maybe empathy should get at least equal or greater emphasis than easy scorn.  And maybe we should consider whether we are paying enough attention to both our own and each other’s emotional wellness in a job that can take a significant toll, with serious consequences when it cracks.

In our next article we will look more closely at severe mental illness, how departments and individuals might recognize behavior that may portend coming problems, and steps that can be taken to intervene.