“A Day in the Life.” That’s what I titled the image attached to this posting. When I was designing it, I thought I would have a hard time making thought bubbles, coming up with what to put inside of them. It turned out that I had a hard time limiting what I put in them because there were so many possibilities.
Of course, there’s cop stuff on there. The tactical issues, the training that gets ground into officers’ heads. “Watch the hands!” That’s a big one, for good reason. Hands hold weapons; hands use weapons. Hands make gestures indicating they’ll be causing a problem soon (e.g. balling up into fists, which indicates the owner of said hands is getting angry or wanting to fight). Hands give signals to other people around them that may be dangerous to the cops they’re talking to (e.g. telling someone to come attack the cop). Hands need to be in constant vision of the officer, lest the subject reaches for a weapon.
Then there’s “Where’s my backup?” Police applications are drastically dropping in law enforcement. The budget cuts lower the number of officers on patrol. Officers are expected to handle everything from a guy with a gun to a lady being pissed off that her neighbor has too many leaves on her lawn. There just aren’t enough police on the road. And the climate out there isn’t exactly enticing more people to want to join the lifestyle. Backup is not nearly as abundant or timely as it should be, which is a huge stressor added to police in the field. For physical reasons (always nice to have at least one more in the fight with you), and other types of safety, like the suspect’s word against the officer’s word. Which, these days, is basically ignored or at least taken with a grain of salt.
“Watch out for buckets of water.” “Is he reaching for a weapon?” “I hope this guy doesn’t make me shoot him.” Officer safety. It’s a big deal, and gone are the days where an officer can mostly focus on the task or suspect at hand. Now the officer’s attention must be split between the target suspect and looking around for other suspects and threats. Often alone (see the paragraph above). It unfortunately wouldn’t be shocking if an officer was on a high risk traffic stop, such as depicted in the picture, and some crap head came up behind him and poured a bucket of water on him, or stuck a phone in his face saying something smart assed about how he’s being recorded, or even picked a fight with him. Never mind that the suspect in front of him has done something severe enough to cause the officer to draw his gun and point it at him (which, contrary to popular belief, isn’t something an officer wakes up hoping he’ll have to do).
“I hope I don’t get sued.” “Am I going to get fired?” “Did I do all my paperwork?” “Don’t say anything offensive.” So he’s got all the safety stuff going on in his head, which, however extreme due to recent idiotic events around the nation, is to be expected. Now he has to add in all the second-guessing that is now a part of his job. He knows that every little thing he does, every decision he makes, will be Monday-morning-quarterbacked by just about everyone. Whether they know anything about policing or not. Not only will he catch grief if someone disagrees with what he does, but he may catch a criminal case against himself. Just for doing his job. He might lose his job, his house, his freedom. For stopping a dangerous member of the community and protecting the safety of others.
“I’m going to be late to my son’s game.” “Pick up milk.” “My family will watch this on the news.” “I have to make it home to my family.” Some people have a hard time seeing past an officer’s badge. They forget that these officers take off their uniform at the end of their shift and go home, to their human lives. It may be hard for police to adjust to home life after a shift, especially if it was a particularly difficult one, but they are still expected to be some semblance of a normal person once they’re home. They have responsibilities with their families; they have children to raise. They have to worry about their families worrying about them, what their families hear or see on the news about them or other officers, and how to act like the job isn’t tearing them apart on the inside so their families don’t suffer along with them.
“I am so tired.” “That last call was so sad.” “I don’t know if I can live like this anymore.” “Breathe.” Physically and mentally, the job of a police officer is draining. From being overworked and not getting proper rest to being yelled at and belittled twelve times a day, it all takes a toll. Police see trauma over and over again, and sometimes they don’t even have time to decompress from one before they head off to another. People forget that officers are people too: they don’t just SEE the trauma. They FEEL it. They feel loss when they have to notify a family member of a death. They feel sadness when they have to talk to a child who has been abused. They feel hurt when they have to talk to a parent about their child’s drug problem. They feel grieved when they have to take a life. They feel pain when despite their efforts to help, they still deal with the same mentally ill or drug addicted subjects day in and day out. That constant flow of trauma doesn’t just disappear when the uniform is put back in the locker for the night, no matter how robotic and unaffected an officer may seem.
“DON’T DIE.” It all boils down to this. No matter what they’re doing, what kind of call they’re on. It always has to be in the back of their heads that someone might be trying to kill them. Granted, this is not true in the majority of situations. But it’s always a possibility. Always. Therefore, they always have to be ready and prepared. That’s exhausting to constantly have their threat level that high, then brought back down, then back up, and so on. “Head on a swivel” is the second most common phrase I would say I heard in the academy after “Watch the hands.” That’s because a hateful person could come out of anywhere at any time and try to take an officers life, just to say he did.
A lot of jobs have a lot of different kinds of stress, but very few, if any, come with the fear of being killed at every turn. I’m not saying that makes cops better or worse than anyone else, but I am saying I think they deserve a little bit more respect than they’re getting in general in our country right now. And maybe a little bit of a freakin break with how they’re expected to be everything for everyone at every second of the day. And then expected to not be affected by it, or at least not to the point where it influences their attitudes in dealing with the public in a negative way.
Because heaven forbid an officer is grumpy or snaps at a lady who “knows her rights” about some damn leaves on her property. Instant complaint on the officer to Internal Affairs. Complaint sustained. Officer disciplined.
Give me a break.
Or rather, give our police a break!
Whether you realize it or not, or care to think about it or not, our law enforcement community is filled with the same thing as any community: Humans. Humans who have feelings. Let’s treat them like it.