First of, ACAB. There’s no denying that American police are steeped in institutionalized racism and violence.
But secondly, I’d like to point out that conservatives will never view men’s mental health as a real issue (cops are disproportionately male), and liberals will never view cops as human enough to have mental health issues.
The United States is the country with highest rates of civilian gun ownership in the world. Every police encounter has an inherently higher risk of gun violence. Now, cops frequently provoke when they should deescalate. But multiple things can be true at the same time. Policing as a profession attracts narcissists and sociopath, policing as an institution enables that behavior, and policing in a country with rampant gun ownership is a highly stressful and traumatic experience.
I say this as a survivor of a mass shooting. Gun violence changes how you look at your environment and the people in it. There is no room and no person that escapes your unease and suspicion. I can only imagine what a work environment that perpetually affirms those suspicions could do to one’s mental health.
None of this excuses police brutality. I just think that we need to start looking at cops as legitimately mentally ill people, whether they are sociopathic or traumatized.
Destigmatizing men’s mental health means every man’s mental health, and the left’s inability to address this blind spot is allowing the manosphere to dress its alpha male bullshit in police and paramilitary aesthetics.
Relevant, but there was an incident in the news where a Californian cop murdered a couple in their home. It later came out during investigation and audits that he failed his psychological exam. The same thing with many others just in that department - failing the exam and still being active duty. So the sheriff’s dept was under fire and had to re-test people and strip their badge/gun if they failed. But the problem is likely very pervasive amongst law enforcement. This whole sweeping mental health under a rug.
had to re-test people and strip their badge/gun if they failed
And I wonder how many of those stripped of their badge and gun went a county over and got hired?
Problematic officers are usually just moved around when they get in trouble, so I have no faith that the officers with mental health issues actually got help or actually removed from the force entirely. And that’s assuming those who didn’t fail the second time legitimately got that score and didn’t have a thumb in the scale…
100%
It is horrifying for so many to fail their psych exam. However, I would also question if this is the most effective approach to better policing outcomes.
Psych exams in volatile workplaces are contradictory due to self reported elements in the exam. In aviation, there is a phenomenon where pilots historically masked mental health issues because a diagnosis was a death sentence to their careers. Paradoxically, acknowledging and allowing pilots to fly with these issues while being medicated has led to better outcomes.
The police who answered truthfully in the exam were fired, but that begs the question of whether the remainder were mentally sound or simply knew how to mask themselves in the psych exam.
I don’t think you’ve missed this but I’m going to say it anyway…maybe don’t make failing the exam a punishable offense.
conservatives will never view men’s mental health as a real issue (cops are disproportionately male), and liberals will never view cops as human enough to have mental health issues.
I get what you’re saying, but IMO you’re being overly generalistic, particularly with regards to ‘liberal’ positions, which AFAIK by their very nature tend to view cops as human, too.
Anyway, far as I know there are indeed mental wellness departments within police depts. Based on a quick search just now, it looks like most departments in the States do indeed have such a service(s), altho it may go under a variety of names and have somewhat different focus from area to area.
I just think that we need to start looking at cops as legitimately mentally ill people, whether they are sociopathic or traumatized.
I’d scale that back to reiterate what you said earlier, which is that being a cop includes plenty of legitimate stressors, which naturally call out to be addressed. One thing I think factors in is that police in the States only receive ~6mos training IIRC, which seems dangerously low to me, and perhaps contributes to various individuals making it through the program that really shouldn’t, and I would think cuts down on the amount of nuance and preparedness a cop has at their disposal to deal with future situations.
Anyway, that’s my quick dos centavos, there.
The brevity of police training program is definitely a major contributor.
While there are mental health programs present, the stigma of mental health has rendered many of them unused. Police surveyed in North Dakota found that an overwhelming majority will not disclose their mental health issues to their colleagues or supervisors, most expect to be discriminated if they do, and see mental health issues as a personal failure.
Of the services provided, only debriefings and weight rooms saw significant use. Outside of that, few used therapy, peer support groups, mental health checks, and resilience therapy.
Good point!
And it’s not hard to conceive of them having ‘their own way’ of dealing with stress and mental health issues. Just that it would be pretty amateur and peer-driven by its nature.Unfortunately, I’m not sure there are any useful levers the public, the mayor and the commissioner have to overcome police unions’ typically furious and dogmatic resistance against any such useful progress.
October 2011 a bad cop said he was on mental pills. Then he false arrested me for calling 911 when republican stepfather screamed he will “kill” me. He said it has to be a psych ward because I am bisexual.
Recently Nassau county built a mental center for police. There are no psych injections. Instead, free massages. I even met a cop who used to be a security guard at a psych ward, so he wouldn’t process a police report against them.
Problem is cops rarely investigated/proved that I was a danger to self or others (I never had any weapon). They are biased, blindly believing others who are of the same religion and age as them. We need to stop assuming that antipsychotics are a cure for civilians and government employees. Every time I was in a ward someone was violent while on them and I wouldn’t trust cops to have guns under that intoxication.
Police? Sure.
ICE agents? Nah
When a cop beats his wife, it’s because she’s his property just acting defective (like the good book tells us) so why would Republicans have an issue with it?
because and this is how many police departments see it. If you are seeking mental help then you are unfit for duty, if you are not asking help then you don’t need it. Needing help is weakness and that makes you unfit. Would it be better to have regular mental check ins, yes it would be but it is a real up hill battle. Not only do you the departments that see needing help as the problem but you just have police trained to give the right answer to get a passing score and many many men see needing help as weakness, weakness is the problem. It doesn’t matter how much people on the outside of the police tyr to push help if they just reject it.
I hope your idea of mental health doesn’t involve psychiatry.
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The most important thing is to first have a governing body that governs the police, without being police.
Without this, nothing here matters because they haze, and brutalize those who do not conform to their awful internal group standards.
You can literally see what happens to good cops. They get forced out.
The problem with your post, is that you can’t help someone who does not want to be helped.
Ideally that type of person would be kicked out of the force, but instead they comprise of the majority of these forces.
Just to be clear, many if not most agencies have mandatory psych evals, visits etc after different types of incidents, but as you can see, they just don’t solve the problem.
Cause mental isn’t a concern for anyone really. It’s taboo. And we don’t talk about it. The mental health system is totally broken. And don’t ever talk to anyone about it. Ever.
This is why we are turning to ChatGPT for mental health. Cause the system is broken.
The people who like cops enough to want them to be actually taken care of sneer at mental health. The people who care about mental health and want people to thrive sneer at cops.
Mentally unstable cops are a feature, not a bug.
There’s a reason why they drugged soldiers in war. It sucks :/ they think of us as disposable once they fill us with patriotism propaganda.
liberals will never view cops as human enough to have mental health issues
Where is this coming from? Do you make that assumption about liberals and military? Because (while not perfect, and continually improving) mental health care for military has made huge advances in understanding and public acceptance in the last 2 decades.
I would like to see the same shift happen for police.
I would like for police leadership to truly normalize mental healthcare, and not just give it lip service.
I would also like for police as a whole to maybe adopt similar rigorous criteria for new career candidates, much like lawyers, CPAs, and other professional licenses. I’m held to a high standard of conduct and criminal liability because I have the technical knowledge to really destructively ruin peoples’ lives. And the most dangerous tool of my trade is merely a calculator.
No, I am speaking about the police specifically.
The advancements being made to mental health care in the military are meaningful, and the reduction of homeless veteran through housing programs speaks to the progress and recognition of difficulties in reintegrating into civilian life.
Those who benefit from the way the police currently operate are incentivized to preserve the status quo—mental illness and all.
Because fuck the poor.
