This book offers practical, research-based strategies to help all members of law enforcement improve their wellness, strengthen their ethical commitments, and increase their resilience both on- and off-duty.   A police officer’s power does not come from their badge, gear, or tactical skills. It comes from POWER: Police Officer Wellness, Ethics, and Resilience. Even with access to a gym or counseling through work, police officers will benefit from developing a personal plan to maintain overall health. This book focuses on physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and spiritual wellness. It describes steps to optimize wellbeing and maintain effective job performance. Filled with personal examples from Officer Mike, this book will better prepare police officers to deescalate potential crisis situations before they happen and make them more capable of coping with them when they do. Includes a foreword by Kevin M. Gilmartin, PhD, author of the bestselling Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement: A Guide for Officers and Their Families.

Power: Police Officer Wellness, Ethics, and Resilience collectively presents the numerous psychic wounds experienced by peace officers in the line of duty, including compassion fatigue, moral injury, PTSD, operational stress injury, organizational and operational stress, and loss. Authors describe the negative repercussions of these psychic wounds in law enforcement decision-making, job performance, job satisfaction, and families. The book encompasses evidence-based strategies to assist law enforcement agencies in developing policy programs to promote wellness for their personnel. The evidence-based techniques presented allow officers to get a more tangible and better understanding of the techniques so that they apply those techniques when on and off-duty. With forewords authored by Dr. John Violanti (Distinguished Police Research Professor) and Dr. Tracie Keesee, Vice President of the Center of Policing Equity, this book is an excellent resource for police professionals, police wellness coordinators, early career researchers, mental health professionals who provide services to law enforcement officers and their families, and graduate students in psychology, forensic psychology, and criminal justice.

This book takes an in-depth look at the phenomenon of police officer suicide. Centered on statistical information collected from cases of officer suicide from 2017 to 2019, this volume helps readers understand the circumstances surrounding death by suicide amongst law enforcement personnel and makes recommendations for identification and prevention. Through interview and case presentations, this volume examines the lives and last days and weeks of several officers, using findings from social media, departmental surveys, medical examiner reports, toxicology reports and interviews with loved ones and colleagues to create a psychological autopsy. With 14 chapters contributed by former law enforcement, researchers, and mental health professionals, it addresses national, state, and local policy implications and strategies, presenting a theory for better understanding and preventing the phenomenon of officer suicide. This volume will be of interest to researchers in policing, to law enforcement and first responder leadership and administrative professionals, and to mental health practitioners and clinicians working with this unique population

Police work is challenging. Police officers are sworn to maintain peace and order in our communities. However, police officers often jeopardise their own safety and lives in order to serve and protect civilians from eminent threat. Exposure to multiple critical incidents often has a severe impact on officers health and personal lives. This book presents the testimonials of police officers -- survivors who experienced uniquely severe cases of trauma and loss in the line of duty. The aim of this book is to explore the impact of exposure to such unique cases in officers lives. On the other hand, authors highlight and study the heroism and resilience of the officers who literally survived through hell. The authors personally met the officers and listened to their stories. The analyses of the officers-survivors interviews led to multiple outcomes that has enabled research scholars to shed light on questions related to the impact of exposure to unprecedented trauma on officers lives. Thus, mental health professionals (psychiatrists, psychologist, counselors, social workers, nurses) will be able to understand the multi-faceted trauma that police officers often experience so as to help the healing process of those who are sworn to maintain peace and order. In addition, police managers and policy makers may get a better understanding of unique cases that officers encounter and, hence, they can incorporate these interviews in developing police resilience-promotion programs. Researchers may generate further research questions and work towards the development of evidence-based interventions in resilience promotion among police officers. Graduate and undergraduate students in psychology, criminal justice, criminology, medicine, social work and other related areas can also deepen their understanding of the unique nature of police work through reading real-life situations experienced by police officers.