St. Peters PD to host trauma training
March 15, 2010
St. Peters, MO
Missouri had two line-of-duty deaths in 2009: Police Officer Julius Moore with the St. Louis Police Department, End of Watch October 15, and Corporal Dennis Engelhard with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, End of Watch December 25.
This year, at an alarming rate, there have already been 34 officers killed in the line of duty across the U.S.; one of them is Missouri Deputy Sheriff Don McCutcheon with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, End of Watch February 8, 2010.
The worst news any law enforcement agency can hear is that an officer has been killed. Statistics show that on average a law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty every 2 ½ days. How does an agency respond to those devastating words, “Officer down?”
Since 1996, Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.), a national nonprofit organization based in Camdenton, Missouri, has presented the highly-acclaimed training the “Traumas of Law Enforcement” to help agencies deal with officer death. C.O.P.S. plans the trainings in key cities across the country each year and every year approximately 700 local, county, state and federal law enforcement officers/officials attend this training.
This year, one session of the “Traumas of Law Enforcement” will be held March 15-17 in St. Peters, Missouri. Law enforcement officers from Missouri and surrounding states are given the opportunity to train at no cost to their agency on how to deal with traumatic issues, including line of duty death in this 3-day, 21-hour training. The “Traumas of Law Enforcement” trainings are funded through a Federal grant to C.O.P.S. from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U. S. Department of Justice.
“This training was perhaps one of the most renewing and refreshing professional experiences I have had for some time. It was sort of like chicken soup for police officers’ souls,” stated Chief R. Keith Wood, Maryville (MO) Police Department, after attending C.O.P.S. training sessions.
C.O.P.S., an organization founded in 1984, now represents over 15,000 surviving families of America’s fallen law enforcement officers. This advocacy group helps the surviving families rebuild their shattered lives through various hands-on programs where professional counseling, strong peer support, and physical challenges being the healing process.
In 2009, more than 120 officers were killed in the line of duty. Their surviving families became members of C.O.P.S., however, there is no membership fee for these families; the price paid is already too high.
The curriculum of the “Traumas” will focus on the tools needed to develop general orders addressing traumatic issues affecting officers and to sensitize them to emotional support needs of the fallen officers’ surviving families. The main topics covered are appropriate death notification, funeral protocol, the need for emotional debriefings following critical incidents, law enforcement suicide, officer disability, traumatized officers, the effects of officer deaths on the co-workers, appropriate methods for dealing with survivors after the funeral, and the importance of support for officers that continue on the job.
“It’s important to have agencies prepare for the traumas officers may experience before the tragedy occurs,” said C.O.P.S. National President Jennifer Thacker. “In the heat of the moment, sometimes you don’t have time to think. But if there is a plan on how the agency will respond, nobody has to think. They just need to follow the plan”
From the St. Peters Police Department.
Copyright 2010 Neighbors About Town
