CLOSING ARGUMENTS
Law enforcement needs the
camaraderie
How important is camaraderie to the law enforcement profession? Can you really be a lone wolf in this
profession?
When you aspire to become a police officer, you
don’t realize then that you are becoming a member of
a family. When you begin the police academy, you are
actually joining one of the largest families in the U.S.
DR. JAMES
Friendships develop as you endure the same rigorous
FORD
training as the other recruits. Over time, these friendships develop into close relationships because, during
training, you share some personal and professional information
with each other.
Upon graduation, and after your field training has been concluded, you get assigned to a shift. The shift might be days, nights, or
rotating. The duration could be one week, two weeks or more, and
then switch back to another shift. Your shift will be either eight hours
or, as many agencies now operate, 12 hours. There are many
varieties of schedules such as the “Pitman Schedule,” the four-onfour-off schedule or a variation of the two. When I started, we
worked a five-and-two, five-and-two and a five-and-one.
When you are working that many hours and days in a row, you
know that your brothers or sisters have your back, and you’ve
become close. You often share in family celebrations such as birthdays, weddings, or other significant social events. You have all
become brothers as if in a different type of fraternity. The
relationship isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t have to be. We all have our
idiosyncrasies, and we learn to appreciate and respect each other’s
opinion. Sometimes, we go about doing the “job” differently, but the
end result is the same. How often have you been on a call and your
partner knows exactly what you’re going to do without uttering a
word? That, my friends, is a true gift and a good partner.
Police officers, by virtue of their profession, deal with some of the
worst incidents the public never sees, including homicides, suicides,
suspicious deaths, medical emergencies, sexual assaults and childand elder-abuse to name a few. There are many ways that police
officers deal with the stresses of the job. But what about after your
shift ends? Do you simply just go home and discuss the day’s events
with your spouse, or keep it all inside?
I remember one of my shifts began when a 14-year-old high
school student committed suicide by strangulation and, just as my
shift was about to end, I received a call of an unattended death. The
unattended death resulted in an accidental shooting which
occurred when a male in his mid-20’s mishandled a handgun. A
majority of the investigations were concluded by 11 p.m. that day a long day from when my shift started at 8 a.m. We all know there are
procedures to follow about whom to notify within the chain of command, and then there’s making the notifications to the county prosecutor’s office, not to mention dealing with the families of the loved
ones who passed away.
After the first incident involving the juvenile who took his own life,
I could tell the traumatic event was taking its toll on the officers who
first caught the call. We all agreed to go out to a local restaurant
establishment after our shift to discuss the case. Our shift was supposed to end at 4 p.m., but I also caught the accidental death call.
Shortly after 11, the officers from the day shift and I met at the designated restaurant and had a late dinner and beverages. The important thing is that we talked about the cases that occurred that day.
All of us were married, and most of us had children, and it really
affected us on how a teenager who had everything to live for could
end his life. We knew we couldn’t go home and wake our spouses up
to discuss what had happened; it was easier for us, as a group, to just
meet up somewhere and discuss the events of the shift. What could
we have done better? How was the call handled?