Early identification and intervention systems (EIIS) for law enforcement agencies to better manage officers’ performance have been recognized by CALEA as a best practice since 2001, yet few agencies have one. Most EIIS systems are based on identifying and tracking an officer’s problematic behavior so the agency can intervene to help prevent further issues.

However, the greatest benefit of an effective EIIS system is to have it based not solely on performance issues — but upon personal and professional traumas experienced by the officer to proactively intervene before problematic behavior manifests. 

The greatest indicator of an officer potentially exhibiting problematic behavior is often the result of the accumulated traumas they’ve experienced. Since the effects of trauma can be treated, reversed and even healed, it’s imperative for agencies to recognize and intervene when an officer is at risk after having experienced significant trauma.

An EIIS is only as good as the validity of the data entered and how well it is consistently monitored and followed up.

Purpose of EIIS

The purpose of EIIS is to enhance officer wellness and resilience, maintain professional and ethical service, improve operational efficiency and response, and increase proactive risk management. It’s a way for the agency to identify potential needs and resources for the officer and to support and assist them in their recovery and healing from traumas. It’s a critical tool for agency leadership to maintain optimal organizational and officer wellness.

As is true with all health- and wellness-related issues, prevention, intervention and maintenance are the keys. It is far more effective to proactively
intervene after recognizing that an officer is at risk because of traumas experienced than having to later discipline or terminate an officer for unwanted behavior that most likely resulted from earlier traumas. 

Most often, officers are unaware of the potentially crippling effects of their personal and professional traumas (any experience that has the potential to significantly affect a person in a seriously negative way over a long period of time). Therefore, they are less likely to realize they’re at risk and less likely to ask for or seek help. That’s why it’s so important for agencies to monitor the traumas experienced to raise awareness and to proactively intervene to provide the support, help, training and assistance needed to mitigate the risk.

How a trauma-informed EIIS works

A trauma-based EIIS has identifiable and trackable indicators — personal and professional traumas experienced — that, once a threshold is reached within a specified period of time, trigger an agency intervention response. This type of EIIS is not disciplinary nor punitive in any way. It’s simply a proactive way to identify personnel at risk who have experienced multiple or major traumas within a specified time and to offer them meaningful assistance.

The reason why an agency should include personal traumas, as well as professional ones, is that personal trauma has just as much potential to adversely affect an officer’s performance — since all traumas can injure the brain’s ability to function normally and cause adverse behaviors. Specified personal traumas may include the death of a loved one, a divorce, loss of children or the serious illness of a loved one. The professional traumas are varied, with typically the most troubling being the use of deadly force, a child’s death, assaults upon the officer, severe child victimizations, life-threatening situations and fatalities.

Components of an EIIS

There are four components of an EIIS: 

1. The selection of the trauma risk factors to include in the tracking system 
2. Deciding how to relatively weigh each trauma’s significance and potential risk through a point system – more severe traumas weighted with more points than lesser traumas
3. Determine the threshold value (number of points) over a specified period of time that would trigger an agency’s proactive intervention response 
4. Develop responses to limit the potential risk

As an example, let’s say an agency has developed a trauma-based EIIS that has 10 or more points in any given six-month period being the threshold that triggers an agency’s proactive intervention response. They have identified any major critical incident as five points; a death of a loved one as three points, a child’s serious victimization as two points, etc.

An officer who lost a brother to cancer, experienced a death of a child at work and was involved in a shooting within a six-month period would trigger an agency’s response.

Examples of proactive agency responses

The agency’s triggered response will vary based on the number of points, the overall situation, and the officer’s history. Examples of intervention may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Supervisory, informal counseling with follow-up, as well as determining what the officer believes may be most helpful to him or her to assist with recovery — and fulfilling reasonable requests.
• Either a voluntary or possibly mandatory referral to a trauma/mental health professional, peer support team, chaplain, EAP, wellness unit and/or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment (one of the most powerful treatments to recover and heal from traumas; see “PTSD Treatment That Works” I wrote at tinyurl.com/mwe4pxhz.
• Training
• Substance abuse program
• Long-term monitoring and follow-up by a supervisor, peer support, etc.

EIIS recommendations for effective implementation

An EIIS is only as good as the validity of the data entered and how well it is consistently monitored and followed up. An agency would need to have policies, procedures, and management responsibilities to operate effectively as an EIIS. Below are some implementation recommendations:

• Policy and procedures are required for what, how and when supervisors enter information into the EIIS system and how it will be managed. There needs to be identifiable thresholds in the EIIS system with acceptable agency standards that trigger an agency response.
• There should be an automated EIIS system to alert the EIIS administrator when an officer is approaching and when they reach a triggering level of traumas. Supervisors should enter information into the system as they become aware of at-risk experiences. Supervisors should review their officers’ EIIS information monthly and upon being assigned a new squad.
• Managers should receive notifications from the EIIS administrator on officers in their chain of command. Managers should conduct monthly EIIS reviews with supervisors regarding officers’ trauma risk exposures, and the manager should provide adequate supervision if frontline supervision is lacking.

Conclusion

A trauma-based EIIS is an effective way for agency leaders to maintain optimal organizational and officer wellness and to prevent harmful job performance behaviors that can impair the professionalism and effectiveness of both the officer and the agency. By focusing on personal and professional traumas that place the officers at risk, agencies can proactively intervene to help the officers recover and heal before problem behaviors manifest.