What you take in through your senses is registered in your brain. The data is automatically uploaded into your mental supercomputer. An imprint is made in your memory.

What if you want to withdraw one of the deposits? Can you unsee what you saw?  Unhear what you heard? Erase the memory as if it never happened?

You can’t unring a bell

Just like you can’t unring a bell, police officers in Philadelphia may not be able to unsee the immediate aftermath of the December 2020 Amtrak train wreck. There were eight dead, and more than 200 injured after human error collided with poorly maintained train tracks; officers had to use “a large number of tourniquets” on the injured.  

Police officers in Mendon, Missouri, may not be able to unhear the sounds of “hell on earth” when an Amtrak train hit a dump truck at an uncontrolled crossing in June 2022. Both locomotives and all eight railcars derailed, causing loud bangs and booms. There were four dead and more than 140 injured.  

Police officers in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, may not be able to unsmell the sulfur and malt toxic fumes released when a CSX mixed freight train derailed on Thanksgiving Day 2023. Fifteen of the 40 train cars derailed, and the town of Livingston was evacuated.

Darlington Township, Pennsylvania, police officers may not be able to untaste the metallic taste in their mouths after toxic fumes were released when 38 cars derailed from their Norfolk Southern train in February 2023. The fumes burned for days, causing widespread evacuations. There were also controlled burns, which released highly toxic gases into the air.

Police officers in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, may not be able to untouch the 5,000 gallons of liquid manure that spilled from a semi-truck when it collided with a Wisconsin Southern train in August 2024. The truck driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

How do you unring a bell? Even the law recognizes the difficulty of forgetting information once it is known.

Psychological first aid is an effective, evidence-based way for you and your colleagues to conduct group debriefings.

You are the gate master

The first and best approach is to guard your senses. This entails vigilance, protection and being discriminatory regarding what you allow (and don’t allow) to enter through your gate. 

What do you allow yourself to watch on TV, see on social media and view on the web? What rumors and gossip do you allow yourself to hear about co-workers? What substances do you allow yourself to smell or ingest when you have had a hard day?  Who do you allow yourself to cozy up to at night?

You are the gate master! You control access to what you see, hear and otherwise know. Who and what will you allow to enter your inner sanctuary?

But therein lies the rub. Officers cannot always control what they witness and are compelled to respond to — the trauma, devastation and sheer suffering that they see, hear and otherwise experience on the job. Sometimes even evil. This data is stored in the memory and repeatedly recalled as needed (such as drafting the police report, summoning the details during a critical incident debriefing, and speaking at depositions and courtroom trials). So if King Solomon (reportedly the wisest man in human history) instructed humanity to guard their senses “above all else” (to protect themselves), and if officers cannot necessarily control what they see, hear and otherwise experience, what can officers do to emotionally survive such memory imprints?

You can do debriefings better

The group critical incident debriefings that law enforcement has been doing for over 25 years (often referred to as the Mitchell Model) have no significant research evidence supporting them. In fact, the research evidence shows that this approach can actually harm officers by exposing them to more vicarious trauma. Think about it: Officers who may not have even been on scene during the critical incident might be in the group debriefing, and then they would hear multiple recountings of the traumatic event described in great detail, including each officer’s thoughts, emotional reactions and stress symptoms. Even officers who were on scene have left group debriefings with exacerbated distress as a result.

Furthermore, the courts (such as in Boston, Massachusetts, and Vancouver, Washington) have sounded the alarm on confidentiality in peer support group interventions. What all of this means is that who conducts group debriefings and how they are done is critical to officers’ psychological resilience, sense of connection and legal protection.

So what is the better way? Psychological first aid is the one and only evidenced-based approach, and it is built on the concept of human resilience. The focus is on listening to officers, meeting their basic needs, giving them a sense of connection with each other after the critical incident, giving them accurate and timely information, encouraging their self-care, making any needed referrals and ending the conversation there. Ask your department or EAP police psychologist to focus on psychological first aid at your agency.  

You can exert control over intrusive thoughts and images

When you have an intrusive thought, there are evidenced-based skills that have been proven effective. Choose one.

If you are on scene, it is best to utilize breath control because no one will even know you are doing it, and it works. You can do box breathing, diaphragmatic breathing, pursed-lip breathing or any other breath control strategy that resonates most with you.  You can always go on YouTube to watch demonstrations, if you wish.

If you are at home, in the station or working behind any desk, a breath control strategy is still a good choice, but if you pair it with progressive muscle relaxation (where you are alternating tensing and relaxing muscle sets), you will get more bang for your buck.  Alternatively, you might consider taking a 20-minute vigorous cardio break or a two-minute break where you hold ice to refocus your thoughts.  

When you have an intrusive image, you have several mental control knobs (like dials on a stereo) available at your disposal. Use them. Consider using all of them at the same time.

Consider an intrusive image that you have been experiencing. Notice if the image is in color or black and white. Now, flip the switch and make it the opposite. Which way feels better to you? Go ahead and make that change now in your mind.

Notice if the image is a still shot (like a Polaroid picture) or a moving film (like a video).  Now, flip the switch and make it the opposite. Which way feels better to you? Go ahead and make that mental change now.

Notice the size of the image. Now, flip the switch and make it as large as an IMAX screen in your mind. You can really zoom in and see great detail anywhere up close. Notice how it feels. Now, flip the switch and shrink it as small as a postage stamp. Notice how that feels. Now, toggle the image to exactly the size that you want it to be. Go ahead and make that mental change now.

You can …

Protect your senses whenever you can. You can, and should be, the gatekeeper of you, but also realize that you do not always have control over what your senses take in due to the demands of the job. Know that many in the community are grateful for your willingness to risk exposure to harm in this way. Remember that when such crud enters through your senses, psychological first aid is an effective, evidenced-based way for you and your colleagues to conduct  group debriefings. Regardless of what happens in life or on the job, know that you can exert control over intrusive thoughts and images. You can even rewrite memories. You can!