AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: AUGUST 2017 17 MARTIN HALLORAN BARBARA SCHWARTZ OPINION/EDITORIAL Don’t listen to them – getting help takes guts Y ou run toward danger while everyone else runsaway.That takes bravery and courage. Radioing for assistance when things hit the fan on the streets is considered good, sound, safe tactics in law enforcement culture and training – not a sign of weakness or cowardice. You wouldn’t hesitate to ask for help in the field when you need it. But are you brave enough to drop an assist for emotional help? Are you brave enough to support a brother or sister officer facing an emotional or personal crisis? Do you have the courage to ask another officer if they have thought about or planned suicide? The time has come to shat- ter the stigmas, break down the barriers, and change the culture that keeps officers from seeking, receiving, or giving help. For too long, officers have considered asking for help as a sign of weakness or a sign that they are not capable of doing the job. You are paid to control chaos. You are expected to solve problems in other peoples’ lives. Because of that job responsibility, of- ficers view the inability to solve their own problems as a mark of failure. Don’t let shame spoil your game. Shame keeps many officers from seeking assis- tance. They feel ashamed that as a police officer they couldn’t handle issues on their own and may appear weak. By asking for emotional assistance, officers worry that other officers will treat them differently. If they can’t handle their own problems, how are they going to solve problems on the street? But asking for help can be the healthiest thing you do for yourself. Asking for help doesn’t mean you are “ill.” Officers worry that seek- ing help and admitting to an emotional or personal issue, will make them unfit for duty. Officers worry that the de- partment will find out or that their gun will be taken away or they will be removed from their assignment and put on light duty. help you shine new light on the situation. Gaining this in- sight can steer you through rough waters. If confidentiality is your concern, if you fear that using departmental Psych Services will come back and haunt you on the job, then seek a counselor/therapist in the community and pay out of your own pocket. Having our pain seen by another, acknowledged, and validated is healing. We do that all the time in our society for the grieving by showing up at funerals and supporting the surviving family members. We must do that for our brother and sister officers who are strug- gling with emotional pain. Barbara A. Schwartz writes exclusively about police of- ficers. She is certified in first responder peer support by the Law Enforcement Alliance for Peer Support (LEAPS) and the International Critical Incident and Stress Foundation (ICISF). She can be reached at abakas95030@mypacks.net. Reprinted with permission from The Badge and Gun, the official publication of the Houston Po- lice Officers Union. Officers fear that they will be seen as someone who can’t handle the stresses of the job or can’t deal with the problems in their life. That’s hogwash. Officers need to see past the shame, see beyond the stigma of appearing weak, and get the help required to turn their lives around. Asking for help is han- dling the problem and it takes courage and bravery. Seeking advice from an- other person – a therapist, member of the clergy, trust- ed friend, mentor, or peer support team member – can R ecently there was a news story depicting the sorry state of San Fran- cisco P.D. police cars used for routine patrol. There’s simply no excuse for jeop- ardizing the safety of our officers and the public in this way. Those vehicles are need- ed on a 24-hour, 7-day- a-week basis because it’s where most of the work gets done by dedicated profes- sionals. If the City needs money “All I did was rip off several large pension funds and make retirement a living hell for tens of thousands, and they treat me like some kind of criminal.” If programs don’t work, stop funding them to replace patrol cars, may- be they should initiate an audit of the numerous non- profit organizations in San Francisco who are given hundreds of millions of dol- lars of taxpayer-generated city money annually. Years ago we did a cur- sory review of these agen- cies and found enormous duplicity of the services rendered. There are over 4000 of these non-profits in San Francisco. And while many of them are dedicated to helping those individuals in dire straits who are addicted to alcohol and drugs, their efforts are not working. Non-profits are spending a whole lot of money with nothing to show for it. Sim- ply take a walk through the San Francisco Civic Center – case closed. So who does deal with the losing battle of trying to change people‘s addictive behavior? Who is left to scoop the wandering problem chil- dren from the streets and usher them to a place of refuge until their next drink or fix? The Police Depart- ment, of course. The best story written on this subject appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in February 2016, written by Heather Knight and James Fagan. Heather and James nailed it. They found out through their investigative reporting skills that over 241 million dollars had been spent on the homeless problem in San Francisco and no one could tell them where the money went. And when members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors asked, no one could tell them either. And nothing’s changed. Let’s face it – anytime something like the home- less issue becomes a “social problem,” its automatically becomes a police prob- lem. So before The City keeps cutting back resources for the San Francisco Police Dept., they might want to re-think that strategy and instead prioritize their goals and options and weed out the programs and funding for things that are not work- ing. And that’s probably go- ing to be a very long list. Martin Halloran is president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.