Training New Hampshire Law Enforcement: Trauma Informed Care
What is Trauma Informed Care?
According to the University of Buffalo, trauma informed care can be defined as “an approach in the human service field that assumes that an individual is more likely than not to have a history of trauma. Trauma-Informed Care recognizes the presence of trauma symptoms and acknowledges the role trauma may play in an individual’s life- including service staff”.
It is relevant to law enforcement through “trauma informed policing”, as explained by Central Christian College- “the principle behind trauma-informed policing is that a law enforcement officer will be better able to facilitate interactions with the various players in a criminal investigation if she has an understanding of trauma and the impact it has on the human psyche”. Essentially, it is training officers to adjust their actions to accommodate and better assist those who have been traumatized.
The Importance Of Trauma Informed Care
Training law enforcement in trauma informed care is important for many reasons, the most pertinent being:
Reducing the risk of retraumatizing
Reducing recurrence of criminal behavior (or the beginning of it)
Untreated trauma can lead to substance abuse or violence
Creating trust between community and law enforcement
A better investigative process
Cooperation from victims
Better understanding on how to help victims remember what has happened, etc
Teaching officers to recognize signs of trauma within themselves in colleagues
Officers are highly exposed to trauma, especially secondary and vicarious trauma, which makes them at risk for things like burn out and suicide
What Victims Need From Law Enforcement
An understanding of trauma and its effects on the psych and behavior, as well as an understanding of different types of trauma
Normal trauma responses can very easily be misinterpreted; ie a blunted affect might make someone think the person is being uncooperative, memory gaps can be perceived as lying
Access to/assistance in receiving support and resources
Proper treatment of victims to avoid retraumatization
This can look like officers changing the language they use when speaking to victims or changing their behavior during initial interactions with victims
New Hampshire’s Current Training
New Hampshire Police Academy (class descriptions from the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council 2019-2020 Training Calendar)
One day (8 hours) dedicated to a class called Crisis and Trauma in Police Work
This one-day class will discuss the day-to-day role of the contemporary police officer who is faced with the possibility and reality of a myriad of crises and trauma. This course will include an in-depth review of the definitions of crisis and trauma, as well as potential reactions and methods for dealing with these occurrences. These discussions will include psychological and physiological considerations, including citizen and police suicide, police domestic violence, recognized types of trauma, critical incidents, and coping mechanisms
4 hours dedicated to a class called Emotionally Disturbed Person Dynamics
The class will discuss techniques to defuse potentially volatile interactions, the impact of stigma and trauma with persons with mental illness, and relevant laws and rights related to persons with mental illness.
This class will help officers recognize various behaviors that may result from a mental illness, and to understand and develop an effective and efficient response to persons with mental illness. The class provides resources that may be used in making a disposition in situations involving mental illness, especially crisis situations
One day (8 hours) dedicated to a class called Stress Management and Suicide Prevention for Police Officers
This course will reinforce the need to recognize and manage stress as it applies to the more experienced officer. This course will review the basic principles of stress management and then move on to more specific issues associated with stress and contemporary policing. Additional time will be spent on methods of managing stress.
While these classes are a great start, they are not entirely sufficient. The structure of the police academy, which consists of 8 hour days in the classroom over 16 weeks, is not very conducive to learning. Dr. Jennifer Frank, who received her PhD from Plymouth State University, wrote her dissertation on the Presence of Andragogy in Paramilitary Law Enforcement Recruit Academies on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Simply put, she concluded that training law enforcement recruits the same way that we train our military is not an effective means of training. In order to ensure that law enforcement truly understands crisis and trauma response, there must be more and better training involved.
Proposed Solutions
An example from Jackson, Mississippi
Shown to increase officer satisfaction and self-perception of a reduction in the use of force in crisis situations involving PMI
Longer Training and Continuing Education
Education beyond the police academy
Potential yearly re-certification
Requirement of Mental Health First Aid Training for all law enforcement personnel
Denver provided FREE training to Colorado Law enforcement officers- something New Hampshire can and should do as well
My professor has put me in contact with a lot of relevant people, from the NH Academy to NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. I will be meeting with them in order to try and bring this project to life- I'm hoping to have made substantial and material change by the Spring Showcase of Excellence.