Cop Docs Help Keep Officers On An Even Emotional Keel In Program, Police Learn To Cope With One Of Society’S Most Stressful Jobs

In these trying days of police work, San Francisco officers have people to help them cope with a range of emotions - anger, fear, frustration and sadness - they may encounter on the job.

The call themselves cop docs. More formally they are the Behavioral Science unit of the city police.

Armed with doctorates in psychology, Lt. Alan Benner and Sgt. Forrest Fulton guide a peer program of 200 fellow police personnel and 20 therapists to help officers get back on an even emotional keel, especially after handling shootings and loss of life.

Recently, one of the city’s top officers died in a car crash on his way home. Investigators suspect he fell asleep at the wheel after a long day on the job.

“We’ll be doing a lot of work on that one,” Fulton said.

Using phrases like “healing process” and “peer support,” Fulton and Benner say with their program, they have come up with a model for helping officers cope with one of society’s most stressful jobs.

Studies point to how dangerous and stressful police work can be:

While serious crime declined 7 percent nationwide in 1997, the number of police officers killed on duty rose 21 percent.

Two academic studies in the Southwest over the past decade suggested that 40 percent of police officers had used violence against a spouse or child.

Other studies show the suicide rate three to four times higher among police officers than the general population.

Much of the stress in police work, Fulton said, stems from what he calls the F-word - “feelings.”

The police are so often required to be in control, in charge and self-sufficient that asking for help “is a deficit,” said Fulton, a 26-year-veteran of the police department. Historically, officers have tried to rise above the pressure, but what frequently resulted was police officers who were marginalized in their careers or dead at an early age from alcoholism, he said.

“They have to repress fear, anger and anxiety. You can’t show it visibly in front of people. You do it for so long you lose connection (to feelings), but it’s pay now or pay later. You’re going to regain those feelings,” Fulton said.

The peer support program, which took 15 years to perfect and is now a role model for other cities, formally began four years ago.

If it all sounds warm and fuzzy, Fulton said, the help provided by the program is incredibly important. If you are a cop, he said, “this is the stuff your life depends on.”