As the first people on the scene during accidents, emergencies, and crimes, first responders are susceptible to experiencing strong emotional and physical reactions to stress. From sadness and fear to anxiety and anger, stressful emotions experienced on the clock are easily taken home at the end of your shift. Without an ongoing commitment to living a healthy, stress-reducing lifestyle, debilitating disorders, like chronic depression and PTSD, can emerge. Whether you’re an EMT, firefighter or police officer it’s important to take proactive measures to protect yourself from the destruction stress can cause.
Stress Management Isn’t Just Important – It’s Urgent!
The combination of mental and physical effects of stress can become unbearable, particularly for first responders who need to remain focused and clear-headed at work. Compared to other professionals, first responders are often last to seek help for work-related stress. According to the International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, first responders experience extreme discrimination from peers, including derogatory remarks, labelling, and loss of social status, when attempting to seek help. To effectively manage stress as a first responder, the first step is to learn about the two basic forms of stress you are likely to experience: stress during an incident and stress after an incident
Underestimating the duration of stress and its effects on mental and physical health is one of the biggest mistakes made by emergency personnel. Before you can begin to manage stress, it’s necessary to understand what stress looks like during and after a traumatic event. Emergency medical professionals, firefighters and police officers experience the following:
Stress during an incident. Between denial, sorrow, fear, and numbness, many feelings can overwhelm you during an incident. Increased irritability, inability to concentrate, and irrational thoughts, are psychological signs of stress taking hold. Physically, stress may induce rapid heart rate, nausea, and shortness of breath.
Stress after an incident. After experiencing a traumatic event, many first responders report an inability to sleep well, recurring nightmares, distractibility, and an inability to regulate emotions. Family conflicts, isolation, and chronic mental or physical disorders can occur as a result of unmanaged stress.
Learning to recognize the symptoms and consequences of stress is the first step in stress management. The next step is to learn to reduce stress.
8 Tips to Help First Responders Reduce Stress
Both on and off the job, you have the power of choice. Choose to stay at the top of your game by engaging in these 8 stress-reducing activities:
Take time off when needed. Regardless of their role, first responders are an exceptional group of individuals committed to helping others and preserving safety. This dedication, while admirable, can quickly lead to a feeling of being overworked and highly stressed. After a particularly traumatic incident on the job, take time off to regroup and reinvest in yourself.
Find a hobby. Essential for personal development, hobbies are a safe, healthy, and fun way to shift focus away from stressors and toward relaxation. From gardening or playing cards to painting or joining a club, participating in activities outside the workplace adds balance and serenity to your life.
Exercise regularly. Keep up with the physical demands of your profession while maintaining a healthy weight by exercising regularly. Research indicates that exercise increases the body’s level of endorphins, resulting in improved mood, decreased irritability, and an enhanced ability to concentrate. Choose a fun fitness routine, like boxing or group classes, to remain motivated to exercise.
Eat healthy foods. Expecting an uninterrupted lunch break as a first responder may seem farfetched, but that isn’t an excuse to load up on carbs, fat, sugar, and salt. In addition to negatively affecting your overall health, consuming unhealthy, processed, or fast foods can lead to increased irritability, low energy, and poor concentration. Instead, drink plenty of water and eat balanced meals that include whole grains, lean protein, and vegetables.
Practice meditation or yoga. To battle the effects of stress, engage in meditation or stress-relieving exercises, like yoga. By combining stretches, breathing exercises, and bodily poses, yoga helps relieve anxiety, depression, and stress. Meditation alone is shown to help alleviate feelings of anxiety and depression, as well as reduce pain. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, meditation is a technique used by nearly 10% of adults in the U.S.
Start a journal. Communicating your thoughts and feelings is crucial to overcoming the experience of trauma. Even if you’re not ready to speak with a counselor, keeping a journal about your experiences allows self-expression without threat of discrimination. Simply writing to yourself will not only help get certain events off your mind, but will also enhance your communication skills.
Seek counseling. Individual counseling can work wonders for first responders, even if they have not recently experienced trauma. By actively participating in counseling, emergency professionals receive a source of ongoing emotional support while working to manage stress. Working with a therapist to establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle increases your ability to appropriately cope with stress.
Attend a support group. Participation in social events in a supportive setting is crucial for first responders, as it helps form bonds between those recovering from work-related trauma. Meeting with others who have experienced similar events is both an affirming and reassuring activity. After joining support groups, first responders are able to expand their social networks, focus on healthy relationships, and overcome work-related trauma.
Taking one or more of the above steps will help relieve stress now and in the future. With first responders considered high risk for PTSD and depression, investing in your physical and mental health now is important for ensuring you have an enjoyable future.
The biggest obstacle to getting help is feeling confident when asking for help that the help is confidential. Here is a list of resources. Some are specific to Fire/EMS; some are specific to Law Enforcement. All are resources for confidential help.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – This is a hotline for anyone in crisis or to get help form someone in crisis. You do not need to be suicidal to call this line. They are there to listen and provide resources without judging. Afraid to call? Use the chat function from a computer or mobile device. Either way, you can remain anonymous!
Sites Specific to Fire/EMS:
All Hands Working – Organization dedicated to providing help to firefighters on and off duty.
Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance – Non-profit organization developed to help educate firefighters and EMS about mental health on the job.
Helping Heroes – List of behavioral health resources specific to firefighters from National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
Badge of Life – Site is specific to law enforcement and suicide prevention.
CopsAlive.com – Information, strategies and tools to help cops plan for happy, healthy and successful careers, relationships and lives.
Tears of a Cop – Site dedicated to stopping officer suicide and providing resources for PTSD.
Asking for help is the hardest thing to do! Sometimes even “heroes” need help. Please reach out if you or someone you know is struggling.
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Keeping guns and ammunition secure can be a full-time job for any law enforcement professional, but proper storage options make this task easier. This article, the last in a three-part series, looks at six ways to secure the weapons in your station. You can read part 1 and part 2 to take a closer look at other necessary storage options for the modern law enforcement facility.
1. Properly Mounted Temporary Storage
Do your officers need a gun in the interrogation room or in common areas? No — and when situations are heated, having a gun out in the open can increase the chance of a problem. Installing temporary storage options, such as secure gun lockers, in these areas will help prevent unwanted discharges and the problems that they bring. These lockers keep guns secure (by requiring entry with a key) yet still accessible if the guns will be needed shortly.
2. Secure Weapons Rooms
Secure weapons rooms are the ultimate storage option for the modern law enforcement facility. With storage lockers or racks, this room gives the facility a one-stop place to store and retrieve weapons. A variety of organizational options keep firearms and ammunition accounted for, while a locked door ensures that they are only delivered to authorized personnel.
3. Shelving with Electronic Security
Weapon shelving is an excellent choice for storing guns in an accessible manner. But the modern law enforcement facility must be certain that items are stored securely, so only authorized personnel can access them. If the facility doesn’t have the space for a designated weapons room, electronic security that tethers the firearms to the shelf until accessed by the proper personnel is a good solution.
4. RFID Tracking Systems
In addition to providing security, RFID tracking systems built into storage systems can help facilities know who has checked out a particular weapon, making it easier to locate missing items and pinpoint who used a certain firearm in case of an investigation.
5. Universal Weapon Racks
These racks fill a need for secure weapons storage in facilities where a full weapons room is not needed. Universal weapon racks have locking doors that keep them secure when not in use. The racks can be adjusted to fit a variety of handguns, and can tilt up to 90 degrees in any direction without losing their hold on the guns or causing damage to equipment. This type of rack can be used in your facility, your transport vehicles or anywhere else that secure storage is needed.
6. Mobile Storage Solutions
Officers often need to bring their weapons into the field. Mobile storage solutions provide a secure way to do this. For single handguns, portable gun boxes are the best choice. Padded and locked, these boxes protect the firearm and store it safely.
When multiple firearms are needed in the field, mini universal weapons racks can help. Like their larger counterparts, these smaller versions keep firearms protected during transport, and can carry a larger number of firearms than gun boxes, which hold only one.
Whether you choose one or all of these options for your facility, ensure that your weapons are secure and accessible with proper storage.
Author Bio:
Denny Hammack is the President of Patterson Pope, a primary provider of storage opitions for businesses in the public safety industry. Hammack has over 25 years of experience in the storage and records management industry and has lead Patterson Pope to become one of the leading public safety storage solution providers in the industry.
Setting up a police station can feel like an overwhelming task — from the weapons your team will use, to the desks they will sit at to write reports. The list of items you need to get started is quite extensive. As you are preparing a new station, don’t forget these seven crucial storage and organizational items that every station needs. This article is part 2 of a three-part series to help modern law enforcement facilities get as organized as possible. Read part 1 here.
1. Cabinetry
Office supplies, printer paper, protective equipment, extra uniforms — the list of items in a police station is practically endless. Attractive cabinetry keeps those items off the floor and off desks to make the station organized and tidy, while still allowing for accessibility. When setting up a police station, cabinetry will be essential in nearly every room, from the office areas to the common rooms.
2. Weapons Storage
Weapons storage is crucial, as it will provide safekeeping when weapons are not in use. Storage needs to be both accessible and protected. Those in charge of designing the facility need to consider temporary weapons storage options for common areas and interview rooms as well as the main weapons storage area. Portable weapons storage is also a necessity.
3. Evidence Lockers and Storage
Evidence lockers provide a safe place to temporarily store evidence before the lab can evaluate it. These lockers need to be secure so no one can tamper with the evidence, but accessible so officers can quickly deposit evidence before filing reports or booking suspects.
Once the evidence has been logged and analyzed, it needs a safe place to be stored. A wide range of static shelving options can hold items such as clothing and used ammunition (for use in court), or for record-keeping purposes.
4. Filing Systems
Every arrest and case brings pages of paperwork. While the paperwork side of law enforcement is neither glamorous nor exciting, it is crucial to ensuring that people are treated properly when facing arrest. Because of the amount of paperwork involved with law enforcement, logical and secure systematic filing systems are necessary to ensure that the paperwork is handled properly once it is collected.
5. Mail Center
Mail is another crucial yet sometimes tedious part of running a station. A well-organized mail center allows this aspect of the station to be minimally stressful. When mail has a set place to go and a set group of people responsible for getting it there, the rest of the station can function smoothly. Sort modules and consoles can make setting up a mail center easy.
6. Personal Storage Areas
When officers are on the job, where are they going to stash their belongings? Personal storage areas are crucial to a well-run station. Lockers make the ideal personal storage area, as they provide officers with a secure place for clothing, purses, wallets and other personal items while they are on the clock.
7. Desks
Each officer in your station needs a place of his/her own. Modular casework can serve as an ideal desk setup for personal workstations. These can easily be adjusted when your needs change or your station grows, but they provide officers with a place to file paperwork, perform computer searches, book suspects and store personal or professional gear when not in the field.
As you make the plans for your facility, make sure you plan for adequate storage. With these seven items in hand, you will be well prepared.
Author Bio:
Denny Hammack is the President of Patterson Pope. Patterson Pope is the primary provider of storage solutions for businesses in the public safety industry.
The modern law enforcement station needs to be adequately prepared to deal with weapon security issues. Guns used by the station need to be properly stored to ensure that unauthorized individuals do not have access, yet they also need to be readily accessible when officers need them in a crisis situation. These four weapon storage solutions will help meet both of these needs. This article is part 1 of a three-part series highlighting storage options that the modern law enforcement agency needs to understand. You can read parts 2 and 3 here.
Gun Lockers
Law enforcement professionals often face situations where a trip to the weapons room to safely check in and store their gun in its required location is not possible. In instances like these, gun lockers can provide a well-organized temporary storage place to keep weapons safe. Having gun lockers mounted in interview rooms, common areas and other parts of the facility will allow handgun security to be accessed quickly and stored easily. With dedicated and master keys for each opening, gun lockers ensure that only those allowed are able to access the firearms. The availability of both floor- and wall-mounted gun lockers makes this a practical option for facilities of all shapes and sizes.
Gun Racks
Gun racks are an essential part of most stations. Weapon racks keep gun and ammo stored where it is readily accessible, yet secure when not in use. These units either lock tightly when the guns are not in use or use electronic locks connected to the RFID tracking system to keep guns securely in place to keep unauthorized personnel from having access to the weapons. They also allow for tracking of each piece, so your facility will always know who has which firearm.
For facilities that have many types of firearms, universal weapon racks are an ideal fit. These can be adjusted to accommodate firearms of varying sizes. They are also designed to allow weapons to be stored in ready-to-use condition, often with optics and accessories stored directly on the weapon.
Portable Weapon Storage Racks
What happens when a large number of weapons need to head to the field, such as in a tactical operation or a hostage situation? Does security take a back seat to the urgency of the problem? The answer should be “no.”
Portable weapons storage options are essential to a station that often needs to transport weapons to the field. With mobile storage units similar to the universal weapons rack, facilities can have a collection of weapons that they can take with them in the field while still maintaining the security that is required of a responsible station. These units are small, easy to maneuver and take up little space in the transport vehicle, but are carefully designed to hold a large number of firearms and ammunition.
Portable Gun Boxes
Many police departments require their officers to keep unused guns safely stored, even in transport. When just one handgun needs to head into the field and the officer does not need to wear it, a portable gun box is the ideal solution.
Locked and secure, these boxes make the handgun easy to transport without sacrificing the security of the situation. Designed to be lightweight and easy to carry, these boxes come in sizes to fit almost any handgun. Interior cushioning prevents jostling when the box is being moved so it is ready to use without damage when the gun and officer arrive at the location.
Author Bio: Denny Hammack is the President of Patterson Pope, a leading provider of storage solutions for the public safety industry since 1972.
As someone from the general public, it was a true eye opener of an experience to learn what peace officers do on a daily basis. Sure, we read about stories of officers risking their lives, or watch stories on the news about those that make the ultimate sacrifice for everyday citizens, like me. This is mainly why I chose to do a ride along with Officer Joyner, with the Jefferson City Police Department.
It was a cloudy Saturday afternoon, and things seemed quiet in the station. Some officers were finishing typing reports and others on the phone with dispatch getting directions to the next call. Walking outside and getting into our patrol vehicle for the day was different for me, taking in the sight of all the patrol cars parked together.
We headed to the streets, my eyes wide open now, viewing things from a different perspective. I was being more observant than the usual drive in my car, when I’m usually focusing on everything else to be done that day. Officer Joyner was helpful in answering my questions as they came to mind, trying to figure anything and everything about what he and other officers think, feel, hear, and see while on the job. He told me about the city’s different patrol securities varying with the university in town, and the state capitol.
As the day went on, we had a few basic traffic stops for people who chose not to stop at a four way stop intersection, or to drive with expired tags. It was interesting observing what happens when the officer comes back to the vehicle after collecting your license and registration.
I asked Officer Joyner about how he got into the business of being a daily hero, protecting the city and those within it. He shared that he became interested in criminal justice in college and his passion for it has grown stronger over the years. I found the stories of Officer Joyner’s previous undercover narcotic experience fascinating as well as a brief history recap he gave of the state petitionary located in Jefferson City. Once we returned back at the station, we took a brief tour of the building. From the SWAT equipment and vehicles to the holding cells, it was a whole new world for me. I read about stories involving all of this daily, and now it puts everything in perspective.
I wish everyone could have the experience that I did. Peace officers have one of the most dangerous and risky jobs, not knowing what the next day or hour could bring to them, unlike some of us who just report from a desk. I could not have thanked Officer Joyner and the other officers enough for an amazing experience, along with extending my sincere gratitude for all the other peace officers out there.
With the polar vortex still roaring across the country, everyone is frantically doing their part to keep warm and safe. Abbye spent over a year writing about heroes for California Casualty, and recently had the opportunity to experience how some peace officers are willing to go above the call firsthand. This is the story in her words:
On the evening of January 6, the windchill in Ann Arbor, Michigan was around negative 35 degrees. The roads were frozen and icy as I got on Highway 94 headed to the airport. It was around 11 PM and pitch black out. Not 20 minutes into my drive, I hit a patch of black ice and crashed my truck head-on into a highway median. I quickly called 911 and about five minutes later, a Michigan State Trooper named Anthony Young arrived on the scene. Given the horrible road conditions, the inclement weather, and the exceptionally cold temperatures, I’m sure Trooper Young had a long night before he was dispatched to the scene of my accident. But you’d never guess from his demeanor. Upon arrival, he made sure I was okay and even asked about my dog- who had been in the car with me. I have never been in that serious of an accident and I was pretty shaken up and scared. Young was patient, calm and reassuring. I had hit a median and was stuck on the left side of the highway, but Young kept his lights on behind me to alert other motorists and keep me safe from another collision.
Shortly after a tow truck arrived on the scene, the driver inadvertently let my very frightened dog out of the car. My dog, Seamus, immediately took off, sprinting along the center median down the highway. I took off after him. Acting quickly, Trooper Young immediately followed alongside Seamus with his lights on, preventing him from crossing traffic and getting hit by oncoming traffic. Young even tried to cut off Seamus’ run by blocking him between the median and his vehicle, but Seamus hopped over the hood of his car, crossed west-bound traffic and ran off into the woods.
Trooper Young had already written his accident report and I’m sure he could’ve left the scene, or even told me I had to abandon my search for my own safety and his. Instead, Young got out his flashlight and started to help me look for my lost dog. His partner arrived on the scene, and the two troopers, the tow truck driver and I all walked the edge of the woods, calling for Seamus. Admittedly, I was a bit hysterical. I had just totaled my car and now I had lost my dog. Young remained completely calm and never once suggested we abandon the search.
It was Trooper Young who eventually located the spot where Seamus had entered the woods. He then used his flashlight to light the way as I followed Seamus’ trail. The windchill on Monday was around -35 degrees and there was at least two feet of snow on the ground, but Young didn’t give up. He stayed right behind me, trumping through the snow, until we found my freezing, terrified dog. By then, we were miles from the original crash site. When we found Shae, Young just laughed, patting him on the head and commenting on how much he must like a good evening run. I thanked him repeatedly for saving my dog, to which he humbly laughed and said I was lucky to have found the troopers (him and his partner) who were dog lovers.
Lucky is an understatement. I know it may seem like a little thing, helping some hysterical woman find her lost dog, but if you happen to be a dog owner, I’m sure you can appreciate what it would be like to total your car and then lose your dog. I had recently changed Seamus’ collar and knew his new one was without ID. It was dangerously cold and he had just been in a serious car accident, so I was sure he would be in serious trouble if we didn’t find him that night. I just recently moved to Michigan for school and Seamus is the only ‘family’ I have here. Losing him would have been devastating.
