Getting to the heart of the issue

Long ago, probably 50 years, I had the honor of working with one of the top neurosurgeons in the country at Hillcrest Hospital in Tulsa. Among my responsibilities was seeing patients each day, speaking with them about their complaints and the history of those complaints.

Hillcrest was a “teaching hospital,” which meant the hospital provided internships and residencies to the men and women we referred to as “baby docs.” They had completed four years of medical school and were now parachuting into the front lines of patient care.

I’ll never forget the bright young surgical resident who confessed, “Sometimes I see so many patients, they begin to all look the same. Sometimes I find myself thinking of them, not as human beings but as a personal battle between me and their disease with both trying to outsmart, outmaneuver and eventually out-strategize the other to win, to claim the victory.”

Unfortunately, every intern, resident and physician feels this from time to time -- depending on his or her level of exhaustion, the calm or chaos of their after-work environment, even the ease of their commute before a shift.

So now, I’ll transfer the above information to the law enforcement culture. I’ll assume (from what I’ve read in the newspaper, books, and have seen on TV) that police and sheriff’s officers are forced to see citizens, mostly at their worst.

I’ll also assume these men and women, committed to serving and protecting our community, are not always treated with the kindness and respect they deserve.

Law enforcement personnel must witness bloody and broken bodies in the aftermath of car crashes, suicides, gun violence and mass disasters. They are responsible for notifying next-of-kin of the death of a loved one, they deal with out-of-control citizens under the influence and during all of these duties, must protect themselves as well.

Think about this: Every day they go to work, officers travel the fine line between life and death. It may come when they are directing traffic, answering a domestic violence call, making a traffic stop, patrolling downtown or responding to a 911 call -- for a robbery in progress, school shooting or hostage stand-off.

A total of 1,627 officers have died in the line of duty the past decade. During 2019, 135 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report in 2018, there were 58,866 assaults on law enforcement officers that year, resulting in 18,005 injuries.

Like the interns, residents and physicians I worked with long ago, our law enforcement personnel also go into battle every day, on every shift. As they have these experiences -- like medical personnel -- law enforcement sometimes loses sight of the humanity they are serving. Many times, the same people they try to serve and protect assume the form of an enemy. It can happen in an instant.

In all these cases, I believe law enforcement officers should be provided with periodic checks for symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disease. If they test positive, cities and states owe them treatment, time off for recuperation and follow-up counseling.

The picture of the police officer with his hands in his pockets and a knee on George Floyd’s neck has become a sad symbol already, but that officer’s record of past problems were obviously ignored as red flags for a significant mental disorder.

Maybe his cavalier attitude was common in his department’s culture, as the macho and cowboy attitudes are common in others. But I’d be willing to bet, most officers -- and especially veterans -- suffer from the emotional fatigue and PTSD that comes from dealing with humanity’s underbelly, day in and day out.

In any case, we owe law enforcement regular emotional and mental stability check-ups and treatment whenever necessary. Taking better care of these men and women will save lives -- theirs or those of citizens.