The faces of police and first responders provide a window to the internal world of feelings and emotions and when they encounter adversity or exposure to danger, trauma, and other negative job related events, they present a mask of determination, and of strength and fortitude. The event has summoned the officer and he or she has responded and must now take charge, bring order to disorder, confront danger with their training, and often endure as a silent witness to yet another human tragedy. No tears will fall at what is observed. No emotion must be witnessed, and the physiological and psychological systems of the officer will instantly achieve full power as anticipation, safety, and decisions are made at light speed. The officer's senses are sharpened, eyes observe what is taking place in rapid fashion, smells and sounds are acute, movement and behavior of people are observed and mentally recorded and the officer's body is tense as high output of adrenalin is pumped throughout the body. A state of high readiness is taking place, automatic and in response to perceived danger. The individual officer is not thinking of anything else except what is within the immediate vicinity, determining next steps, adapting protective action from potential danger, and developing a response to address the issue or emergency that they cannot choose to avoid. Yet, with each call and passing of years, the potential accumulation of harmful stress and adversity adversely impact on the individual's health and well-being. We must address these issues with the goal of increasing the person's life balance.
About the Author: Richard C. Lumb, PhD, is Emeritus Associate Professor and Chair, State University of New York at Brockport, Department of Criminal Justice. He was an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Northern Michigan University. He currently is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maine at Augusta and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and Boston. He completed twenty-four years of policing, including Maine State Police and Chief of Police in two communities. He has provided consulting services to the Maine Sheriffs Association, the Maine Department of Corrections, the Old Orchard Beach Police Department and others in a variety of projects including training and program development and evaluation. He continues to assist police and sheriff agencies in planning, program development and evaluation and other services. He served as Director of the Research, Planning and Analysis Bureau for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department that included Project Director of the Carolinas Institute for Community Policing in North and South Carolina (U.S. Department of Justice and the COPS Office funded) and other projects. The CMPD, CICP project provided national police and sheriff agencies with training in the use of Geographic Information Systems with the analysis of crime and disorder, community capacity building and citizen partnership to analyze and determine sustainable solutions to repeat calls for service and crime hot spots. He is active in sustainable community capacity building as it relates to crime, disorder and quality of life. He has several publications in policing and related topics and remains active in research and applied sustainable solutions to persistent problems. He received his doctorate from Florida State University in 1990.