911 First Responders

The Virginia State Police has experienced a rise in staffing issues which include staffing shortages because of poor recruitment, an increase in retirements, poor salaries, and retention issues. However, these issues also occur in other counties around the country. Many local police officers execute their duties, along with the duties of the state police officers. Beyond the low salaries of police officers, the department lacks the proper equipment it needs to perform the jobs well. The lack of money, equipment, and resources has caused low employee morale, which resulted in many police officers quitting or retiring.

Each year law enforcement officers throughout the county are involved in shootings, some of them fatal. Frequently the shootings are reported by the media, which exploits the feelings of the victim while ignoring the effect of the shooting on the police officer. It is “estimated that approximately 87 percent of all emergency service personnel will experience a critical incident at least once in their career, which include officer-involved shootings” (Kureczka, 2002, p. 18). Officer-involved shootings have a profound effect on not only the officer involved but also their spouses, families, and the departments they serve. Law enforcement officers that are involved in officer-involved shootings need support and assistance such as critical incident stress debriefing and sometimes long-term trauma recover therapy in order to cope and live successful lives beyond the critical incident of the shooting.

Third, officers resolved most events through hospitalization. Subjects rarely were arrested.”(Skeem,J., Bibeau,L.,2008 pg.203) Even though many of the outcomes are strengths, there were some weakness pointed out in this program. One was the events police officers were responding too, such as was the level of crisis as high and or dangerous as they were assumed to be. Two the reporting was done by the officers themselves, the possibility of bias may have occurred.

“When you have police officers who abuse citizens, you erode public confidence in law enforcement. That makes the job of good police officers unsafe.” (Berry) Recently police brutality has become an alarming issue in society. At the end of 2015, thousands of deaths resulted in accusing victims dying in police custody. Individuals in communities across the state are beginning to lose faith in law enforcement in their ability to properly do their jobs. Providing police officers with extensive and innovative training to give them the adequate length of experience and training will decrease police brutality.

There are situations that impact your everyday life that’s when we call the “Firefighters”. Their lifestyle is risky, they serve the people. Firefighters truly deserve the respect and honor from the community, at the same time, this is a way of showing gratitude for their courage. The firefighter station that I visited was the fire department in San Fernando called “ Station 98”, and their agency is Los Angeles Fire Department, it has been around since 1886.

It is safe to say that one of the most arduous and taxing, both physically and mentally, occupations in the country right now would be that of a police officer. Just imagine having to witness half of the atrocities these brave men and women must endure through, knowing that to them it is “just another day at the office.” Unfortunately, police officers are not, by any means, impervious to these scenes and some are even traumatized by it. This is why it is up to their fellow officers, their brothers and sisters of the badge, to assist them in coping with their experiences. After all, who else could understand what they are going through if not the people they trust with their own lives out on the streets?

Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) launched American Healing in 2010 which is to put inequality behind us and to raise awareness towards racism (W.K. Kellogg Foundation). At the 2015 American Healing Conference, experts proposed solutions to improve law enforcement. More than 500 leaders gathered to discuss how we can strive towards equality (PR Newswire 2015). It is amazing to see how many people come together and all want to put an end to the same thing: excessive force. There needs to be a stop to the madness that has been going on the past couple of years. We are supposed to be improving as one, but it just seems the system keeps on failing us making things worse each and every day. Sherrilyn Ifill who is a part of the NAACP, suggested at the conference that about $1 billion in annual grants should be focused on training for Officers (PR Newswire 2015). Officers most definitely lack training. They will go out there with these deadly weapons then shoot at someone as if it won’t cause any harm. Training is a big part of being an Officer. You can’t just hand law enforcement a deadly weapon and expect them to use it right. Most of them panic because they weren’t trained properly on how and when to use their deadly weapons. Ifill also suggested for comprehensive data collections because we hardly have any dependable statistics as of right now (PR Newswire 2015). We have no idea how many cases of excessive force there has been because not all are recorded or put out for the

Although the worst of the fiscal challenge is over, managers need to recognize that there will not be a return to the way things were prior to 2007. As Generation X'ers move into management roles, the advancement of technology makes public safety more efficient, the service model will begin to change. The philosophy of doing more with less will start to emerge. “In the paper “Making Policing More Affordable: Managing Costs and Measuring Value in Policing,” published by the National Institute of Justice, authors George Gascon and Todd Foglesong suggest that the police model should be more like a medical model. In year’s past, when visiting the doctor's office, a physician performed virtually all of the testing, taking temperatures, measuring blood pressure, and so forth”(Matarese,

Many factors can contribute to this problem the police force is having with police officers abuse of power, one of them being the psychological health of police officers where they aren’t fit to serve and protect the people they sworn to protect. After the shooting of an unarmed woman at Capitol Hill, The National Allegiance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) started what is to be the most Comprehensive Police Officer mental health program in the country, this 40 hours crisis intervention program is available in 45 states as well as the district of Columbia, excluded are the state of Delaware, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas and Rhode Island. Needless to say a few departments are working hard to improve the quality and integrity of their officers to eliminate the raising percentage of officers committing abuse to those who they sworn to protect.

Millions of free citizens around the world have reported misconduct by law enforcement officers. In the United States alone, 8,800 officers have been reported as using excessive force when performing their job (Packman). One of the major causes of excessive use of force by the police is anxiety and rage brought on by low compensation. The police is a force that is meant to protect the people against threats, not to be a threat. Police are not compensated enough for the dangerous job they dedicate themselves to perform each day. The Federal Government should provide a safe environment to properly maintain a lawful country. When police do not perform their job correctly, the environment is not safe. Therefore, the Federal Government needs to

Before 9/11, law enforcement possessed the primary responsibility for combating terrorism in the United States. Law enforcement relationships and responsibilities have continued to be evaluated and redefined at all levels of government. They will evolve because of the continuous changing nature of terrorist threats, prevention needs and transforming operations and strategies. Terrorist groups continue to advance and pose threats in new ways each day. In the fourteen years since the worst terrorist attack on United States territory, citizens have undoubtedly become more cautious and accustomed to the inconveniences that result from the precautions and added security law enforcement agencies are now having to provide.

Most would agree that departments need more funding. However, there are discrepancies regarding where to place these funds. "Police

Over the last several years, most police departments have been facing numerous financial challenges. The main reason is law enforcement agencies are expected to do more with less and the stagnant economy. The combination of these factors has been placing pressure on many departments to begin imposing budget cuts. Evidence of this can be seen with a survey that was conducted by the University of North Carolina. They found that 67% of police departments made some kind of budget cuts for 2011. The most severe reductions were occurring in large police departments such as Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit. (Delfem, 2011, pp. 199 - 205) This is illustrating one of the most pressing issues affecting a wide variety of police departments across the country. To fully understand what is happening requires: examining the situation, how they are able to interact with other agencies (i.e. state / federal) and recommending the way this relationship can be improved. Together, these elements will offer specific insights about how police departments can effectively address this problem.

Police Reform should be one of the many issues handled in the first one-hundred days of our new President’s term. The unrest and corruption are actions that do not belong in our police force. The criminal justice system needs revised. Since 1791 Americans have lost 20,789 officers killed in the line of duty (Law Enforcement Facts 1). To modernize this statistic, from 2004-2013 an average of 151 officers have died in the line of duty (Deaths,

The greatest threat facing the Modern Fire Service is the rate at which firefighters are dying in the line of duty. Excluding the terrible event of 9/11 that occurred in 2001 that forever changed the dynamics of the emergency response services1, firefighter deaths have averaged around 100 fatalities each year for the since 1990. This unacceptable rate of firefighter deaths has found its way to be a benchmark in the industry. The problem is that the benchmark should be zero firefighter deaths while on duty and every year that there is a fatality is a year that the fire service has failed its members. The number one cause of firefighter related deaths yearly is proven to be medical, stress, or overexertion related fatalities2. All of these causes of firefighter deaths can be avoided with implementation of training and awareness.