Take Off Your Cop Face & Relax

When a police officer is at the scene of a major traffic accident, trying to settle a domestic dispute, or questioning a witness they have to wear their “Official Cop Face.” They have to project that strong, authoritative, competent, professional image. When they do this all day long, it is difficult to get out of that role and become a regular person again. Along with the image is a certain amount of emotional recall. In order to maintain their professional posture they have to ignore their “real” feelings and keep them inside. To some extent, they have to stand outside their true self and become an observer. This serves them well at the scene. However, what happens when the layers get pulled back and they become just a regular human being again? How about the other facets that make up their true personality - the spouse, the parent, the friend, the church choir member, and the neighbor?

When officers enter into the role of Joe Citizen they sometimes forget to take off their “Cop Face”. This causes lots of problems, including relationship problems, physiological and psychological problems. In this article, we will examine the role separation problems and the stress that these problems can create. In later editions we will examine the effect stress has on the body and on job performance.

Many police officers have had successful marriages for 20 or more years and have had no more than the average run-of-the-mill physical problems. On the other hand far too many officers have experienced several unsuccessful marriages and experienced chronic problems with digestion, sleeping, circulation, etc. When both groups were questioned about their life styles, it was found that the officers with fewer problems are those who seem to be able to leave their cop persona at work. They had outside interests besides police work and friends who were not “in the business.” To people in other lines of work, this may seem like an easy task. For police officers, however, spending eight hours going from boring patrol to life threatening situations over and over isn’t as easy to forget. Cops tend to believe that the only other people they can trust, the only one who really understands them, is another cop.




They develop a cynical aspect to their behavior, which causes excess stress to themselves as well as to those who love them. One doesn’t have to be involved with the intricacies of law enforcement to understand what it means to be upset, or scared, or saddened by the things people do to one another. Friends and loved ones can talk about the officer’s feelings without going into individual situations. One officer had a best friend who was an educator. They rarely if ever talked about the disgusting details of police work. They did, however, affirm each other as valuable human beings and gave each other permission to vent when necessary. Sometimes, when they were visiting one another’s homes, they would agree not to talk about the specifics of either person’s job. They both had enough outside interests to carry on a decent conversation. There are a couple of things to look for in one’s behavior, which might be an indicator that they are carrying their job home too often. If they have kids, they should ask themselves, do they talk to them or interrogate them? Are they able to relax when they are out in public with their spouse or are they always thinking about controlling the situation? Police officers should have some friends who are in fields other than law enforcement and it is extremely helpful to have a hobby, some outside interest that utilizes their talents and gives them a sense of accomplishment.
The first task then, is for police officers to learn to relax, leave the job at the P.D. Develop outside interests and share them with friends and family.
Remember, law enforcement officers are an extremely important part of our society. The profession needs officers who are focused, calm, clear minded and well rested. It isn’t easy leaving the job at work; however, if they don’t learn to do that they will shorten their over-all time on the job.

See you next time.
Mr. G -- Still 10-08