Is it traumatic when a police officer shoots a scumbag?

[GrimJack]

A police officer once told me about five years ago that if I ever committed another act of road rage, it could spiral out of control, and I could get shot. I asked the officer what difference it would make to the people in my city if someone shot me. The officer told me that police officers who shoot people typically have problems later on in life, such as divorces and suicides.

Is this really true? According to an article in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, 46% of a small sample of officers involved in shootings had PTSD later. (Only the abstract is available online, so I didn't read the paper.) Yet I was just reading some questions on Yahoo! Answers tonight regarding how many people were killed by police in 2007. The most common answer there is, "Not enough."

I would think that a lot of police officers would really relish the idea of stopping a criminal's career permanently, but what the hell do I know? I don't even know enough to stop angering people in traffic.

[retdetsgt]

The act of shooting someone is generally not as traumatic to the officer as the repercussions by the administration and the press. You're pretty much run through the wringer, especially if the person you shoot is a minority, at least where I worked.

[mcsap]

The taking of a human life has the substantial likelihood of having an impact on the officers life. It will vary by the person but to think that we blow the smoke out of our barrel and start doing high fives...

[phantasm]

In October an ESU Lieutenant committed suicide about a week after an emotionally disturbed person died during what would most likely have been a judgment mistake, but not a criminal act. He was not going to be brought up on criminal charges, and may not have been brought up on departmental charges, but now his two children are without a father.

We don't go out there every day looking to shoot or hurt people, despite what some people think.

[txinvestigator1]

A police officer once told me about five years ago that if I ever committed another act of road rage, it could spiral out of control, and I could get shot. I asked the officer what difference it would make to the people in my city if someone shot me. The officer told me that police officers who shoot people typically have problems later on in life, such as divorces and suicides.

I don't see how road rage lead to your wondering if it would make a difference to the people of your city if you were shot. ????

Then, how did that lead to how a cop is affected by shooting someone?

[retdetsgt]

Again, a lot of it has to do with how society looks at it. In the military, people take lives and it's looked at as part of the job. That's not to say it doesn't have an effect, but there are a lot of combat veterans who go on and live their lives without carrying a heavy burden.

On the other hand, when a police officer shoots and kills a citizen here, it's scrutinized for weeks, if not months by every Monday morning quarterback there is. In the case phantasm cited, even though no criminal charges were to be filed, the pressure that Lt must have gotten from the press and the administration was probably terrible. The Lt would have been given plenty of reason to feel guilty rather than feel supported even though he's human and possibly made an error. But he didn't put that mentally disturbed person on the street. And let's also not forget, who's saying it could have been avoided?

One of my shootings as a cop was as mentally disturbed 63 year old man. He had a butcher knife in each hand and was charging a deputy who had tripped. The newspaper put in on the second page of the paper, but that was in 1978. Today in my city, whenever a police officer kills a mentally disturbed person, they and the police in general are filleted in the press. Every arm chair pysch in the state comes out to say how, with proper training that could have been avoided.:rolleyes: Even though people who actually know something about the incident know it was justifiable and probably the only option, the officer is hammered by the public. Who can stay balanced in that environment? Of course you're going to question your actions, probably falsely.

I've experienced both scenarios and there's no comparison even though in both cases, you're taking human lives. But any similarity stops there because of societal attitudes.

[txinvestigator1]

Is it traumatic when a police officer shoots a scumbag?

I would say.................definately traumatic for the scumbag.