Police Officer taking anger management classes

[studentcj]

what are your thoughts on a police officer taking anger management classes. Do you believe it is something that could end up hurting them down the road if they are ever in a situation where their behavior was in question and they have to take the stand. I would assume an officer taking such a class would have to tell the therapist his or her job.

One could say that an officer who needs to take anger management shouldn't be an officer in the first place

what are your thoughts

[Cat_Doc]

What good are anger management classes if you are punished for taking one?

[studentcj]

What good are anger management classes if you are punished for taking one?

thats why im asking. It would seem to be a police officer who has a record of taking anger management classes, would be severly hurt if some sort of lawsuit was brought later down the road because his actions or bahavior was put into question in regards to a complaint filed against. The lawyer on the other side would be able to pull that out and be like look, this officer has taken anger management classes, so is it so far fetched to believe that his behavior that night that was out of line was due to anger.

get my drift...trying to get my point across without making some longer thread. It just seems like it would be ammo that could possibly be used against an officer down the road

[Cat_Doc]

No, I guess I didn't get your drift.

I'm not an attorney, but I believe simply taking a class on anger management would not pose a vicarious liability risk.

Risk would be related to actions, such as a verbal blow up at work, or losing your temper and throwing a phone through a window, or kicking a trash can down the hallway repeatedly yelling, "I hate this F'ng place, you're all a bunch of F'ng pieces of s***!" (All stuff I’ve seen during the last 33 years of doing this work.)

So, a background check revealing someone took an anger management course would not be a detractor in my book. (Heck, sometimes I think I should take the course just to deal with some of the questions I see on this forum.)

It would be prior bad acts that would cause concern.

We have had officers sent to anger management after going through a fitness for duty examination, but it was the incident they allegedly committed to cause the FFD, not the taking of a course, that would bite the agency via vicarious liability.

ps..good to see you engage in one of your own threads.

[retdetsgt]

Anger management classes have always pissed me off......

[retdetsgt]

Risk would be related to actions, such as a verbal blow up at work, or losing your temper and throwing a phone through a window, or kicking a trash can down the hallway repeatedly yelling, "I hate this F'ng place, you're all a bunch of F'ng pieces of s***!" (All stuff I’ve seen during the last 33 years of doing this work.)

That's usually (not always though) caused by stress and PTSD building up. People like that (me, for instance) don't need anger management, but need counseling to deal with stress, depression, etc. that have been building up.

People that need anger management generally are people who NEVER learned to control their emotions from the time they were kids.

[Kimble]

One could say that an officer who needs to take anger management shouldn't be an officer in the first place

And you speak from what experience?

[pac201]

Does verbal judo count?

I took it many long years ago...

[Cat_Doc]

People that need anger management generally are people who NEVER learned to control their emotions from the time they were kids.

After I retired from the city P.D., I went to work for the Department of Corrections as an investigator. Shortly after I got hired I was teamed with a senior guy conducting an interview with an inmate. The inmate started getting pissed and the senior investigator said, "Cage the rage." The guy immediately settled down.

I learned after this that every inmate upon new entry into the system has to go through and pass an anger management course titled "Cage the Rage" before they can be put on a lower level yard.

Interesting.