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Key points
- Law enforcement officers who exit their careers often have difficulty translating their career and transitional challenges to others.
- Although peer support is a well known and applied practice in policing, transitioning officers often go without affirmation and validation.
- Integrated wellness plans for transitioning officers should include an opportunity to relate to others with lived experience.
Law enforcement officers exit their careers for a variety of reasons and, in the time since I’ve been helping this population navigate the transitional issues that often plague them, one of the first problems they encounter is feeling “lost in translation.” Thrust into a new sociocultural dynamic, they often have difficulty explaining to family, friends, therapists, and religious clergy just what it is they are going through and the enormity of the void created by the absence of their police career.
The words and non-verbal gestures meant to describe their experiences often lose their subtlety and fail to convey the meaning and significance they once held when communicated among the peers they served alongside. The experience is eerily familiar to the shrieking and resounding battle cry of teenage angst as our youth begin to construct their identities and assert their independence. They cry foul from behind locked doors of bedrooms and bathrooms, rich with defiance, disrespect, and clear opposition. They seek knowledge and meaning from the problems of their world as they journey into adulthood only to find resistance against their youthful precepts.
"You just don’t understand" has meaning for transitioning officers, too, when entering a new realm of existence that holds experiences and notions of the world far removed from the ones held as an actively serving officer. This can become a sensitive problem to dissect when an officer finds themselves emotionally overwhelmed and unable or unwilling to share the deepest parts of themselves with those who matter most. Because so many people are on the front lines of support, advocacy, and love, it can sound disingenuous to exclaim that no one understands you.
On one hand, there are struggles with the end of a career that any person in the working world can appreciate. There is a grieving process not unlike a death in the family. There is also a loss of professional identity and, with it, a sense of personal value and purpose. Coping with change can be hard, too, when financial insecurity abounds. There’s also an adjustment that comes with other people who occupy your spaces at home, work, and at play. They may be entirely new people in your life or ones who have been around the whole time. In either case, an officer will have to find new and healthy ways to co-exist. To that end, we can all relate to and sympathize with one another in our post-career plights.
On the other hand, there are struggles with the end of a career that are not as relatable because you’re a cop. I introduced a number of these challenges in my posts “The Case for Former Cops” and “Loving and Leaving the Badge.” Bottom line, the real or perceived deficits in understanding tend to center around a few main themes:
- How an officer really feels—not just what they say, do, or display on the exterior. Cops are notorious for being chameleons, and although that landscape may be changing with a younger generation more inclined to talk, older generations who were trained or socialized differently can be tougher nuts to crack
- The hell they’ve been through—what they experienced on the job that may be creating new problems. Events that were compartmentalized over a career can have a sneaky and uncomfortable way of coming out, especially when allowing yourself to be vulnerable
- Who they’ve become—the job changed them, and they no longer feel like the person they were before entering the profession (despite who everyone else may remember, want, or expect). They will be trying to figure out who to be, how to be, and what their mission is without a publicly-recognized identity.
- What being a cop meant—to their own sense of happiness, self, purpose, and sacrifices made to make the world a better place. It’s during this time that they may also question the value of their service and whether or not their sacrifices on the job and at home were “worth it.”
- The need to fit back in—at home, at work, and at play where they feel safe, healthy, and productive. It can take a while for an officer to figure out that it's okay to let their guard down, be emotionally available, and resume their role as a spouse, parent, or member of the community without the usual “blue strings” attached.
The Case for Post-Service Peer Support
When an officer exits their law enforcement career, the emotional and psychological impacts of that career will follow them alongside any new challenges associated with changed roles, routines, and expectations. Those who are forced out earlier than expected due to injury or ill health may find those impacts and changes even more burdensome. Together, these dynamics create conditions that can be well-served by formal or informal peer support. Yet the unique resources and supportive infrastructure that an officer enjoys as an employee of the organization and member of the police cultural system is no longer accessible when standing on the “other” side of the yellow police tape.
Unlike the Department of Defense, which hands-off a disabled or otherwise outgoing member of the military to Veterans Affairs so they may achieve higher levels of social support and community integration, a transitioning officer is often left to wander without a commensurate bridge or “warm handshake.” This can pose significant challenges for those in need, especially when validation and affirmation can be a means for defining their own successful outcomes.
I mention this less as a criticism and more as a call to action. Because there is no universal, consistently-applied, or scientifically-validated model of transition tailored to the needs of cops, those of us who focus on police separation issues are largely guided, in theory and practice, by what we already know about the challenges of life as a cop. Some of us wore the badge to know while others are family and friends who witnessed the struggles up close and personal. We integrate our cumulative experiences into a “story” that other cops and families can rely on for help.
We also refer to the policies and practices for military veterans who transition to civilian life. By comparison, law enforcement is a domestic, paramilitary operation but parallels do exist with organizational systems, structures, postulates, and ethos. The two also share similar “wounds” given the tasks of enforcement, protection, and defense. Beyond that, we are guided by existing theoretical frameworks in the social and behavioral sciences and more recent applications of life and career transition theories that offer a strengths-based approach to landing on your feet.
Together, these outlets offer opportunities for new research, legislation, programming, and agency policies that target not only officers who are preparing to exit but those who are already out and struggling to acquire relevant resources. Given the slow-turning wheels of government, it will most likely be up to a more responsive and agile private sector of the police wellness industry to close the gap by sharing resources and creating new programs for the sole purpose of social support, self-efficacy, coping, and referral.
Note: The information in this post is for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide clinical or legal advice.
Copyright © Brian A. Kinnaird. All rights reserved.
