Fighting Crime and Personal Stress – What Evansville Police Officers Want You to Know [PODCAST]

In just the past week, our local police departments and first responders have been called to some very tense situations. Thankfully, none of our officers were injured physically but mentally is a whole different story.

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Speaking From Experience

In most professions, you do your job, clock out and basically, forget about everything that happened at work. But when you work in law enforcement, it can be extremely difficult to leave the calls behind. I know that this affects personal relationships and families. I was a 911 dispatcher in the early 2000s and I can still hear some of the calls like they just happened. Now, think about what the officers see when they arrive at the scene of a murder. This isn't NCIS, it is real, and those images can haunt officers for the rest of their lives.

Social Media Theories

It is super easy to sit on the social media sidelines and judge news stories just by the headlines. I watched the Evansville Police Department's live media conference last week, and I could not believe some of the comments during the feed. Obviously, you don't know what happened unless you were there, and heard the gunfire, saw all of the armed police getting shot at, and officers protecting residents from further harm.

Body Cam Footage

Thanks to modern technology, we can actually see and hear what it was like in some of the scariest moments for these officers. Some of it is difficult to see because of the camera set up for Facebook. Personally, the hardest part to watch and hear is around the 21-minute mark. This is where the gunfire on the officers begins. Oh, and we see it from the K9 officer's point of view.

How Do Officers De-Stress After Intense and Dangerous Calls?

We turn to our friend Officer Taylor Merriss to try and answer that question for us. She is the Special Projects Coordinator with the Evansville Police Department. Taylor is also one of the Public Information Officers, so clearly explaining the situation to the media and the public is a very important part of her position.