NCJ Number
202519
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 70 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2003 Pages: 29-31
Date Published
September 2003
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Rather than interacting with officers mostly in their offices, the eight psychologists employed by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) are deployed into the field to provide outreach, education, and consultation to local divisional commanding officers and their personnel.
Abstract
LAPD psychologists are present at roll calls, officer meetings, training, and ride-alongs. This is an effort to integrate the psychologists into the daily life of the department, thus making them familiar to all the officers in a division, more approachable, and less intimidating. Although most of the department's eight psychologists are assigned to patrol bureaus, several serve specialized and civilian divisions, such as the robbery and homicide, communications, records and identification, and scientific investigations divisions. The educational function of the psychologists includes the provision of roll-call training in stress management, suicide prevention, substance abuse, blood pressure, and communicable diseases. When more extensive training is required, the psychologists work with divisional training coordinators to develop full-curriculum classes. This effort has included the provision of 8-hour continuing education training days on handling the mentally ill, rapid deployment in schools, and communication-based problem solving skills. One-on-one debriefings after critical incidents are enhanced by the greater openness of officers with a psychologist they know and trust. By developing trust and friendships with individual officers in the course of their regular duties, it becomes much easier for those officers to confide in the psychologist in times of crisis and unusual stress.