fran
Former Member
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N07180347.htm
Katrina takes emotional toll on exhausted police
07 Sep 2005 18:55:56 GMT
Source: Reuters
.......................................snip............................................
"The New Orleans officers are struggling the most to deal with this," says Claypoole, who works with a team of two other trauma specialists.
"They are not only having to do their jobs powerfully, they are also having to work with the loss and not know what is happening with their families. They are seeing a lot of devastation. They are seeing a lot of things they don't have control over anymore."
New Orleans officials estimate that 70 percent of the city's police officers had their homes destroyed or damaged. As of Monday just 1,000 of the city's 1,641 police members had been accounted for.
The police force has been criticized for desertions during Katrina and for not stopping rampant looting after the storm.
But a furious New Orleans police Chief Edwin Compass stormed into a temporary command center in Baton Rouge earlier this week to defend his officers and deny reports of mass defections.
Working in waist-deep water without food, water and ammunition, officers fought courageously against criminals and looters in the days after Katrina, he shouted at the media in Baton Rouge.
"In the annals of history, no police force was asked to do what we were asked," Compass said.
He acknowledged the death and destruction was too much for a few of his officers, with some walking off the job and two committing suicide.
Many officers, their homes damaged or under water and their families forced to evacuate, stayed on in New Orleans, sleeping on the street with no communications as they tried to maintain order among an increasingly panicked population facing disease, lawlessness, hunger and thirst.
With the bulk of refugees evacuated, firefighters and police are now part of operations to clean up a city in ruins, where people are still trapped in their waterlogged homes and the dead remain.
PUTTING ASIDE PERSONAL WOES
In the state police cafeteria, Claypoole says he has counseled some officers who have contemplated walking off the job. But, he said, "most of them are putting that aside for now and putting their uniforms on to make Louisiana and New Orleans what it needs to be again."
Dealing with displaced families and missing relatives is the biggest trauma for police officers, Claypoole said.
"While everyone else is going about trying to get things back to normal, these people are out doing their jobs and that is a struggle and a stress on them," he said.
Capt. Jim Mitchell of the Louisiana State Police has seen his Baton Rouge house only once since Katrina struck.
"I have been here every day and I haven't been able to even see how badly my house was damaged," he said, gesturing at the command center where hundreds of officials are coordinating rescue and clean-up missions.
"We are all having to do whatever it takes right now and whatever just needs to be done. We have far too many duties for us to even accomplish."
Once things calm down, Mitchell said, officers would be allowed to take a day off occasionally to deal with their own situations.
"Right now we are working nearly everyone seven days a week and longer hours than a regular shift, but not everyone can continue that for a longer period. It's very stressful especially when officers have their own situations and may not even have a house and they have to tend to those personal matters," he added.
Katrina takes emotional toll on exhausted police
07 Sep 2005 18:55:56 GMT
Source: Reuters
.......................................snip............................................
"The New Orleans officers are struggling the most to deal with this," says Claypoole, who works with a team of two other trauma specialists.
"They are not only having to do their jobs powerfully, they are also having to work with the loss and not know what is happening with their families. They are seeing a lot of devastation. They are seeing a lot of things they don't have control over anymore."
New Orleans officials estimate that 70 percent of the city's police officers had their homes destroyed or damaged. As of Monday just 1,000 of the city's 1,641 police members had been accounted for.
The police force has been criticized for desertions during Katrina and for not stopping rampant looting after the storm.
But a furious New Orleans police Chief Edwin Compass stormed into a temporary command center in Baton Rouge earlier this week to defend his officers and deny reports of mass defections.
Working in waist-deep water without food, water and ammunition, officers fought courageously against criminals and looters in the days after Katrina, he shouted at the media in Baton Rouge.
"In the annals of history, no police force was asked to do what we were asked," Compass said.
He acknowledged the death and destruction was too much for a few of his officers, with some walking off the job and two committing suicide.
Many officers, their homes damaged or under water and their families forced to evacuate, stayed on in New Orleans, sleeping on the street with no communications as they tried to maintain order among an increasingly panicked population facing disease, lawlessness, hunger and thirst.
With the bulk of refugees evacuated, firefighters and police are now part of operations to clean up a city in ruins, where people are still trapped in their waterlogged homes and the dead remain.
PUTTING ASIDE PERSONAL WOES
In the state police cafeteria, Claypoole says he has counseled some officers who have contemplated walking off the job. But, he said, "most of them are putting that aside for now and putting their uniforms on to make Louisiana and New Orleans what it needs to be again."
Dealing with displaced families and missing relatives is the biggest trauma for police officers, Claypoole said.
"While everyone else is going about trying to get things back to normal, these people are out doing their jobs and that is a struggle and a stress on them," he said.
Capt. Jim Mitchell of the Louisiana State Police has seen his Baton Rouge house only once since Katrina struck.
"I have been here every day and I haven't been able to even see how badly my house was damaged," he said, gesturing at the command center where hundreds of officials are coordinating rescue and clean-up missions.
"We are all having to do whatever it takes right now and whatever just needs to be done. We have far too many duties for us to even accomplish."
Once things calm down, Mitchell said, officers would be allowed to take a day off occasionally to deal with their own situations.
"Right now we are working nearly everyone seven days a week and longer hours than a regular shift, but not everyone can continue that for a longer period. It's very stressful especially when officers have their own situations and may not even have a house and they have to tend to those personal matters," he added.
