The Charlotte mass shooting followed by the apparent suicide of a police officer two months later highlights the need for mental health services to be available to officers, according to police and a policing expert.
CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer was one of four officers killed in a shooting in east Charlotte at the end of April. And last week, another officer, Brent Simpson, apparently died by suicide in a cemetery near Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
“This type of incident shines a light on the struggles law enforcement faces that are specific to mental health,” said Thomas Coghlan, an associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who also provides psychotherapy to first responders. He is a retired New York Police Department detective.
The big question for police after something traumatizing, he said: “How can we reach the officers most affected?”
What does CMPD offer?
The department offers services for its officers to help deal with trauma.
“CMPD’s Office of Wellness offers a wide range of services, including in-person mental health and wellness counseling to provide a safe space to talk about trauma and emotional impacts and provide other referrals as needed,” said the spokesperson. CMPD voice Mike Allinger via email. “CMPD has a Clinical Care Access Program that provides financial reimbursement to employees for eligible therapy services.”
A grant from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Foundation is paying for this program, according to the CMPD website. It “reduces financial barriers to mental health care for full-time sworn and non-sworn CMPD employees,” the website says.
Two days after the mass shooting in east Charlotte, CMPD sent an email to staff listing some other resources, such as a toll-free “24-hour” line to ask for clinical help and places to meet with volunteer chaplains or peers. .
For Mecklenburg County law enforcement, there is a peer support team that employees can contact if they need to speak to someone, said Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Bradley Smith. And there are counseling services on site, he said.
CMPD sent a team to Dallas, Texas to talk to some of its officers about how they are handling the situation following a 2016 ambush in which a man killed five police officers and injured nine more, as well as two civilians. Asked what CMPD discussed with Dallas police and whether their advice was helpful, Allinger declined to comment.
Stigma against therapy is widespread
There’s already a stigma around mental health and counseling for much of the public, Coghlan said, and there’s an added layer of distrust on the part of police.
Police officers fear losing chances for promotions and many view therapists as “anti-police,” he said. It all starts when they get a psychological evaluation before being hired, he said. A therapist then becomes an “adversary,” he said.
But over the years, he’s heard from police officers who — by their own accounts — rolled their eyes at his work before realizing he described them and their trauma accurately, he said.
And once they seek help, they become better officers and better people, he said.
Observant reporter Gavin Off contributed to this story.
