Breaking the Silence: Removing Barriers for Police Officers that Seek Help for PTSD
The Weight Officers Can Carry
Police officers rarely discuss openly the moments that can overwhelm them; however, they tend to encounter them frequently. In policing, these experiences are called critical incidents, which are events that can hit an officer with enough emotional force to shatter their mental health (Rousseau, 2025). This could involve sudden deaths, a violent call they respond to, or when they can feel a person’s safety is at a huge risk. This can last in their mind for a few minutes, all the way up to months, affecting them. Departments often turn to Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), which is a way to help officer share their experiences and learn about certain stress reactions in these types of situations. It is a way to help them talk about their experiences openly with others. It can help people feel safe when using it, but most police officers tend not to use this program.
It’s not only the events that affect the officer; according to Maguen et al. (2009), there are routine work stressors that can also affect an officer mentally. This could be the everyday stress from being an officer, to just their role, and not knowing what to do in certain situations.
What Stress Looks Like From The Outside
Rousseau (2025) describes this as how a stress reaction shows up in both the mind and a person’s body. It can be fatigue, tightness within the chest, or much more. They can have a difficult time concentrating or have a sudden shift in their emotions, which could lead to officers shutting themselves off from others or reacting to small situations too intensely.
Many officers choose to stay silent because they are afraid of speaking up and possibly getting moved departments or fired. They tend to worry more about their jobs; they would rather struggle than admit it to others. The possibility of being moved to a different team or department lingers in their mind because they can feel it shows everyone that something is wrong with them, and they don’t want their peers to think that. There is also an unspoken culture of policing where working through your struggles in silence is better than opening up to others.
Why This Silence Matters
Being silent about your experiences does not make their reactions go away. According to Maguen et al. (2009), it was shown that stress just accumulates over time. Their trauma won’t disappear if they stay silent over it; instead, it will just get worse the less they talk about it with others for support. When an officer fears seeking help, they are carrying the weight of the experience silently, making everything seem normal on the outside, while inside, they are struggling. Without support, the officer can struggle with the experience months after the incident happened, which can make it harder for them to focus, regulate their emotion,s or even keep their bonds with fellow officers if they start to push them away.
A Better System
Departments can start to break their silence by making mental health programs feel safer instead of having officers feel there is a risk if they speak out. There can be routine check-ins that are confidential, the same as peer support groups from others struggling silently. They need to be given a safe space with no risk to talk about their trauma. Small shifts in police culture such as this could make a huge difference for departments by making officer speak to others about what is going on without the risk and fear of losing their job.
Police work is done by humans who have emotions and fears, officers tend to take in fear, and grief and shock often without safe spaces to process what these experiences take from them. For officers to become healthier and safer system needs to be created to make sure they seek help and don’t suffer in silence.
References:
Maguen, S., Metzler, T., McCaslin, S., Inslicht, S., Henn–Haase, C., Neylan, T., & Marmar, C. (2009). Routine work environment stress and PTSD symptoms in police officers. Journal Nervous Mental Disorders, 197(10), 754–760.
Rousseau, D. (2025). Module 6: Trauma and the Criminal Justice System. Lesson 6.1: Trauma and Policing: Critical Incidents. Boston University, MET CJ 720: Trauma and Crisis Intervention.
Rousseau, D. (2025). Module 6: Trauma and the Criminal Justice System. Lesson 6.1: Trauma and Policing: Signs and Signals of a Stress Reaction. Boston University, MET CJ 720: Trauma and Crisis Intervention.