Page 37 - FOP August 2021

were happening.’ I’m like, ‘Nobody does.’”
A sergeant who works in one of the Department’s front-line pa-
trol units admitted there is a dearth of recognition of how the job is getting to officers. He sees them react to fireworks like they are shots fired. He has seen the pressure mounting from the scruti- ny of the media, politicians and oversight committees and being tasked with doing more.
“The psychological, physio- logical, social, emotional and spiritual changes our officers are going through are tremendous and probably unlike any oth- er profession,” he details. “And I don’t know that we are doing an adequate job of preparing people for those changes and those ex- pectations.”
Attack on your resiliency
This is the climate Lodge 7
wants to step into and step up
to with resources and solutions.
Mette’s scroll calls have been de-
voted to identifying providers
equipped to fill the gaps. He is being detailed and thorough, as any Chicago Police Officer is trained to be and every Chicago Po- lice Officer should expect.
“I will make sure they are in it for the right reasons and not just because they want to make money,” he pledges. “That’s not what I want for our members. You know, being the police, we have pretty good bullshit detectors. If we sense bullshit, we’re just going to shut down, and the treatment is not going to be effective.”
Lodge 7’s professional counseling team will include resources like retired CPD Officer Rob Casale. A licensed clinical counselor who works for the First Responders Wellness Center in suburban Chicago, Casale served for 22 years, until August 2020, developing expertise in verbal de-escalation and force mitigation. He moved to the Education and Training Division after a long stint with a tactical unit where he earned five Department commendations
and more than 100 honorable mentions.
Casale analogizes the effect of the past 14 months on his sisters and brothers to what happened to NFL legend Junior Seau. Suffering from chronic traumatic encepha- lopathy (CTE), a progressive and fatal brain disease resulting from repeated blows to the head, Seau took his own life.
Weekend after weekend laced with so many shootings and blood on the streets are excessive blows that are further debilitating an already depressed force.
“The depression is debilitat- ing,” Casale observes. “It can get to a point where the things you used to enjoy doing, you don’t enjoy doing anymore. You just sit there. It’s almost like you’re stuck at your couch because you have
no desire or energy to get up.”
Dr. Robin Kroll, a board-certified police and public safety
psychologist who runs groups for Chicago Police Officers at her
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At the end of the day, members should do something like take their hats off to realize they are no longer the police.
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