Touted as the first of its kind in law enforcement, the Phoenix Police Department’s force of roughly 3000 cops patrolling the nation’s fifth-largest city will receive training in mental health awareness, specifically in traumatic brain injury (TBI) demographics and nuances. Partnering with the Barrow Neurological Institute, all newly-hired Phoenix police officers will receive the TBI training, thanks to the brainchild of Phoenix PD police Chief Jeri Williams.
Chief Williams approached the Barrow Neurological Institute administration requesting additional mental-health awareness training for her cops. The seeds were sewn and a public safety service was hatched. The implementation of mental-health dynamics fulfill the law enforcement agency’s strategic plans to champion progressive police services to the Phoenix-area populace. Given Barrow’s proximity, it is beneficial to Phoenix PD to have a premiere neuro-health institution right in their backyard. Synonymously, patients receiving surgeries, treatment and rehabilitation at Barrow—especially those who may reside locally—become benefactors of its police force being better positioned to not only to properly gauge the situation but to more readily handle individuals’ behavioral comorbidities stemming from TBI-related origins.
Offering the agency’s philosophy and purpose for the police/Barrow partnership, Detective Sabrina Taylor, Phoenix police crisis intervention specialist, said, “It really helps in many different facets. When you start talking about traumatic brain injuries, you’re not only talking about the brain. People who have a traumatic brain injury often suffer from anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, physical disabilities, or if they could look cognitively normal but could have this impairment surprises people.”
Similar police training which rolled out in rather limited fashion over the last few years was in the realm of autism, analyzing the bases and symptoms culminating in perceivably aggressive behavior whereby no ill intent is actually present. Cops and citizens diagnosed with autism have had tough rows throughout recent years. Media reports emphasized ill-trained cops which spawned police training in all-things-autism.
Like autism training for police personnel, TBI studies and exposure for Phoenix cops entailed basic humanistic responses to otherwise complex neurological disorders compelling inexplicable behaviors which cops may be hard-pressed to address without a depth of understanding: “It allowed us to talk about a wide range of behaviors and abilities and really increase officer awareness of some of the challenges that people might be dealing with,” Detective Taylor said.
Barrow’s social worker, Ashley Bridwell put the potential encounters between police/TBI patients in this context: “In the field, oftentimes, those symptoms related to traumatic brain injury when having an interaction with a police officer can look like or be misconstrued as non-compliant or difficulty with respect for authority.” That is the exact same scope of police/autism interactions whereby the seemingly aggressive stance posed by an autistic individual may be immediately mistaken by law enforcers as threatening, resulting in an otherwise-avoidable horrific outcome. Police trained in autism traits and behaviors have a more viable chance to circumvent such misconceptions by reading the signs and responding accordingly to this unique demographic.
Like any bona fide police training, the academics of what is being studied is best delivered by experiences of other cops (pro/con outcomes), experts and professionals speaking about whatever subject matter is on the table, and actual folks befitting a certain demographic for which the class is convened. In that regard, experienced law enforcement personnel provide fact-based scenarios while clinicians from Barrow convey scientific/behavioral aspects bolstered by people who have suffered a TBI incident…and survived to talk about their struggles and successes.
Bridwell availed the tri-fold agenda at Barrow: “When we look at traumatic brain injury, we look at impact at three broad categories: physical, cognitive and emotional.” From a police perspective, an individual diagnosed with a TBI may not have the capacity to physically adjust him/herself as directed by a cop. That ordinarily is denoted as “noncompliance,” a bad start. Cognitive limitations may easily be received as ignoring police presence and dialogue attempts. Emotional possibilities of how humans react (or not) to social circumstances which may engender cops can also go south. Insights pertaining to TBI dimensions can abate the potentially ugly aftermath and inherent black-eye optics upon police trying to process extraordinary behavioral distinctions.
As a retired cop and father of a daughter whose intense autism defaulted to self-injurious behavior and a non-verbal nature, I am outside looking in and inside looking out. Having handled several police service calls pertaining to individuals with autism, I had the awkward luxury of fully embracing the nuances presented by autism and how a cop ought to process such interactions. No fault of their own, most cops do not have the insights necessary to be dutifully aware and helpful. That is why training such as the TBI indoctrinations being given to Phoenix cops is instrumental and mutually benefitting for all parties.
Just as cops are trained to stop the threats, police officials can avoid would-be threats by discernment provided by science and what we know about certain census demographics embattled by brain injuries evoking misunderstood behavioral patterns.
Although billed as unique among American law enforcement agencies, a diaspora of TBI training in most if not all of our country’s almost 19,000 police entities would behoove not only the police profession but also those who endure the effects of a rattled cranium computer. Soldiers know the spoils of war, including a short-circuiting brain. I suspect the number of police officers shot in the head and survived the trauma have much to contribute to the matter. The former are individuals volunteering to offer cops what it is like to be a TBI casualty, accompanied by all its component parts. The latter are those police experiences we spoke of earlier, to include a police aspirant who, before setting out on his dream to become part of the thin blue line, was shot in the head, misfortuned by a drive-by shooting in 2010.
His name is Adam Pepiton, 28, and he traverses with the staff at Barrow to indoctrinate cops in the area of TBI and requisite extra police patience when around those like himself. Wheelchair-bound Pepiton told the media, “I just think it’s important for the police officers to understand. We’re doing this for the police officers to get a better understanding of the brain injury community in general.
“I want my experience to help other people, so I’m grateful for the opportunity to tell police officers my story. They do an amazing job protecting the public, and I hope I can give them some tips that help them do their jobs better.”
To his credit, Pepiton has instructed 170 Phoenix police officers, with momentum to teach many more. That means 170 of Phoenix PD’s 3000 or so cops have specific training in TBI-affected individuals to better serve this particular group of citizens. That also means that the nation’s almost-900,000 law enforcement officers are in the chute to receive the same training for America’s approximately 5.3 million TBI sufferers.
Respectfully, Mr. Pepiton speaks in the following video and labors to answer questions, exemplifying the very subject matter we are discussing and how cops can optimize interactions with TBI folks:
