PAX Centurion - Spring 2019

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • Spring 2019 • Page 9 Treasury Notes: Robert P. Colburn, BPPA Treasurer Police Officer burnout: It’s starting earlier and afflicting younger cops. Here’s why... B URNOUT. We’ve all had that feeling, and we’ve all seen it in our fellow officers and partners. It used to be that “burnout” – the onset of repeatedly negative feelings about the police job, the department, and interactions with the general public – began to set in at about the ten-year mark (generally speaking). But today, for a number of reasons, it seems to be afflicting younger officers with only a few years on the job, and I think I know a few of the possible reasons... Almost all new officers straight out of the academy come on the job “full of piss and vinegar,”as the saying goes. At first, police work is exciting and offers what appears to be real opportunities to help people and make the world a better place. In our City of Boston, the starting pay is acceptable and the possibilities to earn extra money through overtime and detail opportunities seem to be appealing. Chockful of new ideas and philosophies from the police academy and equipped with the latest technology (well, some of it anyway...), every new rookie arrived at his/her first assignments with the idea that they will never succumb to the cynicism and negative attitudes of the older veteran officers they were forced to train with. But then, reality sets in.... Those overtime opportunities that at first sounded appealing became mandatory, forced-overtime shifts, often imposed five minutes before the end of a scheduled shift and requiring an abrupt, disruptive and upsetting “change in plans” for the kids and spouse. That baseball game or family barbeque you planned on going to in an hour or so when your “regular” shift ended?…well… it just got canceled. And despite the fact that you may have worked a 16- 18-hour day already and are dog-tired, well… if the “needs of the department” (the BPD’s “catch-all” phrase) require it, they’ll keep you for a third tour. Your “regularly scheduled days off?” They’re canceled because of another parade, or protest, or road race, or whatever stupid event the city carelessly and cavalierly schedules without any concern for the police officers who are ordered-in on days off to work them. Your “old friends” – you know, the ones who work Monday thru Friday from 9-5? They can’t understand how you can never make it to a birthday party or get-together on a weekend anymore, because “she/he’s always working.” Soon, they don’t even bother calling you ... Quickly, you learn about the omnipresent “Police department internal politics.” It infects every corner of your workplace and determines who you can/cannot, should/shouldn’t talk to or associate with. One wrong comment or an offhand joke can land you in Internal Affairs with your job on the line. Everything you do and everything you say, is – in today’s world – under intense scrutiny, second-guessed and criticized. Your mere presence at a protest, car accident or family trouble call (which they – John Q. Public – originally demanded your presence at!) is met with an onslaught of cell-phone cameras in your face, each critic just waiting… hoping… for their “you-tube” moment. We have had many of our officers disrespected, demeaned, and vilified by the judges, defense attorneys, (and sometimes even the prosecutor’s office!)when you attend court. Your word, your testimony, is immediately questioned, NOT the suspects! Your endless hours of paperwork and/or rolling around on the ground with suspects who were resisting arrest is dismissed as nothing more than “a little hurly-burly... to be expected” (to paraphrase BMC Judge Mark Summerville, for one example).Cases are routinely dismissed without your knowledge, or quickly “CWOF’ed” because of a technical error or because of a paperwork snafu at the end of another long, tiring double-shift, again, without telling you... Despite the fact that you know and have been told by family, friends and a few wise veteran officers who are near retirement that your family should be your top priority and the most important thing in your life; you have missed yet another family obligation due to mandatory overtime. By the time you get home from one 18-hour- long day, it’s time to report back for another double-tour day. Each day slides into another. One family-trouble call sounds distressingly like all the others. You begin to think “you’ve heard it all before”... because you have! You have come to understand why cops work an extra voluntary detail or overtime shift beforecoming to work for their regular tour – in order to avoid being ordered to work!(We know, it makes no sense to the average person, but that’s the life of a Boston cop in 2019! – Work extra before your shift – or be ordered to work extra afterwards! At the end of the year, without fail, the media has a field day with your paycheck (it’s public information)saying “look how much these cops made last year!” We are caught in a vicious cycle. You eat like crap (and you generally eatcrap! ) and always on the fly, because as soon as you sit down to eat, you’re called off your Code 10 to take another backed-up call due to chronic shorthanded staffing. But ifyousit down for a meal inside a restaurant, you can be guaranteed that somebody will stop you in mid-meal to complain about people doing drugs or the homeless outside and “why aren’t you doing something about it, officer?”So you learn what all veteran cops learn –nevereat in public if you want to be left alone. Eat at the station ...or hide. Every time you try to enforce a law or an ordinance (which the self-righteous neighborhood groups demanded you doat those obnoxious community meetings!!!)you end up with another cell- phone, or two, or five, in your face, and another IAD complaint. The simple act of issuing a ticket often results in another TAB or a negative letter put in your personnel folder. You’re called a racist, a sexist or a homophobe at least once every day, and your only recourse is to shut your mouth and take it in silence. The pressure builds because you can’t say anything, not even in the station anymore, without somebody taking offense. Years ago, after a regular shift, cops would socialize together to blow off some steam and enjoy a few laughs. Not anymore! Too risky, and everybody’s busy or ordered to work. The BPD’s softball league had to be cancelled because teams couldn’t be assured of having a minimum of nine players show up – even on a supposedly quiet Sunday morning, due See Treasurer on page 45