Your Mission If You Choose To Accept….

Photo byDavid Williams

The following was submitted to us concerning the new direction of the El Paso Police Department. EPPD now bars officers speaking to their spouses, or anyone else, about their jobs.

Police work through the years have changed dramatically especially dealing with critical incidents that can leave a permanent scar to the individuals mental health. Police work through the simulations of Military Duties are often subjected to horrific type of scenarios that are part and parcel of the services provided. The deep psychological effects differ from individual to individual and the outcomes can be mild to severe depending on the mental, emotional, and the physical aspects of dealing with stressors in the work environment.

Military personnel are often met with hostility on the battlefield, this is expected because you represent the hostile wars of enemy territory. We expect the compound of compromises when we are fighting an enemy, boot camp and specialized units must have you mentally prepared to meet the elements of battle. Often when people come back from battle that person you once knew as funny, happy-go-lucky is met with a changed framework mentally and the person is not the same as they once was. The horror and terror of one’s experience becomes a lifetime of nightmares and deep-rooted psychological problems that cannot be fixed magically with a few appointments for therapy.

Trauma is an act of its own free will and it’s own complexities dealing with its integral webbing and success depends on the individual. In Vietnam, the average combat soldier was only 19 years of age and shipped off to a foreign country fighting extreme jungle warfare. It was frowned upon for any soldier who complained of any mental psychosis associated with combat. “Suck it up soldier” was the treatment of any “mental” related problems.

Policework is no different, it consists of the same formalities as a Military person except their combat zone is within their “friendly fire” of answering to various calls. The average Police Officer in the United States are subjected to more harm mentally outside of a war zone than inside a war zone. We have kids carrying the authority upon their uniforms in the realms of a badge and a gun. We expect kids to brainstorm, problem-solve, and utilize critical thinking to de-escalate an individual who is facing a mental breakdown or some other incident involving a close encounter with the authority of law.

Like the Vietnam war, Police officers never receive a hero’s welcome, their job is purely to keep the peace and return home to their families. But the scenario drives deeper in the mind of an Officer. Think about the stressors you face every day as you wake up, shower, get dressed, make your morning coffee, drive to work and are met with deadlines and endless other obstacles you are faced with inside the office.

An Officer is met with uncertainty every day when they put on that uniform. It sounds cliché but in the realms of reality, an Officers job is now under the microscope of public opinion on everything they do, from writing reports to solving a problem to having to use force on a combative subject, or worse be subject to hostile fire that could end their lives.

The emotional, mental pressures of an Officer have increased over the years due to political mainstream attacks on Police Officers, defunding the Police, and the racial inequalities between Police and the community/cities and neighborhoods. To make matters worse their supervisors and department turn their back on them causing endless stressors toward their work environment. If you are a patrol officer today you are heading for a mental crisis and unfortunately, the department does very little to adequately protect their own who are forever combating external and internal factors of their work environment.

We have seen throughout the country Officers sustained suicidal thoughts, mental health problems, divorce, child custody disputes, financial problems, infidelity, drug abuse, alcohol/substance abuse, and extreme violence. Officers don’t trust their own department to speak up against their mental well-being, they feel if they speak up they will be marked as a problem child, a stigma that follows them throughout their careers. You can be assured they will be the butt of all jokes and ridiculed because we know how fast rumors spread across regions throughout the Department.

Let’s look at a perfect example of Mental fatigue, stress, and the absence of care from the El Paso Police Department. The failure to grant the very essence of humanity was evident on October 16^th, 2022 at 8500 Dyer. Officers were attending the parking lot of the EP Club House to keep the peace. A week prior an e-mail was released by Sgt Patrick Natividad warning of potential trouble with the EP Club House as a discharge of a firearm was evident that the e-mail was necessary to warn officers and supervisors of the potential problems associated with the bar. Officers were called to the EP Clubhouse due to a threat made against the bar staff that customers would return with weapons to shoot up the bar.

This call created an event that nobody was prepared for. You have seven Officers who were soon met with hostile fire that broke out into the parking lot where officers who put their own lives ahead of their community raced to the deadly fire. The flashing of muzzles, the sound of gunfire, and the screaming of individuals created a scene of absolute chaos. Officers observed a male subject to had been shot in the chest and stomach, the subject was bleeding out slumped between two parked vehicles. The crowd, who were military, and were intoxicated had turned their anger onto the Officers believing they were the ones who shot the subject. Officers desperately attempted to calm the crowd, but they were heavily outnumbered and at the time outgunned, to make matters worse individuals were running around with guns pointing out, that there was no way to decipher good from bad. The Officers called for immediate assistance from FMS to help save the individual while at the same time, officers attempted in every aspect to save the life, calls for backup from all regions were initiated and the scene was determined as an Active shooter with casualties.

There is no training that the Academy can portray of the events that took place that night. This is way beyond the capacity of writing and role-playing a real event of dire circumstances. The seven Officers were on their own, fighting off a crowd while attempting to save a man’s life. Another Officer joined the isolated seven who left his post from working the desk and observed two Police vehicles at a nearby location that remained parked at the scene ignoring the officers’ pleas for immediate assistance. An Acting Commander (poor choice) Lt. Frank Rodriguez ordered the Sergeant at the scene to stand down and directed that Sergeant to not move or render any Officer assistance.

The other Officer joined the seven and now we had a total of eight officers amid a murder scene. The emotional, mental, and physical toll these officers endured were faced with a life-or-death scenario all created in a matter of seconds. The urgency to control, organize, protect, and to serve in a “fight or flight” incident. These officers had no choice but to fight, their courage in protecting one another and their community gave precedence over the true nature of the scene.

Yet, their thanks from their Acting Commander – Frank Rodriguez was a stroll or a Sunday drive from within his patrol vehicle after everything was rendered safe of course, there was the belittling and rage of why a Lt. Alonzo Torres was not taking control of the incident. Their Department ignored any form of gratitude for their service, not a thank you from the Silver Badge Police Newspaper, not a thank you from other supervisors, or their “normal” commander. The department turned its backs on eight heroes who deserved to be recognized and gained true medals of honor and made a fine example of Police work beyond their scope of training.

The reason I know this story in depth is because my husband was able to talk about the incident freely in a secure environment, October 16^th, 2022 changed eight officers’ lives that night, their outlook, their experience, and their work ethic have forever changed in their hearts and their souls.

Nobody can understand the horrific events that took place, the sounds, the sights, the smells, the senses overload of what they saw, what they endured, what they eventually succumbed to. Police work is never easy especially when a department turns their very backs on their own for doing an incredible job. Eight Officers grew closer, due to a bond they made purely by circumstances beyond their control. The department never once asked if any Officer that night required any mental therapy, counseling, or anything. They were left to their own, this is a recipe for complete and utter failure on the Department.

The Officers may not have taken up the offer or they may have chosen to do so, we shall never know because this formality and their right for mental well-being was never considered. The department never acknowledged their acts, they – the department (Internal Affairs) disciplined my husband for writing a document against Lt. Frank Rodriguez. My husband wrote in an emotional account of the events that unfolded pointing out violations of Policy and Procedures, failure to act, render aid, and cowardness. Lt. Frank Rodriguez was unfounded and acquitted of all counts of wrongdoing.

The detrimental effects mentally, emotionally, and physically, are compounded by the lack of decency, respect, and backing from the El Paso Police Department to follow through and correct these wrongs. How does this affect a person’s outlook for being an El Paso Police Officer, simple it creates distrust, resentment, bitterness that can lead to the complete failure of Policing.

There have been many studies attributed to the success of mental well-being between husband and wife when a spouse is working in a profession of Law Enforcement. It is vital for the success of a marriage to have open lines of communication, the discussion of one’s work and their day is vital for longevity openness, and trust. The freedom to vent, to gain understanding through a safe environment is important for any relationship. It is known when communication fails so does intimacy, the bond, the trust, and therefore love is lost. The barriers often form a spiraling downfall such as alcoholism, drug/substance abuse, hostility, marital affairs, and violence within the home.

Officers need a chance to be able to speak freely to their spouses for mental health, for ideas, and support, when we cut the lines of communication and support from our loved ones, we isolate ourselves, that often lead to despair associated with negative confusing thoughts that can manifest themselves into loss of hope, loss of sleep, irritableness, and darkness.

It’s tragic to believe that if any of those brave Officers who may have got seriously wounded or died at the scene you would have seen an outcry of people crawling out of the woodwork standing up and taking credit for their honor, but luckily this never happened, instead they all went home at the end of their shift, not one person stood up for these brave souls and spoke on their behalf. Instead, they were forgotten, thrown away, concealed, “it never happened”, “what call”, “There was no call at 8500 Dyer” As a society and as a community we must strive to serve our Officers better and understand the deep scars they carry for it’s not the scene of 8500 Dyer that gives them nightmares it’s the lack of support they received from their own Department.

In many ways The El Paso Police Department resembled the war in Vietnam, for they too are the headlines of quotes:” None of them received a hero’s welcome”. No officer should be subjected to silence, or to take away their very right of verbal communication with their significant other. If they take away an officers right to discuss their concerns with their spouse, what other rights will they take away from you?

Communication is vital in all relationships for healing, for coping, it doesn’t surprise me to see a Department with a Crisis Intervention Team for exterior assistance with mentally ill subjects who can’t seem to understand the concept of taking care of their Officers internally. That is the injustice of irony, led by an out-of-touch Chief (Chief Pete Pacillas).

Officers will simply refuse to do their jobs, deliberately hold back, second guess, and retreat from acting. If you are an El Paso Police Officer, you will be suspended for hours for simply doing your job, or being accused of false narratives regardless of any facts, or evidence presented, the mere mortality of whether “they” believe it to be true means you did do the act in question.

Mental Health in this Department is simply a band-aid effect, the real cause goes beyond external factors, instead, it’s the reality of the internal factors. An Officer is not worthy of being cared for unless you hold high stakes politically. It’s a “do as I say culture and not what I do profession”. The community must expect better transparency, better results, more from their Chief of Police. A Chief of Police must be decided by the people for the people and have a term of Office in place of 4 years. If it’s good for a president then it is good for a Chief of Police in the City of El Paso.

How many more good men and women who wear the uniform will be subjected to mental anguish at the very hands of its department? A department that can’t care for its own cannot care for its community. I didn’t even mention the “officer saves a life” incident where my husband was condemned by his own Department for saving a man’s life. I will save this story that we are all aware of for a fully illustrated hardback book that I am writing to open the chapters and the eyes of Police Departments versus Mental Illness. I shall end with this quote:”2792 a Hero without a Badge” ……Once again my husband was persecuted by the hands of his department for doing what was right, for being compassionate, for being true to his oath and office.