Drunk driving charges against police reveal struggles to deal with trauma, psychologists say

As the list of Manitoba police officers facing drunk driving-related charges continues to grow, psychologists and counsellors say police departments and society at large need to do more to encourage service members to seek help.

On Friday, the Winnipeg Police Service confirmed that four of its members are facing impaired driving charges, and charges are pending against a fifth. The same day, Mantioba RCMP announced they had charged a 17-year member with impaired driving and refusing a breathalyzer.

In October, police arrested and charged Const. Justin Holz, an eight-year WPS member, after Cody Severight was hit and killed in a collision on Main Street. Holz faces a number of charges, including dangerous driving causing death and driving with a blood-alcohol level over .08 per cent causing death.

Severight's death sparked discussion around a perceived culture of drinking in the police force. In the hours before Severight was killed, it's believed that Holz had been drinking with colleagues at a downtown bar after they all finished  their shift.

While he has condemned the behaviour of police officers who drink and drive, Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth has challenged the idea that the service has a problem with drinking. On Friday, he reiterated that.

"We have 1,400 members on the police service. There's no indication that 1,400 members are subjecting themselves to binge drinking," he said.

"I'm not naive to think there isn't some going on, but I think that's over characterizing [to say] that the whole service has got a drinking problem."

Smyth said there hasn't been a lot of research done on how many police officers in Canada struggle with alcohol abuse.

"I don't know what the percentage is for people that are challenged by the stress of our job or if they're choosing to engage in unhealthy drinking. But I stand by what I said — the vast majority are not."

A 2014 health and wellness survey conducted by three criminology professors from Simon Fraser University hired by the Winnipeg Police Association suggested hazardous drinking within the force is a bigger problem, WPA president Maurice Sabourin said.

Drinking as a coping mechanism

But psychologists and counsellors who have worked with police officers say it's a common coping mechanism to handle the stress of the job.

Jordan Hansen is program manager with Minnesota-based Hazelden Publishing, which provides services to help people recognize and overcome addiction issues. He says experiencing daily trauma, and chronic pain in some cases, can lead some officers to using alcohol to cope.

He also said many officers feel that people outside of law enforcement don't understand them, and the only people they can talk to are other officers.

"I think some of it is a reaction to the nature of job and I also think that some of it is sort of a subculture of being a little bit outside the law or above the rules in some way," he said.

Megan McElheran, a clinical psychologist with WGM Psychological Services in Calgary, works with people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. She says alcohol is a way of calming a nervous system that has gone haywire.

"Booze unfortunately works — it's a nervous-system depressant, so it's going to slow things down, calm things down. But then unfortunately, as happens for all of us, it disinhibits and it makes things worse."

After their shift they typically go down to the bar, have a few drinks, and talk about their day and that's their psychological therapy for the day, is talking to each other drinking.- Elizabeth Willman, Waukesha Police Department counsellor

​McElheran said she's concerned by the number of officers facing drunk driving charges.

"Frankly it's a sign of a group of people, an organization that is struggling with the highly stressful, traumatic nature of their job and they're not encouraged to talk about any of their vulnerabilities."

Elizabeth Willman agrees that it can be difficult for officers to open up.

She's a licensed professional counsellor who works with the Waukesha, Wis., police department, riding along with officers in the field and helping them deal with stressful incidents. She says officers are held to a higher standard than other people.

"Due to the culture, the thin blue line, they do not communicate feelings," she said. "They won't reach out for help because a lot of the things that they see, hear, feel, experience — typically, as a culture, they don't feel that they're understood," she said.

Historically, alcohol has served as a legal and acceptable way for some police officers to deal with the stress of their job, Willman said.

"After their shift they typically go down to the bar, have a few drinks, and talk about their day and that's their psychological therapy for the day, is talking to each other drinking."

Willman and Hansen both said the perception of police officers as "super-human" can make them reluctant to acknowledge their problems, and some officers fear there could be professional repercussions if they admit they're struggling.

Departments need to provide services

Willman says leaders in police departments need to take the mental health of their officers seriously and provide a variety of resources, including therapists, religious counsellors, and peer support programs.

Chief Smyth said the service's internal behavioural-health unit provides resources to officers who might be struggling with an addiction to alcohol.

The program is voluntary, though, and Sabourin says it doesn't have enough staff to meet the needs of service members, with only two full-time staff for the entire service.

"We know that levels of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder are through the roof for our people and it is a major concern for us," Sabourin said.

Smyth said the service also has mandatory treatment programs and he is considering increasing the ability for supervisors to refer officers to those programs. Sabourin said he doesn't think that's the way to go.

"I've dealt with a lot of substance abusers in my line of work and it's usually the person that has to make the decision," he said.

McElheran, Hansen and Willman all say society, generally speaking, needs to reduce the stigma around mental health problems.

"I think we need to help our first-response folks learn how to better differentiate [between] being in operational mode and then being in human being mode," McElheran said.