Law enforcement officers talk about work stress, burnout, and why they wouldn't trade it for the world

May 18—PIEDMONT — Sgt. James DeVoe sat in an interview room off of the main hall of the Piedmont Police Department as he spoke of why he got into law enforcement.

As National Police Week draws to an end, with agencies across the nation paying tribute to the profession, DeVoe offered a couple of early influences that brought his heart to the badge. One was his interaction with Officer Kevin Blue, a beloved and respected Piedmont officer who died in 2018 after a battle with cancer.

The other was his personal experience with domestic violence.

These days the 28-year-old is a sergeant over the investigative division of PPD. However as a young boy, DeVoe lived a life of child abuse, with his parents in and out of jail.

"I've been there, and I've lived through that violence," DeVoe said. "It's easier for me to empathize with people. I suppose that's one of my strong points."

DeVoe said if he had to pick one reason for going into law enforcement, it would be to be the advocate for kids who find themselves in the same situation he was in.

"I lived that lifestyle where dad beat on mom and kids. Not a lot of people know it but I'm a child and product of parental molestation," DeVoe said. "I've been beat on all my life."

DeVoe said he can't change the circumstances of every child out there. But he can change the outlook of that child, give him hope, and show him that there is something to look forward to.

According to the director of Jacksonville State University's Center for Best Practices in Law Enforcement, Kaleb Littlejohn, if you were to ask any officer why they chose the job, it eventually will always come back to "helping people."

However, that help carries a lot of weight at times.

Heavy work loads, stressful interactions with the public, home/work balance; these are just some of the situations police have to deal with on a day-to-day basis — outside of the explicitly dangerous ones.

"A lot of us are parents too. So you have the stressor of being a parent and working here," DeVoe said.

Officers are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Bedtime routines and dinners with your family are often interrupted.

"Law enforcement doesn't allow you to have a normal life," DeVoe said.

Those who have a more "chill" attitude and let stress roll off their shoulders like water on a duck's back tend to do better in this profession, DeVoe said.

"If you don't, it will consume you," DeVoe said.

To deal with the burnout and work-life stressors, DeVoe said he turns to his family.

"I'll go home, kiss my kids, and we'll just watch a movie or we'll go do something. And once we get into that capacity, if my girlfriend wants to talk about work I make it off limits. This is family time," DeVoe said.

Associate professor at the University of Phoenix and current Department Chief with the City of Las Vegas Department of Public Safety, Kyle Ward had several suggestions to help men and women in agencies of any size process this stress.

Communication is key. Ward's department has developed a peer support team which is overseen by a behavioral health administrator and two chaplains with law enforcement background. With this, he said the department pushes to ensure that everyone from a low ranking officer to the chief has a safe place to communicate what they are going through.

Ward said this communication and level of trust is a must, whether the department has thousands of personnel, or only a chief and two officers.

Ward said that ensuring home/work life balance, creating a safe space for communication — with both the department and family members — as well as providing officers with the tools necessary to decompress, are all essential to mental wellness in the field.

"That's where you run into some of the mental illnesses that we've seen here and the burnout and the turnovers in your staffing levels. Because we can recruit, but if you're losing more people than you're hiring, that's not an effective solution," Ward said.

Helping defuse a suicide attempt, investigating a car accident, or ensuring everyone's safety during an active shooter call all generate extreme stress that needs to be talked through; even the police dispatchers who take the emergency calls experience stress as well.

At the Center for Best Practices in Law Enforcement, Littlejohn said experts focus on a wide range of areas that include mental health and wellness.

Learn to "take the cape off," Littlejohn said.

Littlejohn said most agencies will tell you that some percentage of every police department will experience burnout at some point.

"Some of the things that we teach on how to deal with stress, one of the big things you can do is be healthy. Eat better; be conscious of what you're taking into your body. Exercise; exercising is a fantastic way to deal with stress," Littlejohn said.

Running, lifting weights, martial arts, anything that will get your body moving, is helpful.

"For me personally I like training in jiujitsu and I like to run. Running to me is a great way for me to take time to myself and clear my head," Littlejohn said.

Littlejohn echoed Ward's statements about peer support. His organization partners with a program called the Alabama Alliance for Peer Support in Law Enforcement to host training sessions about once a month. It trains police officers on dealing with their own stress as well as how to talk to other officers to help them cope with stress.

"Law enforcement officers are more apt to talk to other law enforcement officers about the things that they're experiencing," Littlejohn said.

There has to be an upside or no one would want to do it, right? Again, most people will say the reason they became a police officer is to help people.

Littlejohn said the number one upside is to make a difference.

Another upside is the variety of calls officers take. One call might be to help someone get their cows back into their pasture, while the next call might be a domestic violence case. The next might be something simple again like someone locked their keys in their car.

Littlejohn said that part of the work keeps the job interesting.

Also, the bond between law enforcement officers — the relationships they make on the job — is a strong upside to the job.

Littlejohn quoted Theodore Roosevelt.

"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

"I think that quote really encapsulates what being a police officer is all about," Littlejohn said.

Staff Writer Ashley Morrison: 256-236-1551. On Twitter: @AshMorrison1105.