Below are Critical Incidents in Law Enforcement
- LODD
- Serious injury to a co-worker
- Unexpected death of a co-worker
- Unexpected death of a patient
- Particularly gruesome incident
- Dismemberment and/or large loss of blood
- Witnessing a severely burned patient
- Incidents involving death or serious injury/illness of a young child
- Suicide of a co-worker or civilian
- Murder/suicide
- Death of one or more hostages
- Assaults on self or others
- Explicit threats of assault on self and others including colleagues and family members
- Officer involved shooting even when the shooting is completely justified
- Questionable officer involved shooting
- Officer becomes a hostage
- Compromised evidence resulting in release of perpetrator(s)
- Civilian dies or is otherwise seriously injured as a result of department operations (e.g. civilian dies during a high-speed pursuit)
- Catastrophic mechanical failures (e.g. gun jam during a firefight; loss of communications with operational chain of command)
- Breakdown of incident command
- Encountering overwhelming force
- Working under threatening WMD conditions including biological, radiological, chemical, fire, and explosive
- Prolonged exposure to death and dying within a short period of time
- Incidents with particularly strong sensory stimuli (e.g. smell of blood, decomp)
- Knowing the victim
- Identifying with the victim
- Victim is similar in age/appearance to you or a loved one
- Other traumatic incidents within a short period of time
- Prolonged resuscitation with negative outcome
- Dealing with hysterical and demanding family members
- Any incident that has compromised or could comprise one or more person’s ability to function
Note: If you are not certain if you or your organization has been exposed to a critical incident, you are encouraged to contact Dr. Brown for a telephone consult. He will help you assess the incident to determine what response might be appropriate.