Law Enforcement Chaplains: A Confidential Resource
By Gregory J. Amundson, M.A., M.A
Photo by Detective Paul Olsen, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Police Department.
Law enforcement is one of the nation’s most satisfying yet stressful professions.1 It provides ample opportunity for personal growth, meaningful contributions to society, the accomplishment of challenging goals, and a sense of comradery and esprit de corps. However, officers experience multiple stressors daily, including the varying risks of patrol operations, natural and man-made disasters, long shifts, court appearances, and cancelled days off. On top of the emotional strain inherent in dealing with criminal activity and witnessing the pain, suffering, and trauma of their fellow humans firsthand, officers must still juggle demands of their personal lives.2
Over time, the combined impact of these measures affects an officer’s psychological and physiological health. Research shows there is an alarming discrepancy between law enforcement and the general population regarding post-traumatic stress, suicidality, and the perception of seeking help.3
To further complicate matters, some wounds are spiritual in nature and are therefore much more elusive and difficult to heal. These “moral injuries” may be just as harmful to the physical and mental health of an officer as a bodily injury.4 They cause officers to question their tactical decision-making and abilities, which leads to feelings of guilt, frustration, shame, or failure. Moral injuries often happen after enforcing a law that goes against officers’ moral values.5 Officers involved in use-of-force incidents that result in great bodily injury or death to another person may also experience a moral injury.6
Additionally, and most tragically, research indicates that officers are more prone to suicide than the members of the public whom they protect and serve.7 Accordingly, to raise awareness for such a pressing concern, suicide prevention in law enforcement was addressed in a presidential executive order.8 Unfortunately, officers’ stigma of mental health clinicians, fears of being labeled unfit for duty, and lack of importance given toward mental health may have prevented those suicidal officers from seeking the help they so desperately needed.9
Mr. Amundson, a former DEA special agent, U.S. Army captain, and deputy sheriff/SWAT operator, is a senior instructor for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers in Glynco, Georgia.
Barriers
Given the risky nature of the job, officers must have access to wellness resources to help them manage the effects of stress, trauma, and moral injury. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security requires that employees are immediately advised of available wellness resources if they were involved in or witnessed an incident involving force.10 However, not all agencies have similar policies, and officers are left to seek help on their own.
This raises the question, What barriers do officers face when seeking help? It seems that in many instances, the issue is not a lack of wellness options but rather officers’ perceptions of initially seeking these resources.11
Studies have identified three main barriers for seeking help: stigma, concerns about confidentiality, and occupation-specific interactions with community members who have mental disorders. A careful assessment of these barriers reveals that stigma may be the root cause, primarily because the disclosure of an officer’s intentions to get help could lead their peers to perceive them as weak, unfit for duty, and/or associated with community members who display the types of mental health issues that necessitate a police response.12
Therefore, wellness resources that ensure confidentiality and avoid negative mental health connotations may increase the likelihood that an officer will voluntarily seek the help needed.
Chaplains
The crisis of stress-induced health issues and suicide in the law enforcement population brings to light the benefits of a confidential resource always available to officers — chaplaincy.
In addition to confidentiality, chaplains have the training and experience to aid officers at every level of their wellness needs — mind, body, and, perhaps most important, their soul. Further, given the emerging nexus between psychospirituality, resiliency, and post-traumatic stress recovery, chaplains can be a suitable segue for furthering these modalities in the policing community.13
History
The term chaplain traces its lineage to the legendary kindness of a fourth century Roman centurion, Martin de Tours, who was renowned for using his military cloak to aid homeless beggars. His cappa, meaning “a hooded cloak or cape” in Latin, was extended to capallanis (chaplains), or “keepers of the cloak.”14
In the United States, chaplains serve in all branches of the military and a host of government institutions, including police departments, federal law enforcement agencies, prisons, and hospitals.15
The confidentiality afforded to members of the clergy dates to the early 1960s, when most states had developed a statute recognizing clergy privilege in cases where an individual sought spiritual counsel with a priest, pastor, or chaplain acting in a professional capacity.16
Most important, this privilege was acknowledged by the U.S. Supreme Court in Trammel v. United States: “The priest-penitent privilege recognizes the human need to disclose to a spiritual counselor, in total and absolute confidence, what are believed to be flawed acts or thoughts and to receive priestly consolation and guidance in return.”17
Qualifications
Chaplains undergo specialized and professional clinical-academic training in addition to a rigorous qualification process, including ecclesiastical endorsement, an advanced degree from an accredited seminary, and, in some cases, ordination. Those who meet these federal guidelines are considered members of the clergy.18
Benefits
“In addition to confidentiality, chaplains have the training and experience to aid officers at every level of their wellness needs — mind, body, and, perhaps most important, their soul.”
A survey asking officers to rate ten wellness initiatives determined that chaplaincy services are perceived as the second-most effective.19 Chaplains provide confidential services that are free of stigma, such as spiritual care and counseling to build resiliency and heal from moral injuries.
Confidentiality
Officers who speak to chaplains do so with the assurance that their communication is privileged (i.e., confidential) and may not be disclosed to anyone.20 In fact, chaplain-officer confidentiality, also referred to as clergy-communicant confidentiality, is as protected as attorney-client, spousal, and psychotherapist-patient privileged communications.21
In contrast, sessions with mental health workers may be included in an officer’s permanent record.22 There are five instances in which mental health providers are limited in maintaining confidentiality and private information.
- To protect the client or others from harm
- To report criminal conduct
- To assist with military and local criminal investigations
- To provide treatment or assessment information in civil or criminal cases
- To provide fitness-for-duty and psychological appraisals regarding suitability for continued employment, assignments, or promotions23
Within a culture where trust is central to the organization’s value system, the officer is faced with the moral dilemma of seeking help from a professional who may disclose their intentions to other members of the agency. If discovered, officers “fear censure, stigmatization, ridicule, impaired career advancement, and alienation from coworkers.”24
Spiritual Care
In addition to the trust gleaned from constitutionally protected conversations, chaplains ensure that officers receive their right to religion and religious rites, including spiritual care. Chaplains cater to those experiencing concerns such as relationship challenges and divorce, family stress, anxiety, guilt, work stress, spiritual and faith-based challenges, physical health problems, depression, anger, alcohol abuse, post-traumatic stress, and suicidal ideations.25
“Chaplains provide confidential services that are free of stigma, such as spiritual care, resilience, and healing from moral injuries.”
Resilience
A resilient officer utilizes multiple pathways to maintain consistent, healthy levels of physical and psychological well-being after a traumatic event.26 Spirituality is one method that helps build resilience proactively (i.e., before an incident takes place) to counter the negative effects of law enforcement’s response to critical incidents.27
Numerous studies reveal a positive association between chaplaincy, spirituality, and resilience building.28 Chaplains are uniquely qualified to introduce spiritual resilience practices, including prayer and meditation, to Crisis Intervention Stress Management-trained first responders. Additionally, components of building spiritual wellness and resilience include praying, attending faith-based services, participating in religious study groups, exercising, and spending time outdoors.29
Help with Moral Injury and Stigma
Studies also indicate that chaplains better minister to officers experiencing or recovering from a moral injury. Moreover, spiritual services avoid the negative connotations or perceived stigma typically associated with mental health care.30
Conclusion
Agencies should strongly consider making chaplains available to their officers. The assurance of trust that chaplains provide officers may decrease stigma while increasing the likelihood of a positive and voluntary interaction. Given the unique stressors of policing and barriers to seeking help, law enforcement leaders must recognize that chaplains could be one of the most suitable wellness resources available to officers during difficult times.
“The assurance of trust that chaplains provide officers may decrease stigma while increasing the likelihood of a positive and voluntary interaction.”
The author is grateful for the editorial review and cross-divisional support of Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers instructors David Lau, Jeremy Turner, and Terry Page.
Mr. Amundson can be reached at greg.amundson@fletc.dhs.gov.
Endnotes
1 M. Kathrine Abdollahi, “Understanding Police Stress Research,” Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice 2, no. 2 (2002): 1-24, https://doi.org/10.1300/J158v02n02_01; and Mark Anshel, “A Conceptual Model and Implications for Coping with Stressful Events in Police Work,” Criminal Justice and Behavior 27, no. 3 (June 2000): 375-400, https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854800027003006.
2 Cheryl Regehr et al., “A Systematic Review of Mental Health Symptoms in Police Officers Following Extreme Traumatic Exposures,” Police Practice and Research 22, no. 1 (November 2019): 225-239, https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2019.1689129; and Elizabeth Velazquez and Maria Hernandez, “Effects of Police Officer Exposure to Traumatic Experiences and Recognizing the Stigma Associated with Police Officer Mental Health: A State-of-the-Art Review,” Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management 42, no. 4 (February 2019): 711-724, https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-09-2018-0147.
3 Elizabeth Mumford, Weiwei Liu, and Bruce Taylor, “Profiles of U.S. Law Enforcement Officers’ Physical, Psychological, and Behavioral Health: Results from a Nationally Representative Survey of Officers,” Police Quarterly 24, no. 3 (February 2021): 357-381, https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611121991111; and Amy White, Gregory Shrader, and Jared Chamberlain, “Perceptions of Law Enforcement Officers in Seeking Mental Health Treatment in a Right-to-Work State,” Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology 31, no. 2 (2016): 141-154, https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s11896-015-9175-4.
4 Lindsay Carey et al., “Moral Injury, Spiritual Care and the Role of Chaplains: An Exploratory Scoping Review of Literature and Resources,” Journal of Religion and Health 55, no. 4 (August 2016): 1218-1245, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-016-0231-x.
5 Konstantinos Papazoglou et al., “Moral Injury in Police Work,” FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, September 10, 2019, https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/moral-injury-in-police-work.
6 Konstantinos Papazoglou and Brian Chopko, “The Role of Moral Suffering (Moral Distress and Moral Injury) in Police Compassion Fatigue and PTSD: An Unexplored Topic,” Frontiers in Psychology 8 (November 2017): 1-5, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01999.
7 John Violanti, Cynthia Robinson, and Rui Shen, “Law Enforcement Suicide: A National Analysis,” International Journal of Emergency Mental Health 15, no. 4 (2013): 289-297, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24707591/.
8 Joseph R. Biden Jr., Executive Order 14074, “Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety,” Federal Register 87, no. 104 (May 31, 2022): 32949, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/05/31/2022-11810/advancing-effective-accountable-policing-and-criminal-justice-practices-to-enhance-public-trust-and.
9 White, Shrader, and Chamberlain; Kelly Bradley, Promoting Positive Coping Strategies in Law Enforcement: Emerging Issues and Recommendations (Washington, D.C.: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2020), 14-16, https://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/Publications/cops-p375-pub.pdf; and Carolyn Burns and Marla Buchanan, “Factors That Influence the Decision to Seek Help in a Police Population,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 18 (September 2020): 1-26, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186891.
10 U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Update to the Department Policy on the Use of Force, Alejandro Mayorkas, Policy Statement 044-05 (Washington, D.C., 2023), 5, https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-02/23_0206_s1_use-of-force-policy-update.pdf.
11 Jacqueline Drew and Sherri Martin, “Mental Health and Wellness Initiatives Supporting United States Law Enforcement Personnel: The Current State-of-Play,” Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being 8, no. Suppl. 1 (February 2023): S12-S22, https://doi.org/10.35502/jcswb.298; and Jacqueline Drew and Sherri Martin, “A National Study of Police Mental Health in the USA: Stigma, Mental Health and Help-Seeking Behaviors,” Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology 36, no. 2 (January 2021): 295-306, https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s11896-020-09424-9.
12 Caitlin Newell et al., “Police Staff and Mental Health: Barriers and Recommendations for Improving Help-Seeking,” Police Practice and Research 23, no. 1 (2022): 111-124, https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2021.1979398.
13 J. Irene Harris et al., “Spiritually Integrated Care for PTSD: A Randomized Controlled Trial of ‘Building Spiritual Strength,’” Psychiatry Research 267 (September 2018): 420-428, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.06.045; and International Association of Chiefs of Police, “Providing Officers Support Through Police Chaplains,” accessed July 25, 2023, https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/Providing%20Officers%20Support%20through%20Police%20Chaplains_508.pdf.
14 Carey et al., “Moral Injury.”
15 For example, the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
16 “By 1955 thirty states had enacted such statutes. ... From 1955 to 1963 fourteen more states enacted minister’s privilege statutes. Today forty-six states and the District of Columbia have enacted such statutes.” Jacob Yellin, “The History and Current Status of the Clergy-Penitent Privilege,” Santa Clara Law Review 23, no. 1 (January 1983): 95-156, https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/lawreview/vol23/iss1/3/.
17 Trammel v. United States, 445 U.S. 40 (1980).
18 “Support the Battle for Well-Being,” Army National Guard, accessed July 25, 2023, https://www.nationalguard.com/chaplain; “Chaplain Career Opportunities,” U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, accessed July 25, 2023, https://www.patientcare.va.gov/chaplain/Employment_Information_and_Resources.asp; and “Chaplain,” Federal Bureau of Prisons, accessed July 25, 2023, https://www.bop.gov/jobs/positions/index.jsp?p=Chaplain.
19 Drew and Martin, “Mental Health and Wellness Initiatives.”
20 GA. CODE ANN. § 24-5-502 (2022); Lindsay Carey et al., “Religion, Health and Confidentiality: An Exploratory Review of the Role of Chaplains,” Journal of Religion and Health 54, no. 2 (April 2015): 676-692, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9931-2.
21 Trammel v. United States; Jaffee v. Redmond, 518 U.S. 1 (1996).
22 Kimberly Hassell, Police Organizational Cultures and Patrol Practices (El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2006).
23 Celia Fisher, Decoding the Ethics Code: A Practical Guide for Psychologists, 2nd ed. (Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, 2009).
24 Laurence Miller, “Tough Guys: Psychotherapeutic Strategies with Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Personnel,” Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training 32, no. 4 (December 1995): 592-600, https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0033-3204.32.4.592.
25 Carey et al., “Moral Injury.”
26 George Bonanno, “Loss, Trauma, and Human Resilience: Have We Underestimated the Human Capacity to Thrive After Extremely Aversive Events?” American Psychologist 59, no. 1 (January 2004): 20-28, https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.59.1.20.
27 Stephanie Conn, Increasing Resilience in Police and Emergency Personnel: Strengthening Your Mental Armor (New York: Routledge, 2018); and Justine Jaeger, Harvey Burnett Jr., and Kristen Witzel, “Spiritual Well-Being — A Proactive Resilience Component: Exploring Its Relationship with Practices, Themes, and Other Psychological Well-Being Factors During the COVID-19 Pandemic in CISM-Trained First Responders,” Crisis, Stress, and Human Resilience: An International Journal 3, no. 1 (June 2021): 6-21, https://www.crisisjournal.org/article/24858-spiritual-well-being-a-proactive-resilience-component-exploring-its-relationship-with-practices-themes-and-other-psychological-well-being-factors.
28 Harris et al.; Jaeger, Burnett Jr., and Witzel; and Bryan Cafferky, Aaron Norton, and Wendy Travis, “Air Force Chaplains’ Perceived Effectiveness on Service Member’s Resilience and Satisfaction,” Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy 23, no. 2 (April 2017): 45-66, https://doi.org/10.1080/08854726.2016.1250521.
29 Jaeger, Burnett Jr., and Witzel.
30 Carey et al., “Moral Injury.”