Police Seminar on Stress is Given High Marks; More Will Take Part in Future

              Police Seminar on Stress Is Given High Marks; More will Take Part in Future
By MARY DURUSAU
Journal Staff Writer
A one-day stress seminar for area
law enforcement officials Friday re-ceived
enthusiastic reviews and plans
are under way to have all Shreveport
police take part in similar, future
workshops.
"This is the kind of thing we've
needed for a long time and we intend to
do a lot more of it," was Capt. John
Easom's assessment of the seminar.
Easom and about 40 representatives
from other law enforcment agencies
attended the stress seminar at the
Shreveport Police and Fire Academy
Friday. Easom, an administrative assis-tant
to Shreveport Police Chief Cliff
Heap, said the department hopes to
have all of its police force attend
similar workshops.
Most officers who attended Friday's
session are supervisors and part of the
programming was geared toward help-ing
them recognize stress in their force
members.
But Easom said the police depart-ment
is hoping to continue the seminars
with the help of Dr. Eddie Vetter, a
humanist in residence for the city of
Shreveport. Vetter, chairman of the
sociology department at Centenary Col-lege,
coordinated Friday's seminar
"We feel like this is the type program
we need," Easom said. "Dr. Vetter has
already been asked to continue doing
this type of program for us as long as he
can," he added.
Assisting Vetter in the seminar were
Dr. Raymond Hicks of the Shreveport
Chamber of Commerce and Dr. Ronald
Nathan of LSU Medical School.
Nathan told the officers some warn-ing
signs of "stressers" or situations
which bring on stress. He said officials
should look at prospective officers to
see if they have had a lot of "life
changes."
"If that person has had a lot of major
changes in his life he is liable to be
under a lot of stress," he said, adding
that the day-to-day role of police of-ficers
is filled with stress.
"When you go into a stressful situa-tion,
when you're called on to in-vestigate
a crime, your body goes into
action and the adrenalin starts flowing
and your heart starts beating faster.
Your 'tiger juices' get going," Nathan
said.
The problem police officers face in
handling stress is that they go into tense
situations dozens of times a day but are
not always called on to take action such
as apprehending a suspect.
The police officer also has to shoulder
the general public's image about law
enforcement officials. "He is supposed
to have complete control of his emo-tions,"
Nathan noted. "But almost twice
as many police officers die by their own
hand rather than on the street."
The officers also participated in dis-cussion
groups on things they find cause
stress. One local official said he hopes
the program will first be made
available to the veteran officers. "The
young guys need it too, but they haven't
had time to get screwed up and have all
these .things build up in them like some
of the older guys," one officer said.
There was a lot of,joking among the
officers when the session opened but the
mood quickly became serious as the
officers shared their common worries
and "on-the-street" encounters.
Death of a fellow police officer, cases
in which children are the crime victims
and a constant concern with money
rated as some of the major stress
causes among local.law enforcement
personnel.
"We see other people's actions
motivated from within but we see
ourselves as reacting to outward
forces," Nathan said. "Part of the
switch we're inviting you to make is to
let out some of the things that go into
your police uniform."