A Seattle police officer is under investigation over comments captured by his bodycam after another officer fatally struck a pedestrian. KING's Sebastian Rob...
Like many jobs, you need empathy in order to do your job well, but you also need to remain detached for the sake of your mental well being. How do you balance those two things? Clearly, this officer hasn’t figured it out, but how? (That’s a rhetorical question. I’m just wondering how it’s done in an effective and healthy way, I’m not asking you specifically.)
You confide in your peers. Hopefully you have some who can be trusted to understand you feel too emotionally invested, and need to develop some emotional detachment. You confide in them, they confide in you, and neither of you believes the other is a psychopath, even though you’re saying every intrusive thought that comes into your head, without trying to filter it out first.
And if you’re real lucky, you do that without recording it for the whole fucking world to judge you.
Like many jobs, you need empathy in order to do your job well, but you also need to remain detached for the sake of your mental well being. How do you balance those two things? Clearly, this officer hasn’t figured it out, but how? (That’s a rhetorical question. I’m just wondering how it’s done in an effective and healthy way, I’m not asking you specifically.)
You confide in your peers. Hopefully you have some who can be trusted to understand you feel too emotionally invested, and need to develop some emotional detachment. You confide in them, they confide in you, and neither of you believes the other is a psychopath, even though you’re saying every intrusive thought that comes into your head, without trying to filter it out first.
And if you’re real lucky, you do that without recording it for the whole fucking world to judge you.