Dealing With The Loss Of An Officer

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Dealing with the loss of an officer can be tough for any department.

Fellow officers are left to cope with the loss while also trying to do a stressful job.

In August, tragedy struck the Columbus Police Department when Captain Stacey Deans passed away after a long battle with spinal problems.

“I had to talk to the staff here,” said Columbus Police Chief Fred Shelton. “Everybody was shook up, everybody was tore up. I had to come and I had to use some of my intervention skills to help everybody get focused.”

Then, just last week, it struck the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department when Lt. Tammy Prescott passed away after her fight with cancer.

Whenever a department loses an officer, a sense of sadness quickly spreads throughout the office.

“It’s a loss and what we have to do is learn to replace that loss with something positive,” said Shelton.

The loss of an officer is something Chief Shelton unfortunately knows all too well.

“I can recall about three here at the police department,” said Shelton. “We’ve had a couple officers die due to cancer.”

Shelton admits, dealing with the loss of an officer never gets easier.

However, as the chief of police, it’s his job to keep morale up even in times of grief.

His department is prepared, and will even bring in counselors to help officers during these hard times.

“We have Police Chaplaincy Training that helps us to deal with officers during their grief,” Shelton explained. “We have Critical Incident Stress Debriefing, and we have used that in the past. It helps us to manage our grief through a process of talking about it, getting it out, letting go of the pressure and the pain.”

In March, Shelton attended a Police Chaplaincy Training that deals with helping officers handle grief.

He said each officer grieves differently.

Some may need to take a few days off, while others will workout or do things to stay busy.

“Find something that makes you happy,” said Shelton. “Find a positive place, a happy place that you can go to when you’re in the middle of dealing with stress and if it gets too much, at least talk to someone. Find someone to talk to, confide in them, tell them what’s going on, and find help. Columbus Police Department, we provide training for our officers. If they need help, we’re going to get them help.”

Within the past two months, three officers in our viewing area have passed away while serving and protecting their communities.