Click Here for our Tactical Study on Suicide.

The Current System: For the past seventy years the criminal justice system in America has relied heavily upon the theories of psychology as the basis for all types of treatment and rehab programs aimed at chemical and substance abuse, addictive behavior, offender rehabilitation, and relief for our stressed law enforcement officers. These expensive programs and services typically include the use of mind-numbing drugs and address only the symptom instead of the deeper spiritual issue.

Let’s let the statistics speak for themselves:

· The ratio of LE suicides to line-of-duty deaths remains greater than 3 to 1. In other words, we still lose three times more officers to suicide than LOD’s.

· Consistently over 80% of offenders continue to find themselves back in custody somewhere within a year of their release in spite of all the psychology-based “offender rehabilitation” programs.

· New jails and prisons are filled almost faster than we can construct them just to keep up with the growing offender population. In many instances we are releasing truly dangerous criminals to make room for the new ones.

· CD treatment has become a multi-million dollar industry with little to show for its great cost to the taxpayers


Why psychology is not working:

At best, when addressing law enforcement suicide prevention strategies, psychology can only deal with external symptoms when they surface, which is usually too late. The theories of psychology do not recognize nor touch the underlying issue of a broken and wounded human spirit, overwhelmed by trouble, despair, and feelings of hopelessness and helplesness. Consequently the symptoms often recur and end in another tragic law enforcement suicide, even after a 72-hour mental health evaluation has been performed and the officer has been cleared. And how many LE suicides do we hear about where there were absolutely no warnings or indications of any trouble in the officer’s life? Too many to count.

LE suicide prevention cannot work at the “mental health” level at all. It is indeed an issue of the human spirit. Therein lies the true hope found in the Word of God!

So why do we keep turning to psychology for help in this area when it is clearly not working? Is it time we try something else? Maybe we should reconsider the now politically-incorrect perspective of countless generations which went before us and who made it through the toughest of times without the use of depression medications and mental health professionals.

Course Content:

I. Who Wants to be a Cop? Is that your final answer?
II. The Law Enforcement Personality Profile
III. The Occupational Personality Cycle
IV. The Stress Factor
V. Indicators of Debilitating Job Stress
VI. Officer Suicides
· Risk Factors
· WARNING Signs
· Reproducible Direct Questions and Responses Sheet
VII. Managing and Coping with Stress
VIII. Conclusion

We would be honored to have your agency host this free class which runs approximately two hours in length. I will even treat the Chief or the Sheriff for lunch just for the privilege of presenting this potentially life-saving material to their officers!

POST Status and Discrimination Policy:

In PURSUIT! Ministries is seeking sponsorship as approved by the MN Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training for this course. Peace officers who successfully complete this course would eventually receive continuing education towards their POST license. A class roster will be maintained at our Home Office with the course file. The roster will list the names, license number, and continuing education hours for those who successfully complete this course.

IPM endeavors to provide training in an environment free of discrimination or prejudice. Acts or comments of discrimination or prejudice by faculty members, staff persons or students will not be tolerated. Complaints of inappropriate behavior based on race, gender, creed, age, color, religion, national origin, or marital status may be communicated in any form to Chaplain Tim Sherman, Director. All complaints received will be thoroughly investigated. Any questions about this course can be directed to Chaplain Tim Sherman, Director, at 218-841-9194 or by mail at PO Box 432, Detroit Lakes, MN 56502.

We also have another option for you:

A Biblical Approach to the CISM/CISD:

For those officers who would prefer to seek a Christian approach to Critical Incident Stress Management based upon the Truths of the Bible, we offer a Biblical Model for CISD in which we complete each phase of the standard 7-Phase model for CISD, explaining the temporary relief that bearing one another’s burdens will bring. This is a Biblical concept.

We take time to explain the psychological theory behind each phase and why the standard debrief event is only a temporary “fix;” and because the experts themselves tell us that the debriefing is not the time or place for “therapy” we do not include the presence of a “mental health professional” in the debriefing. Further, we find little to no common ground between psychology and the Truth of God’s Word, especially in the case of situations which we believe are not mental issues to begin with such as LE suicides.

We touch gently and tactfully upon what part of a human being is really traumatized in a critical incident; then we provide our 24/7 contact information and offer confidential free one-on-one follow-up to those who may find themselves still struggling with the event later down the line and who may decide to call us. We do all this from a truly Biblical perspective without any preaching or proselytizing.

Please contact us if you would like this class presented to your officers or if we can help you with a debriefing at any time.

Call Chaplain Tim Sherman at 218-841-9194 or email Chaplain Sherman at: tsherman26@yahoo.com