chilibreez

THIS. I was a police officer, I was in a full sprint when I fell and hit my head on the asphalt. I've since lost my job (I don't blame them really, I couldn't do my job anymore) but the work comp company has followed me, many of my ex coworkers thought I was lying, (you know, because I was seen walking around and smiling. horrible shit like that) and I can really tell that even my family is losing patience. It's awful. My wife is a very motivated woman who lives a fast-paced life. At first it was working out; she was as patient as you could expect. I had some emotional ups and downs that I had to learn to control, I had and still have issues with memory and confusion, and my speech was fairly poor at the first. I still think quite a bit slower than I used to and it is very frustrating for her. I'm not the person she married; it's always in the back of my mind that I just don't know if she's going to hang in there. I wouldn't blame her; she didn't ask for this and it's hard. It just sucks.

If it does turn out that the shooting was justified, the officer shouldn't have lost his pay. Innocent until proven guilty; in that time that the officer is "off work", he's writing reports, dealing with the inquiry, seeing a therapist, staying away from the media, and dealing with the trauma of having at least shot but possibly killing someone.

I think it would; I earned my degree in criminal justice ten years ago; my sociology/criminal justice professor actually warned us of our current situation.

Municipalities have been putting less money into public safety. The biggest expense there is paying personnel. Pay people less, you get lower quality people. Simple as that. When I was a cop I was lucky enough to be making a great wage for my area so we had great people. Most of us had at least an associates degree, two patrolman (in a department of thirty altogether) had their masters. No shit.

I left the department right around the time the payscale went down. Now I'm seeing more citizen complaints and much higher employee turnover. It's just like any other low paying job. Policing should be a proud career; not something you do because you can.

Policing is a tough job; it's mentally exhausting. You CANNOT expect the average guy to do it. You need high quality people for it and in order to get those people you need to attract them with good wages and benefits.

I have MTBI. My neurologist has been giving my botox injections. They don't cure me, but they help more than anything else I've been given. I've also seen a cognitive therapist about memory. The therapist can help you determine what parts of your memory are damaged (emotional, functional, short term, long term, etc.) and teach you strategies to work with what you have.

I have a brain injury. Yes, it's more commonly called 'losing your filter'. Very common, something I had to learn to control. I would also say some highly inappropriate shit.