This policy is applicable in the funeral following the death of an active, ‘good-standing’ sworn Law Enforcement Officer who is not on-duty. The term ‘good standing’ relates to death, which might not result from:
Criminal act or;
Any attempt to escape prosecution concerning a criminal act, or;
Any other equally dishonorable action
Planning and Coordination
While funeral arrangements for the officers who commit suicide will usually be simple in terms of complexity and scope, there is a need for considerable planning in the realization of proper delivery of ceremonious honors. Planning is also necessary for the effective utilization of the Honor Guard and the agency personnel. Well-trained Honor Guard unit will handle all the duties concerning the funeral of an officer who commits suicide with consideration of the size of the burden on the unit.
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Based on this, there is a need for consideration of the effective employment of these assignments by proper handling and staffing.
Incident Commander: Decision-making authority as the overall commander of the funeral activities
Liaison Officer: Point of contact ideal for the different agencies
Operations Office ensures ideal relief as essential during the operational period while coordinating safety activities.
Planning/Logistics: Planning of the chronological chain of events while acquiring the essential elements
Ceremonies Group Officer: Leader tasked with coordination of the ceremony-related activities, as well as functions.
Traffic Group handles and plans diverse traffic considerations inclusive of packing.
Family liaison: the officer acting as the main point of contact for the relevant family members and survivors
Public Information Officer: Coordination of the necessary contact with the media
Procedural Components
The policy advocates diverse ceremonious honors associated with the funeral for the officers who commit suicide, but on a smaller scale. The different honors, which must undergo consideration, include flag-draped caskets with the national colors, firing parties, and playing of the taps.
Other Ceremonious Functions
Critically, it is incumbent on the incident commander to establish the honors afforded to the officers who commit suicide at their respective funerals. Nonetheless, the establishment or determination of such honors must incorporate these minimum considerations:
The wishes of the survivors or family members of the deceased officer
The needs of the officer’s agency in question
The community’s needs
The ability of the agency to deliver specific components
Besides, the agency should consider incorporating the following ceremonious elements during the funeral program of a law enforcement officer who commits suicide:
Casket Watch: The ceremony will require two officers at the foot and head with periodic guard change in the monitoring of the casket
Shrouded Squad: Displaying polished agency squad
Ceremonial pillow: Placement of the color-coordinated pillow with diverse agency patches or emblem at a prominent location with the hat of the fallen officer
Cordon of honor: positioning of some attending officers outside the venue following the movements of the casket while saluting the casket as it passes by
Casket Team: Officers assigned to monitor the movements of the caskets during the events
Moving Salute: during the visitation, coordinate officers from different agencies will move past the casket to offer their respect through a salute
Color Team: Presentation of colors at the arrival and departure of the family members or survivors
Flag folding team: The ceremony relates to the folding of the flag draping the casket
Bag piper: Playing of ideal musical selection at the different venues
Final salute: rendering of the final salute by the departmental honor guard following the conclusion of the visitation or ceremony at the graveside
Critically, several variables might come into play; nonetheless, the above guideline offers effective preparation and efficient use of the Honor Guard community in depicting commitment of the agency to the law enforcement family.
The rationale for the policy
Based on the details of the above funeral policy, it is ideal for showing commitment to the Law Enforcement family. Additionally, the funeral program and ceremonies need to leave lasting impressions to the loved ones or survivors of the fallen officer. An agency should honor fallen brothers or sisters in the most effective traditional and time-honored ceremonious approaches, particularly in the most tragic time in the lives of the survivors and the agency in the collective context.
In most cases, the agency, as well as the society, holds the officers up to high standards, thus, failing to take good care of them. In the above policy, there is a critical indicator of the need to treat such officers, who commit suicide like, other officers who die in the line of duty. Most of the officers who lose their lives through suicide fail to receive substantial emotional and financial support, particularly to the survivors or family members like their counterparts of the normal loss of life in the line of duty. In certain instances, there are no flags offered during the ceremony (Ramchand et al., 2019). Other officers fail to gain an honor based on the different kinds of memorial celebrations based on their duties or commitment to the achievement of the goals and targets of the agencies in place. It is appropriate to note that for the survivors such as husbands or wives to the deceased, they always get married to their spouse in becoming part of the blue family. Based on this, it is appropriate to consider the delivery of quality celebrations in offering positive impression for their duties to the agency and the society.
I believe that the above policy is appropriate because of the need to ensure that officers get the recognition they deserve for their role. For example, take a case of an officer who has been eager to put on the uniform daily. Throughout the officer’s 14 years of service, he has had the chance to work patrol, as well as undercover narcotics officers. In other instances, the officer has had the chance to work as a school resource officer (Valentine, McKell, & Ford, 2018). When the job begins to tear at the officer, he begins to depend majorly on alcohol and other drugs in the course of coping with his feelings.
The officer might experience something triggering or traumatic in the course of his work activities spiraling into drinking and depression. Such an officer would call in sick as a platform to isolate himself from others in the course of executing the duties. Such pressure might lead to committing suicide since the officer might not be in a better position to look for help to overcome the mental condition (Hsu, 2017). The policy is in place to help overcome a lack of recognition for such workers or officers who showed commitment to the agency in the execution of their duties with the required diligence.
I believe that when addressing the funeral arrangements concerning suicide, it is essential to adopt cautiousness in proceeding with the events; thus, the need for the adoption and optimization of this policy. The development or generation of the policy is essential in ensuring that the agency proceeds with caution while avoiding to pass judgment as to the reasons for the suicide by the officer in question (Walker, 2017). The ceremonious activities concerning the funeral should serve as ways of honoring the way that the officer did execute his or her duties; thus, it should not depend on the circumstances of death through suicide.
References
Hsu, A. Y. (2017). Grieving a suicide: A loved one's search for comfort, answers, and hope . Inter-Varsity Press.
Ramchand, R., Saunders, J., Osilla, K. C., Ebener, P., Kotzias, V., Thornton, E., & Cahill, M. (2019). Suicide prevention in US law enforcement agencies: A national survey of current practices. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 34 (1), 55-66.
Valentine, C., McKell, J., & Ford, A. (2018). Service failures and challenges in responding to people bereaved through drugs and alcohol: An inter-professional analysis. Journal of inter-professional care , 32 (3), 295-303.
Walker, R. S. (2017). After suicide: Coming together in kindness and support. Death studies , 41 (10), 635-638.
