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Marlene Reil's avatar

Y’ll know I’m a mental health professional. To become a “talk” therapist, I had to get 8 years of higher education, do thousands of hours of supervised counseling, take an exam, procure licensure & professional liability insurance. Generally, psychologists can’t write prescriptions. To be an NP who can write prescriptions after my PhD, I did 4 more years of training & more free supervised clinical hours, took 2 exams, licensure (as an RN & an NP), DEA licensure & another controlled substance certificate, more liability insurance. Then there are continuing education requirements. If I were young enough to become a police officer, the training & ed required is a pitiable fraction with no licensure requirements & my record would not be publicly verifiable like all of my current ones. This is a$$ backwards.

Some of what I see in the unarmed people who die in a hale of police fire is a history of trauma some of which is likely self-medicated. We can reform policing in America with more stringent training requirements, require background checks, psych evals, & a screen of social media accounts. POs should be licensed & their record publicly visible. Officers need to be in regular counseling & screened for acute stress disorder, PTSD & substance use disorders. The public and the profession deserve this at least.

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Rich McNally's avatar

I have been saying for a decade..".Less Rambo and More Andy Griffith"

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