Civil unrest is more and more becoming a frequent reality for public safety agencies across the country. It doesn’t matter whether the upheaval is driven by political conflict, protests for social causes or the aftermath of natural disasters; the situation for first responders on the front lines is always challenging and often dangerous. While public safety agencies must stand at the ready to manage these volatile and often dangerous situations, it’s equally important to prepare personnel for the mental, emotional and physical impacts that come with civil unrest.
This is where peer support teams come in. If your agency already has a peer support team, congratulations — you’re ahead of the curve. But simply having a team isn’t enough; your team must be prepared for the specific challenges that civil unrest presents.
Many in public safety expect to see a significant uptick in civil unrest events in the coming months and years. What follows is a step-by-step guide to getting your peer support team ready for the next major upheaval. You’ll learn how to ensure your team and leadership are in sync, how to prepare your rank and file, and how to make sure families and outside resources are integrated into your plan.
The importance of readiness cannot be overstated. Civil unrest has wide-reaching consequences for your agency and your community, and physical and mental health are critical to ensuring personnel make the best decisions in fraught and stressful circumstances. With a robust peer support plan, your agency will not only be ready for the next bout of unrest, but will also be better equipped to protect and retain your employees for the long term.
1. Prepare Your Agency Leadership
The first step in preparing your peer support team for civil unrest is to ensure your agency’s leadership is on board. While they may be focused on other things, leaders must recognize the importance of mental and emotional support in handling civil unrest. If leadership is already thinking about the possibility of unrest, it’s time to take their awareness a step further by making peer support a formal part of the operational planning process. If your top brass hasn’t considered the likelihood of coming violence, it’s time they got on board.
Meet With Leadership
Your first move as a peer support leader is to meet with your agency’s command staff. Explain the likelihood of civil unrest and stress the importance of being prepared both physically and mentally. Many leaders may not initially see the importance of incorporating peer support into operational planning, but this is where you need to emphasize the real-world psychological effects civil unrest can have on their personnel.
Officers and public safety employees will be dealing with situations that involve violent protests, verbal abuse, aggressive crowds and other stressful scenarios. These events can result in trauma exposure, heightened anxiety and mental fatigue. If left unchecked, these stressors can lead to longer-term mental health issues, burnout, moral injury or even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Make sure leadership understands that emotional and psychological care will be necessary not just during the event but also before and after. The peer support team can offer this care, but it’s imperative that leadership backs these efforts.
Incorporate Peer Support Into ICS
Agencies often utilize an Incident Command System (ICS) when managing large-scale events, such as scheduled protests. Your peer support team should be part of the ICS planning process. By folding peer support into ICS, you ensure logistical, emotional and mental health needs are built into the operational response. This helps make sure every role is covered and no part of the support effort is left to chance.
Integrating peer support into the ICS plan allows for emotional check-ins, stress relief efforts and follow-up care after the event, such as post-incident interventions and check-ins, helping to reduce long-term psychological impacts on personnel.
Advocacy for Psychological Support
Make it clear to your leadership that public safety employees — both sworn and not — will likely face psychological challenges before, during and after events of civil unrest. Peer support teams are there to offer physical, emotional and moral support. This might involve brief counseling sessions, checking in on personnel during and after their shifts, and even identifying personnel who may be overwhelmed or who need to step away temporarily due to trauma or impairment.
You’ll want your leadership team to understand the effects of civil unrest extend far beyond the event itself. It’s not uncommon for employees to experience delayed emotional responses. They may struggle with sleep or face anxiety as they prepare to return to work. Your peer support team can help mitigate these issues by offering resources and support.
Key Steps:
- Meet with agency leadership to discuss the importance of peer support in civil unrest scenarios.
- Advocate for peer support to be included in the ICS planning and execution.
- Ensure leadership understands the psychological toll of civil unrest and gets on board with the necessary preparations.
2. Meet With Your Peer Support Team
Once your leadership team is on board, it’s time to meet with your peer support team. During a civil unrest event, your core group needs to be ready to face multiple possible scenarios, and it’s crucial to get everyone on the same page regarding roles, responsibilities and expectations.
Define Roles and Responsibilities
Start by defining the roles your peer support team members will serve during civil unrest. Are they going to be involved directly in the response, assisting with logistical support, or are they there mostly to offer emotional aid? Determine whether team members will be primarily on the front lines, or if they’ll be operating from a separate, more neutral location.
For the members of your team who will be serving in support roles, ensure each of them is assigned a specific task or area of responsibility leading up to and during the event. Consider delegating someone to serve as a single point of contact for the team during civil unrest. This will often be the peer support coordinator, but depending on the scope of your agency’s operations and the size of the event, you may need to designate additional points of contact.
Proactive Peer Outreach
One of the best ways to prevent stress buildup is to start offering support before an event even takes place. Encourage your peer support team to reach out proactively to their colleagues, reminding them that help is available and offering a listening ear ahead of time. This can help build trust and foster a sense of security so when the time comes, employees know where to turn for help.
Also, encourage your peer support team members to brush up on their training. The skills required to support fellow employees during an event as intense as civil unrest are perishable and must be reinforced and refreshed from time to time. The team should be well-versed in de-escalation strategies, crisis intervention and stress management techniques.
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Train for Psychological Warfare
Rioters and violent protesters frequently use psychological warfare tactics, and your team must be prepared to help others navigate these challenges. While most protestors are well-meaning community members, some are agitators trained to incite, disorient and distract first responders. Methods can range from verbal harassment to physical acts meant to provoke a response. It’s important that your peer support team is prepared to coach others through these stressors so they can maintain composure.
Remind your team members that they, too, will be affected by the stress of civil unrest. Have honest conversations about the emotional toll extended periods of civil unrest will take on everyone involved — including peer support members themselves. Your team must be ready to lean on each other during these events.
Prepare for Real-Life Situations
It’s easy to focus solely on the operational aspects of civil unrest, but it’s equally important to remember that life doesn’t stop during these periods of crisis. Families will still need care, personal emergencies will still happen, and your peer support team must be ready to step in when personal crises threaten to interfere with professional duties.
Consider this real-life scenario: During a previous civil unrest event, the son of one of our officers broke his arm so badly he required hospitalization. The officer, however, was on the front lines handling crowd control and couldn’t answer his phone. We’d established a direct line for such emergencies that rang to a peer support team leader. His spouse was able to reach out and our peer support team stepped in, arranged for care for the officer’s son, and asked an agency chaplain to visit the hospital to be there for the family. Peer support team members working support services on the protest line were able to locate the father and tell him what had happened, assuring him everything was taken care of. This allowed the officer to stay focused on his job without worrying about his family’s immediate needs. He and his wife later reported that having those plans in place ahead of time put their minds at ease and reduced the stress surrounding this event.
Having a peer support team that is prepared to handle both the professional and personal needs of your employees is key to maintaining morale and focus during civil unrest.
Key Steps:
- Define roles and responsibilities for the peer support team.
- Proactively reach out to peers before an event occurs.
- Prepare your team for the psychological challenges they’ll face.
- Be ready to handle personal crises that may occur during civil unrest.
3. Train Your Rank and File
With your leadership and peer support team fully briefed, it’s time to conduct training for the entire department. Civil unrest impacts everyone in an agency — from sworn officers to civilian employees — and it’s important everyone receives the same information and preparation.
Cross-Agency Training
The first step is to ensure your training reaches everyone in the agency, sworn and non-sworn alike. This isn’t an easy task in large agencies (or, to be fair, in small agencies), but there are ways to ensure the message gets out. Large-group training sessions can be effective, but if that’s not feasible, smaller groups or individual video-based sessions can also be used.
Regardless of the medium used for training, it’s crucial to be explicit in the information you provide so everyone gets the same message. You may want to record a training video that can be distributed across the agency to guarantee uniformity of the information that gets delivered.
Resilience and Stress Management Training
A major part of this training should focus on resilience and stress management. Civil unrest can last for days or even weeks, and the physical and emotional toll it takes on public safety professionals is immense. The training should include exercises and scenarios that help employees mentally prepare for the challenges they’ll face. You may want to leverage existing resilience training programs or create new training materials in collaboration with peer support team members, trusted clinicians or health and wellness experts.
Teach employees self-care strategies to help them cope with the physical and emotional demands they’ll encounter. Give them tips on how to decompress and debrief with their families after shifts.
Most importantly, provide methods and language to empower them to talk about their experiences openly with their peers. We all know the stigma against opening up and being vulnerable still exists within public safety agencies. As a team, though, you can give your people permission to feel and cope with the impact of the things they’ll see, hear and do.
Recognizing Signs of Stress in Peers
During civil unrest, officers and public safety employees will need to rely on each other to stay mentally and emotionally composed. Part of the training you provide should focus on recognizing signs of stress in peers. Educate your employees on the symptoms of burnout, anxiety and trauma so they can support each other in the field.
Make sure everyone knows how to offer support in the moment, whether that means simply offering a listening ear or helping a colleague step out of a stressful situation. Also, empower them to alert supervisors or peer support members if they notice one of their colleagues struggling.
Plan for Personnel Rotation
One effective way to prevent burnout during civil unrest is to rotate personnel out of high-stress areas. During the training, make sure employees understand the importance of giving each other breaks and taking turns in the most intense roles and locations. Peer support teams can help facilitate this by monitoring the emotional and physical state of employees and suggesting breaks when needed.
Encourage your employees to bring a change of clothes or spare uniforms with them, as they may need to refresh themselves after particularly intense encounters. Being prepared for long, stressful shifts is key to maintaining resilience.
Finally, ensure all employees review and update their emergency contact information. This simple step can make a big difference if someone is injured or incapacitated during the unrest.
Key Steps:
- Ensure cross-agency training on resilience and stress management.
- Teach employees how to recognize stress in their peers.
- Encourage personnel rotation to prevent burnout.
- Ensure emergency contact information is updated across the agency.
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4. Inform Family Members
Just as important as training your staff is preparing their families. Family members are the first line of emotional support for public safety employees, and they need to understand what their loved ones will face during the kinds of events we’re anticipating. Preparing families in advance can help mitigate anxiety and stress for both employees and their loved ones.
Use Virtual Meetings for Family Training
Gathering all family members in one place for training is unlikely, but virtual meetings can be a great way to reach out. Small-group video conferences or recorded sessions can help families understand the potential impact of civil unrest on their loved ones and provide them with tools to offer support.
Make sure families understand that civil unrest can be unpredictable, and they may not see their loved ones for extended periods. Prepare them for the emotional toll this absence might take and provide them with strategies for coping.
Encourage Practical Preparations
Encourage families to take practical steps in preparation for civil unrest. This includes reviewing and updating emergency contact information with the agency, schools and other organizations. Families should also be prepared for the possibility of being isolated for extended periods. You might also talk to friends and family who can assist with getting kids to school (and other activities) and running errands while first responder families are keeping a low profile.
Some families may need to make the decision to relocate temporarily if their neighborhood is directly affected by civil unrest. Others may choose to hunker down or even double up with close friends or coworkers’ families for mutual support. In all cases, making plans ahead of time will reduce panic and anxiety during the event.
Psychological Preparedness for Families
Family members need to understand the mental and emotional toll civil unrest can take on their loved ones. When employees return home after their shifts, they will likely be exhausted, anxious and emotionally drained. Encourage families to be patient and supportive during these times.
Families should also be prepared for the possibility that their children may face stress or discrimination because of their parent’s occupation. Children may be singled out at school or in other social settings, and it’s important they know how to handle these situations. Encourage parents to talk openly with their children about what to expect and how to respond. You can even provide easy answers to difficult questions like “Isn’t your dad a police officer?” or “My mom says all cops are racist.” Give them permission to walk away and make sure they know they don’t have to “defend the honor” of their loved one.
Finally, encourage families to limit their exposure to media coverage during a civil unrest incident. While it’s natural to want to stay informed, constantly watching news coverage can increase anxiety and stress. Instead, encourage families to focus on positive, engaging activities that help distract from what might be going on in the outside world.
Key Steps:
- Use virtual meetings to inform and prepare family members.
- Encourage families to make practical preparations for civil unrest.
- Prepare families for the emotional and psychological impact on their loved ones.
- Advise families to prepare children and limit media consumption during civil unrest.
5. Secure Outside Resources
During periods of civil unrest, your peer support team will likely need to rely on outside resources to provide comprehensive care for your agency. Mutual aid agreements, health care providers, mental health professionals and community organizations can all play a role in supporting your agency’s response.
Strengthen Mutual Aid Agreements
Start by reinforcing mutual aid agreements with neighboring agencies. These arrangements ensure your agency can draw on additional manpower and resources if needed during a large-scale event. It’s important to contact these agencies ahead of time to confirm their continued willingness to assist and to coordinate efforts between your peer support teams.
Alert Mental Health Professionals and Chaplains
If your agency has mental health professionals or chaplains on staff, alert them in advance so they can prepare for their role during civil unrest. These professionals can offer critical support to employees who are struggling with the emotional toll of the event.
Also, don’t hesitate to reach out to professionals from outside your agency. Building a network of counselors, therapists and chaplains who can provide remote or in-person support is crucial for managing the mental health needs of your employees.
Engage Retirees and Volunteers
Retired public safety employees can be a valuable resource during civil unrest. Many retirees are eager to remain involved with their agencies and can offer assistance with logistical support, peer support, or even just providing moral support to those on the front lines.
Volunteers and family support groups can also play a role in providing meals, emotional support or logistical assistance during extended periods of unrest. Identify trusted individuals or organizations who can be relied upon to help during these events.
Key Steps:
- Strengthen mutual aid agreements with neighboring agencies.
- Coordinate with mental health professionals and chaplains for emotional support.
- Engage retirees and volunteers for additional assistance.
6. Gather Needed Equipment and Supplies
Preparing for civil unrest isn’t just about emotional support — it’s also about ensuring your team has the physical supplies they need to stay safe and comfortable. Having the right supplies on hand can make a significant difference in your team’s ability to maintain focus and resilience during long, stressful shifts.
Stage Supplies in Multiple Locations
One of the most important steps is to stage supplies in different locations near the event. Civil unrest can cover a wide area, and you’ll want to ensure items you’ll need are readily available to your team, whether they’re in the “hot zone” (where the unrest is happening), the “warm zone” (a safe space near the action) or in the “cold zone” (a haven where personnel can rest and recover).
Essential Supplies for Civil Unrest
Make sure you have the following supplies on hand for your team:
- Water: both for drinking and washing off tear gas or other irritants.
- Healthy snacks: individually packaged for safety and convenience.
- Pain relievers: ibuprofen, pain relieving patches or other medications.
- Other first aid items: eye drops, antibiotic ointment and bandages
- Hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes and baby wipes: for cleaning gear and face masks.
- Extra clothing and PPE: staff may need to change out of contaminated uniforms or gear.
- Charging cables and power packs: for both personal cell phones and agency equipment.
- Backpacks or wagons: to transport supplies between different locations.
To be prepared for an extended event, stock enough supplies to last several days or weeks. It’s impossible to guess how long unrest may continue, so it’s better to be overprepared than underprepared.
Key Steps:
- Stage supplies in multiple locations near the event.
- Stock essential items such as water, snacks, pain relievers and sanitary supplies.
- Ensure peer support has access to supplies in all response zones.
Act Now
Civil unrest can erupt with little warning, and the emotional and physical demands it places on public safety employees are significant. Preparing your peer support team to handle these challenges is essential to ensuring the mental health and well-being of your entire agency.
By following the steps outlined above, you can prepare your peer support team, leadership, rank and file, and family members for the demands of civil unrest. Your team will be better equipped to provide emotional support, mitigate stress and ensure your employees remain resilient during these high-stress events.
With a comprehensive plan in place, your agency can face civil unrest with confidence, knowing the mental and emotional well-being of your team is a top priority. Start preparing now to ensure that when the next wave of unrest hits, your peer support team is ready to offer the support your employees need.
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