Video, audio feeds add stress to officers, chaplains

The No. 1 credentialing agency for police chaplains is the International Conference of Police Chaplains (ICPC). Recently, ICPC held it Regional Training Seminar at Branson, Mo., with nearly 200 chaplains in attendance.

Most were new chaplains seeking to complete the 12 basic courses required for full membership and recognition as a chaplains in ICPC. Others were further along and were attending enriched classes or an advanced class in Critical Incident Stress Management.

Since I am at the Master level with ICPC and am credentialed to teach the 12 basic courses, I attended and taught the course on "Confidentiality and Legal Liability." Frankly, this was a tough course to teach since there is much that is constantly changing in these areas.

For instance, one pastor/chaplain pointed out that if a pastor did not want to perform a wedding for a homosexual couple it was imperative for the church to have in its By-Laws a statement to the effect that the church does not endorse such weddings.

Without such a By-Law statement, the law requires someone who performs weddings to do so for any couple. Most of the chaplains did not like this intrusion into church life, but marriage and weddings were taken over by the government many years ago.

A church's (or pastor's) preference is no longer considered important nor needed. Some states such as Kansas, do not even require someone who is performing a wedding to be an ordained minister. Almost anyone may officiate at a wedding ceremony and sign the wedding license.

Another area that has changed since 2013 concerns a police agency's liability for chaplains. Chaplains are now listed specifically as Public Safety Officers, and, as such, are covered by United States law in the same manner as are academy trained law enforcement officers.

This applies whether the chaplain in a "sworn officer" or an "on-call chaplain" who is called only for specific situations. The meaning of this is twofold: (1) The moment a chaplain is called to assist a law enforcement agency, he or she automatically becomes a Public Safety Officer and the agency is responsible for his or her actions. (2) Because the pastor/chaplain called to serve a law enforcement agency is considered a Public Safety Officer, he or she is eligible for the same line-of-duty death benefits as police officers. This is currently around a third of a million dollars.

In an ad hoc poll taken by me at the ICPC Seminar in Branson, perhaps more than a third of the police chiefs around the Midwest are not aware of this significant change in the law. However, it may be substantiated by contacting the Department of Justice. It is likely that many attorneys also are not aware of this change in the law.

The government recognizes that not everyone serving as a police officer is academy trained. There are dispatchers, animal control persons, chaplains and others who are not academy trained police officers commissioned to uphold the law. However, these other public safety officers also are trained to perform effectively in their respective fields of service.

With the implementation of the audio video equipment now utilized in police cars and sometime by law enforcement officers wearing "body cameras," the confidentiality normally afforded officers and a chaplain within a patrol car has been seriously eroded.

Everything is now recorded and videoed automatically, and it is almost impossible to turn them off for a private conversation. Thus, while the audio video equipment is extremely worthwhile in police work, it has increased the stress life of officers who now have to find another place and time in which to confidentially share their stress with their chaplain.

We live in an age of litigation and are constantly spied upon by someone.

Our mobile phones are a case in point. It was recently demonstrated on television how a person may take someone's picture and record their conversation without them knowing it, and then play it back immediately. Thus, our world is growing smaller and more connected than ever before.

We may not like it, but it still exists and we must learn how to live with it. Frankly, the chaplains did not like it much when I taught it in Branson, but as I pointed out: I'm sorry, folks, I don't like a lot of it either, but that's the law.

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Box is the chaplain for the Bella Vista Police and Fire departments. The opinions expressed in this column don't necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.

Editorial on 05/20/2015