LAW enforcement officers are going outside the police force in search of therapy for stress related disorders, a condition that psychiatrists say may well explain the May 10 beating of a couple inside Half Way Tree square in the capital.

In the past three years, psychiatrist Dr Sidney McGill said he treated between eight and 10 police officers annually, up from the four and five he saw in earlier years.

“They come in because of personal or family issues. Up to last week I had one,” said McGill of the Family and Counselling Centre based in Ocho Rios.

“The problems are usually family or relational and you can understand that if they are having these major stresses at home then it is going to impact on their work and vice versa.”

Margaret and Leroy Berry, who have since been charged with assaulting the police and resisting arrest, were beaten after the husband was accused of illegally operating a taxi after they had pulled in to a gas station in Half Way Tree.

The altercation developed after an officer at the scene accused Leroy, 38, of operating an illegal taxi and demanded his car papers.

Margaret, 42, intervened when the policeman began hitting her husband with his baton, inserting herself between the two men.

She too was beaten and pepper sprayed, and during the melee, her blouse was torn off.

Dr Wendel Abel, psychiatrist with the University Hospital of the West Indies, says the police are clearly overworked, but also testing their sanity, he said, are the gruesome crimes they investigate daily under circumstances where communities are often hostile.

“We have one of the lowest ‘police per capita’ in the Caribbean and they work under stressful situations,” said Abel.

“There are high rates of injuries and murder by citizens. That must be psychologically difficult for police in this country.”

A former policeman, who spoke to Sunday Observer on condition of anonymity, attested to Abel’s observation, saying the job can easily dehumanise police officers.

He said he was always aware of the public’s contempt and hostility, to which he responded with greater hostility in the execution of his duties.

“If you are being shot at, sometimes you feel that you are shot and after a time you don’t really business. You just want fi kill ‘the boy’,” he said, using the contemptuous reference that the police attach to suspected illegal gun wielders.

“There were times too that when you have to deal with triple and double murders when gunmen kill each other or innocent people. Sometimes the police take it personally and set an example of them, killing them in public. It is a cycle and it magnifies and before you know it you become something that is not human,” he said, recalling his experiences in the high tempo Kingston Central and West Kingston police divisions.

Things got to a stage, he said, when he resolved simply to eliminate those who could not be helped.

“I am an absolute person, and by this I mean I can’t do anything half and half,” said the cop.

“I am always for the good, but I adopt the philosophy to help the man in the direction he is going. I tend to be very sensitive to find out the motives of people. So if you are a criminal and it is because your parents force you into it or you never know better or something like that, I will sit with you and talk with you,” he said.

“I would help them to find jobs and with their ‘baby mother’ issues and money. I would journey with them through whatever pain. But if I realise that they have little or no interest after a period of time, then my help would be to eliminate the threat – send them to hell.”

The ex-cop now says that therapy helped to save his life.

Abel, who would not divulge the number of police officers he treats each year, says there is open resentment and distrust of constabulary members, even from persons who call on them consistently to exercise their authority, adding, however, that some of the hostility is explained by the police’s history of violation of human rights.

“Maybe it has to do with how we perceive the police. They represent the authority component of the state, and the citizen sometimes perceives the police as being excessive, as repressive, as being anti-poor people, especially by people in the inner-city,” he said.

Beyond that, he said, the police are not immune to Jamaica’s culture of violence and overt aggression.

“We can’t separate the police from the rest of the society,” said the psychiatrist. “I am not saying it justifies it, but it must be challenging to police a society that is characterised by a culture of aggression,” he said.

Commenting on the May 10 incident, the ex-policeman, who is now in his thirties, said the Berrys should have complied with police directives to produce the car papers.

“People need to respect the police,” he said simply.

Psychiatrist Dr Terrence Bernard, echoing the ex-policeman’s sentiment, said the public had a responsibility to ensure cooperation with the police, saying the lack of civility was as much a problem outside as it was inside the force.

“The problem could result from the way we relate to each other. We seem to have a problem with conflict resolution in this country,” said Bernard.

“I believe it is a relationship problem that occurred in that situation where it is a reflection of our society where we are unable to relate civilly to each other.”

Abel suggests even more training for the police to improve their communication and relational skills.

“I don’t think they do enough of that; like training them with role-play,” he said.

The Berrys are to reappear before the Halfway Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court on June 1 to answer the charges against them. Police commissioner Lucius Thomas has also disciplined the police officers involved in the fracas.