IACP2014: Delivering LODD Notifications

Oct. 26, 2014
Delivering a line of duty death notification is something L.E. agencies should handle with care.

Delivering a line of duty death notification can be a daunting task, and is something law enforcement agencies should handle with care.

Madeline Neumann, the National President of Concerns of Police Survivors, spoke to attendees Saturday during IACP 2014 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., about the importance of death notifications and what need to do when faced with delivering tragic news.

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Neumann said that certain considerations have to be made when deciding whom to have deliver the notification. She said there should be a designated notification team with two people going at a time, in two separate cars.

"Know who is going to say what and do what," she said, noting that departments can't always send the highest ranking officer to notify an officer's loved ones.

Neumann said that she had a friend who waited for three hours for the notification of her husband's death because the state police superintendent wanted to be the one who delivered the news.

When creating teams, she said that male-female teams may prove advantageous and that the officers should wear their uniforms. If possible, a chaplain or counselor should be brought along.

"Chaplains are used to delivering death notifications and can be a great resource in these situations," she said.

Neumann also said to use plain language since notified spouses and family members often going into a state of "tunnel vision" and the details may not be as clear.

"Say the officer has died -- don't say he has passed away," she said. "You really have to tell them everything they want to know. Don't try to protect them. The mind can be much worse than the truth."

Officers must also not give survivors a false sense of hope. Neumann said that if an officer is severely injured, don't say he or she is going to be OK, unless you now that for sure.

She stressed not to make any notification at the doorstep. "You really want to think about privacy,: she said. "Don't do it outside, go inside the house."

Before leaving the home, officers should make sure the survivor is not alone and is with family or friends. All efforts should also be made to follow up with the survivors after they are made aware the officer has died.

"Sometimes, survivors feel abandoned after the death notification is delivered. It's really important to know who will contact them for the follow up."

While at the survivor's home, Neumann said not to bring the officer's personal items from the station or retrieve work items from the house. She also cautioned that while many departments have a limited amount of uniforms; do not -- in any circumstances -- take the officer's uniforms from the home. While this may sound like common sense, she said that it has happened.

Also officers should never deliver an officer's personal belongings in a trash bag.

"It tells them that it's over and that they were trash," she said.

She said that one of the most important things officers can do is to inform survivors of any chance to see the body.

When her husband, Essex County, N.J. Police Officer Keith E. Neumann was killed in the line of duty on August 3, 1989, she was taken to her in-law's house instead of the hospital and never had a chance to say good bye.

"That was very different for me. It was difficult to not have control," she said. "That is (the survivor's) decision to make," she said. "Your imagination can be much worse than reality."

In a time pre-dating the internet boom, Neumann wasn't notified of her husband's death until someone told her. At first, she was under the impression that he was injured but would survive.

"The fact that we didn't have social media, we didn't have cell phones and it was early in the morning; I was the last to know."

While today's technological advances help people connect and share information, she said that's not the way survivors should find out about the death of an officer. That's why it's important for department to develop their own social media policy.

"Some people just want to be the bearer of bad news," she said. "Would you like your family to find out through social media? It really changes the way to do a death notification now. You really want to get to the family first."

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