DIMONDALE, MI—Push it down.

Then push it down again.

For years, that was simply what law enforcement officers did after seeing something they couldn't unsee.

"Twenty-five, 20, even definitely 30 years ago, there was just this idea that when police officers or even civilian staff were exposed to any kind of trauma or critical incident, you push it down," Michigan State Police Prevention Services Section Manager Scot Sexton said. "You push it down. You push it down. You move on."

Sexton, a retired law enforcement officer, remembers that culture.

He has also watched it change.

Where officers were once expected to absorb what they experienced and move to the next call, Sexton said law enforcement has increasingly recognized the importance of processing traumatic experiences through critical-incident debriefings, conversations with peers and, when needed, mental health professionals.

MSP has been part of that shift.

The agency now offers employees resources addressing mental, physical and financial wellness, while its leadership says supervisors have a responsibility to recognize when employees need help — even if that means simply telling someone it is time to take a day off.

"We've come completely 360 on that now," Sexton said.

A profession that can be difficult to leave at work

Police work doesn't always fit neatly inside a shift.

A trooper can respond to a fatal crash, a violent crime or another traumatic incident and still eventually have to go home.

Col. James Grady, director of the Michigan State Police, remembers another part of the culture surrounding the profession when he began his career nearly three decades ago.

Work was simply what officers did.

"I worked like a dog years ago," Grady said. "All the overtime. I'm not the only one in here that did that."

He said the same could be said for civilian employees throughout the agency.

But MSP's approach today, Grady said, is to encourage a healthier balance.

Within the agency's Professional Development Bureau is a wellness section focused on mental, physical and financial health. MSP also has an Office of Behavioral Science, peer support and a chaplain corps, among other resources available to employees and, in some circumstances, their families.

Some resources can also be extended to local law enforcement partners following critical incidents, Grady said.

Having the programs available, however, is only one part of the equation.

Employees have to be willing to use them.

And supervisors have to notice when something is wrong.

Grady said that can mean knowing someone well enough to recognize that the person walking into work isn't acting like themselves.

Sometimes the answer may be as simple as telling them to go home.

"It's OK for you to take a day off," Grady said. "It's OK for you to take a week off."

He sees that as more than a benefit for the employee.

Someone who is rested, healthy and in a good headspace will be more effective at work, Grady said. Someone who is chronically overworked can become unhappy, affecting morale throughout an organization.

Leadership has a responsibility to keep reminding employees that resources exist, he said.

But there is another side to that equation.

Police officers have to become comfortable saying they need them.

'The biggest word'

Sgt. Don Stewart knows what it looks like when dedication to the job begins eating into the rest of life.

Stewart supervises members of MSP's Community Service Trooper program, a small statewide unit whose troopers frequently adjust their schedules around community events and other needs.

"There's a lot of family pictures we're not in," Stewart said.

The troopers flex their hours, work nights and weekends and move schedules around to get where they are needed.

Stewart joked that while everyone gets 24 hours in a day, his team sometimes manages to "milk 25, 26 hours out of it."

That level of commitment creates its own need to recognize when someone needs time away.

Stewart said the autonomy given to the unit allows its troopers to communicate directly with one another and use a word that hasn't always come naturally in policing: "Help."

"The biggest word that a lot of cops don't use is help," Stewart said.

If one trooper needs a week off, another can cover an event. When one of the unit's troopers went on parental leave, Stewart said other troopers stepped in to cover assignments, knowing the favor could be returned when they eventually needed time away themselves.

"I see you're in need, you see I'm in need," Stewart said.

For Stewart, it comes back to the same relationships his troopers try to build in Michigan communities — only this time, those relationships are with one another.

Trauma doesn't stop at the scene

The shift in thinking about wellness also means recognizing that the person physically standing at a traumatic scene isn't necessarily the only person affected by it.

Sexton said that is particularly important for an agency's civilian employees.

A dispatcher may never see what happened.

They can still hear it.

A records employee might never respond to the scene.

They may later have to process its photographs and reports.

"Say a police officer goes to a critical incident and they're exposed to it," Sexton said. "That dispatcher is exposed to it too because they heard it through the phone. That records clerk is exposed to it as well because they process the photos and the report."

"The civilian staff needs to not be left behind."

Sexton said that recognition represents a significant departure from how law enforcement once approached traumatic experiences.

Rather than expecting employees to bury what happened and immediately move forward, critical-incident debriefings can now follow major incidents. Employees are encouraged to speak with peers and professionals and process what they experienced.

That doesn't necessarily mean "moving on," Sexton said.

Everybody does that differently.

The point is giving people the opportunity to process it rather than simply pushing it down.

Sexton said he has seen particularly significant change in that area during the past five to 10 years.

A life beyond the uniform

There is another lesson Grady remembers hearing long before he became the director of the Michigan State Police.

It came when he was a recruit.

Have friends who aren't part of the agency. Have hobbies. Have a family.

Don't let the job become everything.

It is a lesson Grady still believes law enforcement agencies — and, for that matter, other employers — should give their people.

Because no matter how important the work becomes, eventually the career ends.

"At some point, you got to turn all of this in," Grady said.

For a state trooper, "all of this" has a literal meaning — the badge, the gun, the uniform.

Grady has watched officers reach that moment.

When he previously worked as a captain at MSP's training facility, he said he would see retiring employees walk down the hall to turn in the equipment that had represented decades of their lives.

He saw plenty of them cry.

That experience reinforced something Grady said officers need to remember long before retirement arrives.

"You still need to have friends outside of this agency," he said. "You still need to have hobbies. You have a family, right?"

The job matters to everyone who does it. But eventually, the uniform has to come off.

__________

© 2026 the Midland Daily News (Midland, Mich.).

Visit www.ourmidland.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.