Police slogan on PTSD draws flak

Police slogan on PTSD draws flak
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Dec 26, 2007 6:24:17 EST

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho law enforcement leaders say they were “mortified” when a group of state police academy graduates chose a slogan that many felt was just too gung-ho.

The slogan, “Don’t suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it,” was emblazoned on the Dec. 14 graduation programs for 43 officers who completed the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy’s latest course.

Post-traumatic stress disorder typically afflicts people who have endured military combat, civilian violence and other extremely dislocating experiences.

“That’s not something we encourage or condone,” Jeff Black, director of the police training academy in Meridian, told the Spokesman-Review newspaper this week. “It shouldn’t have been there. It was inappropriate.”

Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney, who attended the event earlier this month, pointed out the slogan to Black about three minutes before the graduation ceremony was due to begin, he said.

Apparently, nobody attending the graduation event other than Raney complained about the slogan, but a photograph of the program was e-mailed anonymously to news media outlets throughout the state.

“We were mortified that it was in there,” Black said.

Apparently, each class at the academy is allowed to vote on its own slogan.

“Our class president was ex-military,” Black said. “It slipped in.”

Black didn’t identify the class president but said future slogans would not be printed on graduation programs until they’ve been scrutinized by police academy leaders.

Ellie