Tag Archive for cop

John Salkowski: Entrepreneur, Best Selling Author, National Speaker, Coach, Consultant & Trainer to Release New Book, “Leadership In The Line of Duty™”

April 29, 2013 Achieve Success Academy, John R Salkowski, John Salkowski, John Salkowski International No comments

leadership John Salkowski: Entrepreneur, Best Selling Author, National Speaker, Coach, Consultant & Trainer to Release New Book, Leadership In The Line of Duty™John Salkowski, Entrepreneur, Best Selling Author, National Speaker, Coach, Consultant and Trainer to Release New Business Book, “Leadership In The Line of Duty™: 50 Leadership Lessons For Making Split-Second Decisions From a Cop Who Has Been in Life and Death Situations”.

April 29, 2013

John Salkowski is a retired Police Officer after an impressive 15 year career who is now a Highly Sought-After Leadership and Motivational Speaker and Trainer. John has wowed audiences ranging from 20-20,000 sharing his unique Leadership strategies in his signature presentation:

Leadership in the Line of Duty™
50 Leadership Lessons for Making Split-Second Decisions from a Cop Who Has Been in Life and Death Situations

John regularly speaks for a variety of leaders (ranging from entry level to experienced executives) for corporations, business groups, associations, colleges, universities, youth groups and sports organizations. Pulling from his 15 years of real world, in-the-trenches (and even life and death) Law Enforcement experiences, John now teaches leaders one of the most important key components of leadership (that is often overlooked):

“How to Make Split-Second Leadership Decisions When The Direction and Success of Your Organization Depends On It!”

John has received numerous distinguished awards for Bravery, Merit and Unit Citations. He has also received media attention for serving as a leader within his community, including being featured in the Philadelphia Magazine as one of the area’s Top Business Leaders.

Any organization that wants to develop their people into becoming “Extraordinary Leaders” needs to hire John for a keynote and/or workshop training.

To request John speak at your next event, please email his office at info@JohnSalkowski.com

For more information about John Salkowski, visit http://JohnSalkowski.com

Copyright © 2013 John Salkowski International. All Rights Reserved.

Nothing Great was ever Achieved with a Negative Attitude

September 2, 2012 Achieve Success Academy 4 comments

270692 391997937532270 1896059465 n 300x215 Nothing Great was ever Achieved with a Negative AttitudeNothing great was ever achieved with a negative attitude ~ John R. Salkowski

Limited Belief System

Have you ever been around someone with a negative attitude and limited beliefs on just about everything? Sure you have. I know I have. Did you notice any changes in your attitude? You heard the expression, “You are who you associate with.” Being around negative people will most definitely limit your beliefs, change your attitude and ultimately limit your success.

The main cause of a negative attitude is wrong beliefs about life, work, relationships, money or certain aspects of each one. You see your life through your beliefs or through the beliefs of others and if your beliefs are negative, you will see your life as negative, worthless, unhappy or downright pointless. So to change your attitude you need to change your belief system.

Negative family/friends or associates

It has been said that no one can change your attitude but you. I agree and disagree with this. I truly believe that who you associate with can change your attitude and influence your behaviors. I know this may seem unreal to those who hear it for the first time, but you and only you can decide how to react to anything that happens to you. If you allow others to decide your attitude, you allow them to have control over you. This, my fellow achievers, will ultimately limit your success if you allow others to choose for you.

We have two choices. Those choices are positive or negative. I, personally have family members and friends that have the “glass half empty attitude.” I choose to limit my time and conversation with them. If their attitude is really that bad, I refuse to go anywhere near them. In order for me to stay positive and stay on my flight plan for achieving success, I refuse to allow them to reinforce any negative beliefs and thus cause my attitude to become negative. Remember this achievers, you were attracted to your friends for a reason, therefore you have the power to attract ones with more of a positive, success oriented attitude.

Limited beliefs=Limited successes ~ John R. Salkowski

Negative environment

You have the power to attract what environment to be in. We all know right from wrong. If your environment is negative and is making your attitude run the opposite way of success, you need to change it now. There are no accidents when it comes to what environment you choose to live in. Change your negative environment and attitude, you change your life.

Unfortunate circumstances

If you find yourself complaining about your unfortunate circumstances you were dealt, it’s exactly the reason why you have such a negative attitude. It may be hard at first to understand and accept this, however the quicker you do; the quicker you will be able to change your life for the better. Your complaining alone can and will keep you stuck in those circumstances. To change your circumstances you should stop complaining now and start working on changing your life for the better.

Let me give you a taste of the unfortunate circumstance that I was allowing my life to spiral out of control like a skydiver with no chute. In the line of duty in 2000, I had to make a split-second decision that would change my life forever. That split-second decision was to shoot or don’t shoot or get killed. I chose to shoot and terminate my life threatening situation. However, the aftermath of this shoot and kill incident was so horrific, I began to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. The nightmares, anxiety, stress, cold-sweats, vomiting, diarrhea, suicidal, homicidal thoughts were overtaking me and my life. In order for my life to change, I had to make a change. I had to change my negative attitude. You’ve heard me say this before, “You attract and become what you think about most”. I had my daughter to think about. So, I changed my attitude by determining what my biggest “Why” was. My “Why” was a little girl that needed a role model? That little girl is my beautiful daughter, Alexa. What’s your biggest “Why”?

A negative attitude will not only limit your success in life, it will also shorten your life span, creates an unpleasant future, harms others and produces negative effects in your life.

You can and will change from negative to positive if you commit yourself, however it won’t be easy. You must take baby steps with consistent progress each and every day. Here are some of the tips that I have used in my own life over a 6 year period: Turn off the television and pick up a self-help book, read a book a week, disassociate with negativity, turn off the car stereo and use your car as a traveling university by listening to cd’s that will assist you in reaching your goal. The sooner you start changing, the sooner you will reap the benefits. People will start treating you differently and you will notice opportunities everywhere you go. You will start seeing the world as full of happiness and possibilities. This, my fellow achievers, will pave your way to a more successful, positive life with endless possibilities. You can do it!

I’m John R. Salkowski, Founder of AchieveSuccessAcademy.com™, Retired Cop, Survivor of PTSD stemming from a shoot and kill robbery incident, Expert on Leadership, Success, Overcoming Adversity, Fear & PTSD, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Author of 3 books; Leadership in The Line of Duty™: 50 Leadership Lessons for Making Split-Second Decisions from a Cop Who Has Been in Life and Death Situations, Leadership in The Line of Duty™: Success Thoughts and Quotes for Leaders and Nothing But Net: Top Secrets to increase your bottom line, Health, Wealth & Success.

Copyright © 2012 Achieve Success Academy™. All Rights Reserved.

Do You Have What it Takes to Make Important Split-Second Decisions?

July 23, 2012 Achieve Success Academy No comments

imagesCA5CPZRJ Do You Have What it Takes to Make Important Split Second Decisions?The better your skills and critical thinking are, coupled with training and quickness, the more prepared you will be to make sound split-second decisions.~John R. Salkowski

Making Split-Second Decisions, Do You Have What it takes?

Making split-second decisions in life and in business is a requirement. There are several important factors that must come together in order to accurately and quickly articulate your present situation. Your knowledge, experience, education, training, intuition, confidence and common-sense are all factors that play an important role in making split-second decisions.

When you are called upon to make a split-second decision what happens? Do you freeze? Do you panic? There are situations, such as life or death, which we may be encountered with where you cannot afford to freeze or panic. Split-second decision making requires all of the above factors to come together in order to make the right decision.

There will be times that you will be faced with an important decision where there is no room for error. You must make the right decision at the right time to avoid a catastrophe. Here are some examples: avoiding a car crash, pilots with mechanical failure, military combat, Police Officer faced with an armed and dangerous suspect or anything else requiring immediate decision making. You may think these examples are extreme but let me tell you this, if you are not prepared when that time comes, you are dead on your feet. You will be required at one time or another to make a blink of an eye split-second decision in your life.

Making split-second decisions requires “razor sharp” skill sets. You must continually work on your skills to better prepare for the “blink of the eye” split-second decision. What better way to prepare for situations such as this is to face real problems, facing the risks, making irrevocable decisions head-on. Stop avoiding these situations. Making important, split-second decisions separates the successful from the unsuccessful, leaders from the followers, etc. You get my point. Below, I will put split-second decision making into perspective for most of you.

Most likely everyone reading this has a child or a loved-one that they cherish. What better way to teach that person to make important decisions that could possibly affect the rest of their life is by honing your skill sets on making important, critical, blink of eye split-second decisions. We, as parents cannot be with our children 24/7. There comes a time when we must allow them to spread their wings and fly solo. What better way to prepare yourself for that moment in time is to face your most important decisions head-on so you can teach from example.

I’m John R. Salkowski, Founder of AchieveSuccessAcademy.com, Entrepreneur, Retired Cop, Survivor of PTSD stemming from a shoot and kill robbery incident, Expert on Leadership, Success, Overcoming Adversity & PTSD, Author of 3 books; Leadership in the Line of Duty: 50 Leadership Lessons for making split-second decisions from a Cop who’s been in Life & Death situations, Leadership in the Line of Duty: Success Thoughts and Quotes for Leaders and Nothing But Net: Top Secrets to increase your bottom line, Health, Wealth & Success.

Copyright © 2012. Achieve Success Academy™. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

 

The Top Skill That Successful People Have Mastered

April 17, 2012 Achieve Success Academy No comments

“What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is MIND-SET?

Our mind-set is our mental attitude that has taken shape based on our life experiences, our environment, our education and the ideas and beliefs we have absorbed from those people we have interacted with the most in our lives.

Whether we are aware of it or not, we all keep a running account or self-talk of what is happening to us, what it means, and what we should do about it. Our mind-set is that inner voice conversation taking place in our heads. (You have all heard me say before, “Listen to your inner-voice”)

Our minds are meaning seeking machines and we are constantly monitoring and interpreting events and stimuli so that we can reinforce or modify our internal ‘map’ of ourselves and the world as we have come to understand them. Based on these beliefs our mind-set is responsible for how we interpret and react to what happens to us and around us.

Depending on whether your inner voice is based on a positive empowering mind-set or a negative limiting one, will largely determine how you will interpret challenges, setbacks and criticisms in life as well as contributing significantly to the actual outcomes and results you create.

The correct mind-set is perhaps THE most important factor in human success. Above all else! The difference between successful people and non-successful people starts in their mind, with their predominant mind-set.

Often it is our predominant thoughts and feelings about ourselves and the world around us that are the key to unlocking our life’s true possibilities.

When MIND-SETS are formed?

Mind-sets are based on our beliefs. Our beliefs about ourselves and the world. These beliefs are created in two ways. Firstly by what we are taught when we are young and easily impressed and secondly by the experiences and results we have, see and observe in everyday life.

Where MIND-SET comes into Play?

In everything we do we have some pre-conceived ideas about the possible outcomes and chances for success. No matter if it is a small or large undertaking we are constantly evaluating our results and placing them within our map of ourselves and the world. Our mind-sets affect everything we do and influence not only our view of the outcome, but also the outcome itself.

Why MIND-SET affects Behavior and Success?

Having the correct mind-set for a particular task is almost a pre-requisite for success. No one has ever been successful who has not had to overcome hurdles and obstacles to that success. The ability to have an empowering and positive outlook and mind-set allows us to not only overcome those hurdles and obstacles to success but to actually welcome them as challenges and opportunities for growth and learning.

How to change Your MIND-SET?

We all have the ability to change our mind-set – to change our
core inner beliefs upon which we based our view of ourselves and the world around us. But changing our beliefs is not an easy thing to do. Most people find changing one small belief extremely difficult, let alone a whole range of self-supporting beliefs based perhaps on negative pre-conditioning. What is needed is a tool – a tool for change that enables us to rapidly install new thought patterns and positive mind-sets, based on proven success models. A person’s core inner beliefs and thought patterns are what lead to their feelings of potentiality, action and results.

Simply by changing your mind-set it is possible to change not only your outlook in life by also the actual results you obtain in life.

Here are 3 Ways to Change Your MIND-SET!

1) Be Willing to Change: These are your thoughts so you can change them. Even though our beliefs were more than likely formed when you were young, you are an adult today and you have the power to affect change in your life. This is the essence of personal power: choice and responsibility.

2) Feed the Mind-Set You Want: The fastest way to change your mind-set is to feed your mind the one you want. Every time you feed yourself a positive mind-set, it weakens the negative ones. You will be instantly creating new neurons that form a new more positive neural network. The more you do this the stronger you knew neural network will become. Feeding the positive weakens the negative.

3) Love Your Mind-Set: Allow yourself to create a passion for your new mind-set. The new mind-set you want to create. Doing this creates endorphins in your body that lead to a new sense of well-being. This in turn leads to a more inspired and emotionally engaged you, having more fun in your life as you enlarge and make stronger your new neural network.

Start Today to Change Your MIND-SET for the Better and Watch Your Success Skyrocket!

I’m John R. Salkowski, Founder of AchieveSuccessAcademy.com, Entrepreneur, Author, and Speaker on Leadership, Success and Overcoming Adversity. Retired Police Officer, Survivor of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) stemming from a shoot and kill robbery incident.

Copyright 2012. Achieve Success Academy. All Rights Reserved

Top 10 Must Have Characteristics of a Great Leader

February 21, 2012 Achieve Success Academy One comment
A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better~Jim Rohn
Do you have what it takes to be a great leader? I bet you do. I believe everyone can attain the great qualities and characteristics needed to be an effective leader. The objective behind being a great leader is this: Helping people and/or organizations who are doing poorly to do well. Helping people and/or organization who are doing well but want to get better. The whole idea of great leadership is to get results. To bring them to a whole different level of success.
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already~ John Buchan
Being a great leader means bringing out the best in people. Everyone wants to be the best they can be. It’s our job as leaders to do that. We need to find and focus on the strengths of people not their weaknesses.
In my previous career of Law Enforcement, I was surrounded by good and bad leaders. The good leaders focused on making people better while the bad leaders would focus on making people worse. It was astounding to me that the bad leaders would come to work everyday and do nothing but negative leadership. What do I mean by negative leadership? They would focus on the mistakes of people. Instead of making them learn from their mistakes they would punish them and never give good advice and/or training to make that person better. They would lie in wait like a lion hiding from a zebra getting ready to attack. This would happen day in and day out. Just waiting for their people to make mistakes. Being totalling reactive instead of proactive. They would focus on the negatives and not the positives in people. This type of leadership is a sinking ship. This will make any organizations morale go into a tail spin. And if you were ever part of an organization withe horrible morale, you know exactly what I mean. If you want a successful organization, no matter what industry, you need to have great leaders that focus on the strengths and not the weaknesses. To learn, grow and achieve results a great leader must focus on making their people successful by focusing on their strenghths.
Leadership: the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it~Dwight D. Eisenhower
Here are the TOP 10 Must Have Characteristics of a Great Leader:
1) Be a Role Model- You must lead by example. You should never ask someone to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself. You must be seen by your people, and the public as being an expert in your field and an expert in leadership.
2) Have a Mission-Leaders know what their mission is. They know why the organization exists. A great leader has a well thought out (often written) mission describing the purpose of the organization. That purpose need to be descriptive, clear and understandable. Every employee should be able to identify with the mission and strive to achieve it.
3) Have Vision-Where do you want your organization to go? A vision needs to be descriptive enough to encourage people to imagine it but concrete enough for followers to see it, understand it and be willing to climb onboard to fulfill it.
4) Be Goal Oriented-How is the organization going to achieve its mission and vision and how will you measure your progress? Like a vision, goals need to be operational that are specific and measurable. If your output and results can’t be readily measured, then it will be difficult to know if you have achieved your purpose.
5) Have Integrity- Do the right thing all the time. Not sometimes but all the time.
6) Be Passionate in all you do-You must love what you do. You must want success for the organization and the people more than you want the air you breathe.
7) Be Compassionate-Successful leaders are comfortable relating to other people; they easily create rapport and are more extroverted than they are introverted. These factors help leaders seem approachable, likeable, and comfortable in their position. Those qualities contribute to staff wanting to interact with their leader. They also help motivate employees to do a better job. When workers can relate to their boss, they believe that their boss is more concerned about them, with their performance, and with their output. Furthermore, they believe that they can go to their boss with problems they encounter on the job without fearing consequences for not knowing how to resolve issues.
8) Great Communicator-It does little good to have a strong mission, vision, and goals if the leader cannot easily and effectively convey his ideas inside and outside of the organization. He must regularly be in touch with key individuals, by all forms of communication. Of course, the best way to ensure other people receive and understand the message is with face-to-face interactions.
9) Be Inspiring-Employees need someone to look up to for direction, guidance, and motivation. A great leader needs to be that person. Nevertheless, there are times, when many employees need the boss to inspire them by word or action.
10) Be Ambitious-Nothing builds a picture of success more than achievement, and achievement is the number one factor that motivates just about everyone across all cultures. When employees see that their leader can lead and direct, has a clear vision and attainable goals, and actually gains results in a timely manner, then that person’s credibility increases throughout the organization. Great leaders must modestly demonstrate their skills to give their constituents valid reasons to appreciate and value their efforts.
I’m John R. Salkowski, Founder of Achieve Success Academy, Leadership Expert, Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Retired Police Officer and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) Survivor.
I can be reached via email at John@JohnSalkowski.com
Copyright 2012 Achieve Success Academy All Rights Reserved

A Must Have Value of a Successful Person

January 20, 2012 Achieve Success Academy 3 comments

Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.
Ayn Rand

Integrity is a value, like persistence, courage and industriousness. Even more so, it’s the value that guarantees all the other values. You’re a good person to the degree for which you live your life consistent with the highest values that you espouse. Integrity is the quality that locks in your values and causes you to live consistent with them.
Integrity is the foundation of character and character development is one of the most important activities you can engage in. Working on your character means disciplining yourself to do more and more of those things that a thoroughly honest person would do, under all circumstances.
To be impeccably honest with others, you must first be impeccably honest with yourself. You must be true to yourself. You must be true to the very best that is in you, to the very best that you know. A person who is living consistent with his or her highest values and virtues is really living a life of integrity. And when you commit to living this kind of life, you will find yourself continually raising your own standards, continually refining your definition of integrity.
You can tell how high your level of integrity is by simply looking at the things you do in your day-to-day life. You can look at your reactions and responses to the inevitable ups and downs of life. You can observe the behaviors you typically engage in and you’ll then know the person you are.
The most important rule you’ll ever learn is that your life only becomes better when you become better.
Your life should be lived from the inside out. At the very core of your personality lie your values about yourself and life in general. Your values determine the kind of person you really are. What you believe defines your character and your personality. It’s what you stand for, and what you won’t stand for. That tells you and the world what kind of person you really are.
Napoleon Hill, in his book, The Master Key to Riches, tells about how he created an imaginary board of personal advisors made up of great figures of history. He chose people like Lincoln, Jesus, and Alexander the Great. Whenever he had to make a decision, he would relax deeply and then imagine that the members of his advisory council were sitting at a large table in front of him. He would then ask them what he should do to deal effectively with a particular situation. In time, they would begin to give him answers, observations, and insights that helped him to see more clearly and act more effectively.
You can do the same thing. Select someone that you admire very much for their qualities of courage, tenacity, honesty or wisdom. Ask yourself, What would they do in my situation? You will find yourself with guidance that enables you to be the very best person that you can possible be.
Your integrity is manifested in your willingness to adhere to the values you hold most dear. It’s easy to make promises but very hard to keep them. However, if you do, every single act of integrity will make your character a little stronger. As you improve the quality and strength of your character, every other part of your life will improve as well.
Integrity has to do with your commitments to others. Always keep your word. Be a man or a woman of honor. If you say that you will do something, do it. If you make a promise, keep it. If you make a commitment, fulfill it. Be known as the kind of person that can be trusted absolutely, no matter what the circumstances.

I’m John R. Salkowski, Founder of Achieve Success Academy, Retired Cop, Survivor of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) Leading Authority on Overcoming Adversity, Finding Your WHY Power & Achieving Greater Success. Entrepreneur, Speaker and Self-Made Man.

I can be reached via email at John@AchieveSuccessAcademy.com for Speaking Engagements.

Copyright 2012 Achieve Success Academy All Rights Reserved

Achieving Success: The Top Skill That Successful People Have Mastered

January 14, 2012 Achieve Success Academy One comment

“What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is MIND-SET?

Our mind-set is our mental attitude that has taken shape based on our life experiences, our environment, our education and the ideas and beliefs we have absorbed from those people we have interacted with the most in our lives.

Whether we are aware of it or not, we all keep a running account or self talk of what is happening to us, what it means, and what we should do about it. Our mind-set is that inner voice conversation taking place in our heads. (You have all heard me say before, “Listen to your inner-voice”)

Our minds are meaning seeking machines and we are constantly monitoring and interpreting events and stimuli so that we can reinforce or modify our internal ‘map’ of ourselves and the world as we have come to understand them. Based on these beliefs our mind-set is responsible for how we interpret and react to what happens to us and around us.

Depending on whether your inner voice is based on a positive empowering mind-set or a negative limiting one, will largely determine how you will interpret challenges, setbacks and criticisms in life as well as contributing significantly to the actual outcomes and results you create.

The correct mind-set is perhaps THE most important factor in human success. Above all else! The difference between successful people and non-successful people starts in their mind, with their predominant mind-set.

Often it is our predominant thoughts and feelings about ourselves and the world around us that are the key to unlocking our life’s true possibilities.

When MIND-SETS are Formed?

Mind-sets are based on our beliefs. Our beliefs about ourselves and the world. These beliefs are created in two ways. Firstly by what we are taught when we are young and easily impressed and secondly by the experiences and results we have, see and observe in everyday life.

Where MIND-SET comes into Play?

In everything we do we have some pre-conceived ideas about the possible outcomes and chances for success. No matter if it is a small or large undertaking we are constantly evaluating our results and placing them within our map of ourselves and the world. Our mind-sets affect everything we do and influence not only our view of the outcome, but also the outcome itself.

Why MIND-SET affects Behavior and Success?

Having the correct mind-set for a particular task is almost a pre-requisite for success. No one has ever been successful who has not had to overcome hurdles and obstacles to that success. The ability to have an empowering and positive outlook and mind-set allows us to not only overcome those hurdles and obstacles to success but to actually welcome them as challenges and opportunities for growth and learning.

How to change Your MIND-SET?

We all have the ability to change our mind-set – to change our core inner beliefs upon which we based our view of ourselves and the world around us. But changing our beliefs is not an easy thing to do. Most people find changing one small belief extremely difficult, let alone a whole range of self-supporting beliefs based perhaps on negative pre-conditioning. What is needed is a tool – a tool for change, that enable us to rapidly install new thought patterns and positive mind-sets, based on proven success models. A person’s core inner beliefs and thought patterns are what lead to their feelings of potentiality, action and results.

Simply by changing your mind-set it is possible to change not only your outlook in life by also the actual results you obtain in life.

Here are 3 Ways to Change Your MIND-SET!

1) Be Willing to Change: These are your thoughts so you can change them. Even though our beliefs were more than likely formed when you were young, you are an adult today and you have the power to affect change in your life. This is the essence of personal power: choice and responsibility.

2) Feed The Mind-Set You Want: The fastest way to change your mind-set is to feed your mind the one you want. Every time you feed yourself a positive mind-set, it weakens the negative ones. You will be instantly creating new neurons that form a new more positive neural network. The more you do this the stronger you new neural network will become. Feeding the positive weakens the negative.

3) Love Your Mind-Set: Allow yourself to create a passion for your new mind-set. The new mind-set you want to create. Doing this creates endorphins in your body that lead to a new sense of well being. This in turn leads to a more inspired and emotionally engaged you, having more fun in your life as you enlarge and make stronger your new neural network.

Start Today to Change Your MIND-SET for the Better and Watch Your Success Skyrocket!

I’m John R. Salkowski, Founder of Achieve Success Academy, Leading Authority on Peak Performance,  Overcoming Adversity, Achieving Greater Success & Finding Your WHY Power. Real Estate Entrepreneur, Retired Cop and Survivor of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)

I can be reached via email at John@JohnSalkowski.com for Questions and Speaking Engagements.

 

 

 

Mandated PTSD Detection

September 26, 2011 Achieve Success Academy No comments

There should be local, state and federal mandated training amongst local, state, federal law enforcement and the military regarding early detection signs of PTSD among officers. I can remember receiving a telephone call at home from one of my commanding officers. He ask me how I was feeling. I told him that I felt like someone beat me with a bat, lethargic, exhausted and achy. He stated, “maybe you’re coming down with the flu”. This was a 25yr veteran who was aware of the stressful incident I had encountered just days before. He should have been aware that this was my body reacting to all the stress and adrenaline that I had gone through just days before.

With-in months of this incident, I was back on patrol. While on patrol I received a radio call of an asthma attack of a 19yr old female inside a coffee shop located in the Bala Cynwyd shopping center.  Radio announced that the medics were dispatched.

I arrived at the location. I went to my truck to get the bottle of oxygen we carried.  As I entered the store I noticed a group forming near the counter. People were yelling, “over here”. I noticed a young black woman sitting against the counter having difficulty breathing. I placed oxygen over her face and reassured her that medics were on their way. With-in seconds the young lady went unconscious. I radioed to dispatch on the medics eta. There on their way, radio reports.  I began to panic internally. I began getting extremely nervous. My breathing began getting heavier. I started to shake. I radioed again on their eta. There on their way, radio reported again. It felt like an eternity. The medics finally arrived and took the young lady to the hospital.

After this call, I was called into the supervisors office. As I entered the police department I went into the dispatch center for paperwork. There was a patrolman working the dispatch center. He stated, “you cried like a little bitch over the radio”.

I went to the supervisors office where I met the Sgt. on duty. He questioned me as to what happened on the medical call. He told me that, “we as officers are to show no emotions, be stone faced and do not allow any external factors to waver our emotions”.

He didn’t know that I was suffering from PTSD.