Review of Kevin M. Gilmartin's 'Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement'

Kevin M. Gilmartin the author of “Emotional survival for law enforcement” wrote this book with the intention to give people insight who are looking to pursue a career in law enforcement with advice for their loved ones too on ways to emotionally survive this job on and off duty. The authors start by portraying a normal beginner officer. The majority of rookie officers are cheerful optimistic excited and hard working. This soon begins to fade, changing from one positive inspiration to a critical and emotionally charged inspiration. If these behaviors aren't corrected, as time goes on it can begin to exacerbate causing foreseeable mental and physical shifts. Gilmartin was an officer for 20 years and shares his own experiences throughout his life and time as an officer. His personal stories contribute to his audience so numerous officers can relate to another level with the topic he is trying to teach. Officers are exposed to dramatic situations more often than a normal human. Gilmartin goes in-depth about the physiological effects an officer can endure from such events. Becoming the victims in every traumatizing situation you are called to can start to affect anyone and can begin to captivate one's mind causing some officers to even begin to see themselves as the actual victim. 

Gilmartin introduces to us the greatest physiological encounter as hypervigilance. This could be experienced by officers on or off duty. Hypervigilance can be described as an essential way to see the world in a threat-based viewpoint with the mentality to view situations as possibly harmful. Gilmartin expands some problematic characteristics of hypervigilance while beginning to introduce the hypervigilance biological rollercoaster theory. He illustrates the policeman on duty as alert lively enthusiastic quick-witted and included; while off-duty officers are exhausted confined careless and angry. Gilmartin highlights the importance of officers sustaining a good emotional status personally and professionally. To be able to achieve good status, they need to accommodate their individual and professional lives by taking their lives into account and learning ways to cope or move past traumatic events but most importantly survive. He begins to explain it is important for police to realize the only few things that they have full control over. Once an officer achieves that they will become experts in emotional survival. While on duty measuring your integrity professionalism and efficiency. When off-duty by creating goals non-work related to developing a healthy lifestyle creating and sustaining other parts in life not related to hypervigilance. 

Long-term impacts of hypervigilance can ruin careers or deathly. The officers who are incapable of escaping the hyper-vigilance cycle may begin to endure depression. If an officer is incapable of surviving emotionally it will soon cause their body to suffer physically. Police officers physically can begin to encounter headaches digestive disorders hypertension sleeping disorders and underlying illnesses. These cover Gilmartin's main points and show the main goals he had for this book. If they intend on staying healthy they need emotional and physical skill sets provided to them to make it through this job; making sure not to lose ones self while staying committed focused and efficient in every aspect of their life. The book distinctly illustrates the inner and outer attacks police will encounter individually and on the job. Also, provides many ways to prepare officers to see themselves as a victim in every situation and in the way they think and provides them mindfulness tips about how they can emotionally live through these attacks by adjusting their personality and securing solid outlets to be aware of ones individual issues. Gilmartin's personal stories of his survival with concepts of ways to apply emotional survival procedures to a law enforcement professional who has fallen victim to the hypervigilant rollercoaster are very beneficial. 

The objective of Kevin M. Gilmartin's book emotional survival for law enforcement is to supply the officers and families of effective ways to see the disintegration of center values on and off duty and what can happen to their life if ignored. The book then ultimately provides specific strategies that can utilize the reduction of negative physical and emotional impact this profession. Gilmartin then eventually describes particular techniques that are helpful in ways to diminish the negative mental and physical effects of law enforcement.