First responders escaped physical injuries during parade shooting, but plenty are hurting

No police officers or other first responders suffered physical injuries responding to the horrific tragedy Monday at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park.

But some likely suffered psychological trauma that, if not addressed, can hurt them in the long run, according to a suburban psychologist who specializes in helping first responders.

Carrie Steiner, of First Responders Wellness Center, has been working this week with first responders from Vernon Hills and Deerfield who worked the mass shooting. The tragedy may be especially disturbing to police from the Highland Park area, because it is a relatively peaceful community, she said.

“It (the shooting) really shakes your view of the world,” said Steiner, who worked 13 years as a Chicago police officer before shifting careers.

Police officers typically enter the field with a desire to help people, but “Nobody signed up for a mass shooting.”

In the wake of a traumatic event, first responders have some common reactions - irritability, trouble sleeping, a lack of appetite among them.

That's because the limbic system in their brains automatically activated their bodies' “fight-flight-freeze” response. That puts what's important for immediate survival first - increasing blood flow to major muscles, sharpening hearing, increasing peripheral vision, decreasing pain perception. It can take three days to a week to go away, according to Steiner.

If the symptoms last beyond a week, that's when Steiner recommends treatment. The earlier, the better, to decrease the chance of developing a long-term issue, she said.

The effect of repeated trauma is cumulative, which is worrisome for first responders because they experience much more of it than the general public, Steiner said. The average person may experience five traumatic events in a lifetime; an officer in a small- to medium-size department averages 188.5 traumatic incidents in a 20-year career, she said.

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Steiner has done group debriefings every day this week for first responders to Highland Park. A group debriefing shows people they aren't the only ones affected. First responders often tell her the other people are OK, but “I'm not.”

“I fear for the officers involved in this, because of that,” Steiner said.

She starts by telling the group her own experience, including that she shot someone when she was on the force in Chicago. She shares statistics about job-related trauma, and gives them the common signs of trauma. She explains how their brain works in traumatic situations - and why that means they might have trouble making decisions or accurately recalling details. Sometimes they may even misremember things - she's treated officers who thought they fired their guns but didn't, or who thought they were alone when a co-worker was right behind them. She asks everybody in the room to say what they did, so a true picture emerges.

She tells them feeling guilty, angry or anxious is normal, but that they may also have positive feelings about how they used good tactics, stood their ground or made wise decisions. They should not feel bad for feeling positive, for example, about doing a good job guiding uninjured paradegoers to safety. It doesn't mean the officers are not respecting the fact that people died.

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Her background

First Responder Wellness Center operates in Northfield and Lombard. Besides offering trauma services, it does a variety of other work, including preemployment psychological evaluations.

“I left the CPD because I knew too many officers who had killed themselves, were on their third marriages or were alcoholics,” Steiner said.

She became a psychologist in 2009.

Safety for judges

Amid a tense political climate, daily protests outside some U.S. Supreme Court justices' homes and even what authorities are calling a foiled assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh in June, Illinois court leaders are taking a closer look at security for judges.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced Wednesday it is creating a new Committee on Judicial Security and Safety that will review current and future security needs and offer recommendations on how to keep judges safe.

“The Supreme Court is committed to ensuring the safety of our judges and justices,” Chief Justice Anne M. Burke said in the announcement. “Threats to the judiciary continue to increase and the committee will help us address them.”

The committee will be led by Jim Cimarossa, the marshal of the Supreme Court of Illinois. Other members include Second District Appellate Court Justice George Bridges of Lake County and 22nd Circuit Court Michael J. Chmiel of McHenry County. The panel also will have representatives from the Attorney Registration and Discipline Commission (ARDC), Illinois State Police, Illinois Sheriffs' Association and Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.

The Chicago area knows all too well the threat judges can face. In 2005, a man upset with a ruling by federal Judge Joan Lefkow broke in to her home on Chicago's North Side and murdered her husband and mother.

And last month in Juneau County, Wisconsin, near the Dells, a retired judge was murdered in his home by a man he had sentenced to prison more than 15 years ago for burglary and other charges.

Possible hate crime

An Oswego man could face a hate crime charge stemming from allegations he yelled a racial slur at a person of Asian descent Monday at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

The UW-Madison Police Department said this week it is referring disorderly conduct charges to the Dane County District Attorney's Office and is requesting a hate crime enhancer against the suspect, identified as 28-year-old Tom N. Gbean.

According to police, a UW staff member told investigators he was running along the Lakeshore Path on campus at about 8:45 a.m. Monday when a man yelled a racial slur from inside a vehicle. The suspect then got out of the vehicle and approached the victim, according to police. The victim told investigators he feared for his safety and ran away from the suspect.

Police said they located the suspect's vehicle Wednesday and identified Gbean as the driver. Gbean has no affiliation with the university, they said.

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