Amy B Wang

The Republic | azcentral.com

When a Phoenix police officer is wounded in the line of duty, instantly there are dozens of difficult phone calls to make. To family and friends. To the hospital. To the officer's colleagues.

That's where one team with the Phoenix Police Department steps in. The “Employee Assistance Unit” may have a straightforward name, but its specialty is helping officers and their families navigate the murky emotional and logistical waters that can come with a career in law enforcement.

Sometimes, those tasks involve simply asking an officer if he or she would like to talk about a difficult call. In the most extreme cases, such as when Phoenix police Officer David Glasser was killed in a Laveen shooting, members of the Employee Assistance Unit are the ones who sit down with the fallen officer’s family members to help them plan an unexpected funeral.

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“The theory is if we take care of the employees, they’ll take care of the public,” said Phoenix police Sgt. James Rothschild, a former member of the unit. “It’s a win-win.”

Though no longer on the unit, Rothschild was tasked with starting the unit in 2004 with another sergeant. Previously, one higher-ranking person in the department would pull together resources whenever there was a crisis. But the motivation behind the Employee Assistance Unit was to provide more regular, ongoing support to officers.

“We don’t just need to wait for something tragic to happen,” Rothschild said. They were seeing officers who were struggling with private issues at home or who were not technically injured but who had experienced harrowing calls while on patrol — the types of incidents that don’t make the news.

“You don’t need to wait for a death or suicide or something to happen before we can move on this. We needed someone to check in on them, make sure they feel part of the organization. ... What are we doing to address their needs?”

The department had not seen any major losses in the year before, but 2004 would prove to be difficult. Two officers, Jason Wolfe and Eric White, were killed in the line of duty that year. Another was shot multiple times while responding to a call. Still another died in a car accident on the way to work.

“We learned a lot of bad lessons very quickly,” Rothschild said.

A game plan to work through tragedy

Some of those lessons — on how to respond to a tragedy within the department — are still in place today. The Employee Assistance Unit has four officers, one sergeant and a lieutenant. In addition, it has about 50 team members comprising everyone from patrol officers to investigators to dispatchers.

“They span the globe of the department, which is absolutely critical,” Rothschild said.

From the moment a critical call comes in involving one of their own, the Employee Assistance Unit will usually split up to address the needs of everyone involved. One team member almost always will head to the hospital to check on the condition of the officer — and to make sure people, including concerned fellow officers, are staying out of the way of hospital staff. Another team member will head to the scene. Some usually reach out to family members of the officer in question and, if needed, escort them where they need to go. (“We don’t want them driving a vehicle in a stressful situation,” Rothschild said.) Still others might travel to the precinct where the officer worked.

The key, Rothschild said, is to ensure no officers feel alone in anything on or off the job they have to deal with.

Stepping in to assist, shield family

The most heartrending calls come when an officer has died. Right away, the Employee Assistance Unit will step in to try to lessen the burden on a grieving family as much as possible. This includes coordinating all communication with family members, using a single point person so the family is not bombarded.

“We start really broad … letting the family know, ‘Here’s what the coming days are going to hold. You are not going to be alone.’ “ Rothschild said. The Employee Assistance Unit often manages the flood of cards, posters and flowers directed toward the family in the days after an officer’s death, as members of the team likely are doing now for the family of Officer David Glasser, who was mortally wounded in a shootout in Laveen on Wednesday.

A member of the unit is present in conversations between the family, the mortuary representative and a police chaplain. Is there a particular aspect of the funeral service that would be important to highlight? Would the family prefer a church? Geographically, on what side of town should the funeral be held?

There is a delicate balance of making things simple for the family as well as helping them make decisions that will honor their loved ones — all in a short span of time, Rothschild said.

“The reality is, most of the family have probably never had to plan one of these. It’s not a whole lot different than what people would normally go through,” he said. “The difference is, it can become overwhelming (with all of the external attention). We try to manage that flow.”

Separately, a member of the team coordinates the “honors portion,” such as the public motorcade and other ceremonial details that typically accompany a funeral for an officer killed in the line of duty. Behind the scenes, the Employee Assistance Unit ensures everything will go smoothly, nailing down details like when a helicopter will perform a flyover or where exactly the pastor will stand.

On the day of the services, someone from the unit makes sure there are tissues in the motorcade vehicles.

Seeing the public line the streets to support a fallen police officer is one of the most humbling, emotional and patriotic things Rothschild said he experienced when he was in the unit.

“When we see citizens standing by the road, with their hands on their hearts, it is amazing, the emotion,” Rothschild said. “It’s so honoring to the fallen officers and the family.”

In fact, Rothschild said he could not emphasize enough how much the outpouring of support from the community would help lift those in the Police Department — even the Employee Assistance Unit — during difficult times.

“When officers are eating (out in public), a lot of people think, ‘I don’t want to bother them,’ " Rothschild said. "But when people come up and say, 'I just want to say thank you,' that means the world to them. You cannot put a dollar on that."