On November 6, 2014, former Phoenix Police Officer Craig Tiger committed suicide approximately 14 months after being fired for a DUI. Officer Tiger and his partner were involved in an officer-involved shooting on June 4, 2012, which caused him to be later diagnosed with PTSD. Officer Tiger was drinking heavily, using alcohol to numb the images, anxiety, and nightmares from the shooting (Burkitt, 2020). He planned to commit suicide on the first anniversary of this shooting, preparing to shoot himself at his family’s cabin located a couple of hours northeast of Phoenix. Officer Tiger was drinking before and during the trip up to the cabin and was pulled over before leaving Maricopa County and arrested for DUI. He underwent inpatient treatment for his suicidal thoughts and alcohol for 30 days and was fired from the Department in September 2013. Officer Tiger successfully committed suicide on November 6, 2014 (Burkitt, 2020).
Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher created the First Responder Traumatic Incident Support and Response Task Force in November 2014 in response to Officer Tiger’s death. The task force was charged to “inventory the existing city programs and training for first responders dealing with traumatic incidents, compare them to best practices in the field and identify changes or gaps that need to be filled in the city’s programs, training and practices to support employees” (First Responder Traumatic Incident Support and Response Task Force, 2015). The task force’s intent was for these improvements to extend to sworn public safety personnel and civilians, including 911 dispatchers. The Task Force met for the next eight months and reviewed articles, policies, laws, practices, and heard from various presenters on various wellness-related topics. In July 2015, the Task Force authored a report to the City Manager summarizing their findings and recommendations (First Responder Traumatic Incident Support and Response Task Force, 2015).
The Task Force had 17 recommendations to the City Manager, including prevention, post-critical incident, treatment modality, and administrative support. The report also included six ideas for consideration (First Responder Traumatic Incident Support and Response Task Force, 2015). The recommendations included increasing training for employees and supervisors, changing the culture within the police department by embracing both physical and psychological wellbeing, researching workers listing a psychological injury, expanding the time off work after being involved in an officer-involved shooting, increasing confidentiality and access to treatment for psychological issues, expanding the number of detectives assigned to the Employee Assistance Unit and making the sergeant a dedicated position, and hiring a department psychologist. Another one of the recommendations was to provide an EAU self-service tab on the Department’s PolicePoint intranet screen, which provides a confidential on-line self-service menu with information about the services and programs that EAU provides and supports (First Responder Traumatic Incident Support and Response Task Force, 2015).