Due to the nature of their work, the police officers and military They frequently face situations of violence that can affect the mental health of any individual. However, according to testimonies of the individuals themselves agentshe follow-up their emotional state within these organisms is scarce or non-existent.
Although it is a requirement that applicants for the Police or the militia pass a series of evidence which include evaluations psychologicalonce admitted and regardless of the “service” they have to provide, agents They are left to their own devices, burdened not only with the experiences of their workday, but also with any personal problems they may have.
“I never went back to a psychologist“, comments a ex-policeman who spent 22 years in the institution and claims that he was only evaluated upon entering, since the organization does not carry out evidence periodicals. He prefers not to be identified by name, so in this story he will be cited as the Agent Perez.
Another similar version is offered by a active policewho states that sometimes a superior may notice a change in the agent’s mood and suggest that he or she go for an evaluation, but there is no policy of follow-up regular.
In the case of the militarythe situation is not very different: “Being exposed to violent events on a continuous basis does affect you emotionally, but they don’t give you follow-up“, comments a soldier with more than 19 years of service.
“Whoever wishes to go to the psychologist of the militia can do it, since there are enough, but there is no follow-up “that says ‘it is necessary for you to go,'” he added.
Like the previous ones, this soldier prefers not to be identified. He clarifies that they do take place evidence psychological upon entering the institution or when the soldier switches from carrying a long weapon to a short one. On some occasions, the test is also carried out when a soldier is going to be promoted in rank, but it is not linked to the type of work he or she performs.
The evidence
According to the Regulation of Application of the Organic Law of the National Police (590-16), the selection and incorporation mechanisms into this organization include subjecting candidates to a merit-based competition by evaluating their aptitudes, experience, basic skills, interpersonal relationships and personality conditions.
“The evaluation may be made up of exams and evaluations of a medical, toxicological, psychological, polygraphic and socioeconomic nature,” the regulation states.
However, the Agent Perez He claims that in the past, evidence They were not so rigorous and anyone with a person interceding for him could be hired without approving them. He believes that the controls are now stricter, since he recently accompanied a person to the evaluations to enter the National Police and was rejected due to presenting symptoms of depression and anxiety.
During his active time, Perez also saw colleagues affected by the everyday violenceHe himself had to deal with serious cases, such as that of a man who killed his partner, much younger than him, and then committed suicide.
However, he says that what affected him most were not those events, but the economic problems. “Sometimes I would collect my salary and come home with depressionbecause I had to pay the lender. The woman was waiting for me because she had received her payment, but I knew that it was not enough to pay for the house. That did give me depression“, he says.
He Agent Perez He did not share his situation with his superiors because, according to him, they already knew about it. “The superiors also take money from your salary,” he says.
The low wages in the Police, which currently start at around 30,000 pesos per month for the rank of corporal, have been the subject of constant Reviews. At some point, the police salary was known as “onion salary“because “you see it and it makes you want to cry,” as one agent commented in 2015.
On a personal level, Perez never considered looking for psychological helpalthough he knew that the Police had a hospital where they could be made evaluations.
There is no official data on how many officers are affected by serious psychological problems. Requests for information sent to the Ministry of Defence and the National Police on this subject have not been answered, despite more than two weeks having passed.
The little information available comes from the officers’ own comments and from some extreme statements made known through the media, which suggest the presence of mental disorders.
One of the most recent cases is that of police officer Christopher Fuse, who shot at a group of people in San Francisco de Macorís and then committed suicide. Videos of the incident show how the officer became agitated after a game of dominoes in a grocery store. He pulled out a gun, held it in front of his colleagues and then went out into the street. He shot at a group of men who were gathered under a tree on the other side of the road. The last shot went to his head, killing him instantly. Shortly afterwards, one of the four he wounded died.
Days earlier, on August 15, Ana Josefa Castillo Cuello, a doctor and member of the Army, was arrested on charges of murdering her six-year-old daughter, whom she decapitated with a knife. After this shocking incident, which occurred in Santo Domingo Este, testimonies emerged from acquaintances who claimed that the woman was facing psychological problems.
