Policy Text
Page 1 of 9 General Order 7-29 – (04/11/23 )
CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS MANAGEMENT TEAM
RICHMOND POLICE DEPARTMENT
GENERAL ORDER
Subject: CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS MANAGEMENT
(CISM) -PEER SUPPORT TEAM (PST) Chapter
7 Number
29 # Pages
9
References:
CALEA: 4.2.3 , 11.3.4f
VA Code: §2.2 -3700, §32.1 -111.3
Related Orders: N/A Effective Date : 04/11/2023
Revised By: Review
Prv. Rev. Date: 03/17/16
Chief of Police :
I. PURPOSE
This directive aims to establish a Critical Incident Stress Manage ment (CISM) -Peer Support
Team (P ST) to identify its objectives and provide general guidelines for its o peration,
selection , and assignment of personnel, training, administration , and confidentiality.
II. SUMMARY OF CHANGE
This policy is due for triannual review. The Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) -
Peer Support Team (P ST) members will provide support involving critical incidents for all
sworn and non -sworn employees. All new language is bold and italicized throughout the
document.
III. POLICY
It is the policy of the Richmond Police Department (RPD ) to maintain a PST (Peer Su pport
Team ) that consist of s pecially trained peers and professional mental health staff to give all
Police Department members, and their immediate family, the opportunity to receive tangible
peer support through times of personal or professional cris is and /or to help anticipate and
address potential problems.
Richmond Police Department recognizes the value of providing employees and their
families with a way to deal with professional and/ or personal challenges. A successful
approach is to provide a program that offers a non -profession al (peer) support program in
addition to the current Richmond Employee Assistance Program (REAP) . The PST
comprises of a group of sworn and civilian staff who have volunteered to be available to
any department member . The program will allow RPD employees t o share personal and/ or
professional problems confidentially with someone who understands and care s.
Richmond Police Department ’s most valuable resources are its employees . The Peer
Support Program (PSP) will assist police personnel with stress caused by professional and/
Page 2 of 9 General Order 7-29 – (04/11/23 )
CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS MANAGEMENT TEAM or personal events and help them continue to be a productive member of the Richmond
Police Department.
IV. ACCOUNTABILITY STATEMENT
All employees are expected to fully comply with the guidelines and timelines outlined in this
general order. Responsibility rests with the Division Commander to ensure that any policy
violations are investigated , and appropriate training, counseling and/or disciplinary action is
initiated.
This directive is for internal use only and does not enlarge an employee’ s civil liability in any
way. It should not be construed as creating a higher standard of safety or car e in an
evidentiary sense concerning third -party claims. Violation of this directive, if proven, can
only form the basis of a complaint by this Departm ent, and then only in a non -judicial
administrative setting.
V. DEFINITIONS
A. CRITICAL INCIDENT – Any event that has the emotional power to overwhelm an
individual’s usual ability to cope and may interfere with a person’s immediate or future
coping mechanism. A critical incident may include, but is not limited to:
1. Line-of-duty death;
2. Serious line -of-duty injury or assault;
3. Suicide;
4. Officer -involved shootings;
5. Multi-casualty incidents or disasters;
6. Serious motor vehicle crashes;
7. Extended undercover operations;
8. Significant event involving children;
9. Incident involving known victim; and,
10. Personal or family tragedies , e.g. violent criminal incidents involving the
employee or their families, deaths in family, etc.
B. CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS – Any situation faced by Emer gency Services
personnel that cause s them to experience extreme emotional reactions , which have the
potential to interfere with or limit their ability to perform at the scene or later generate
powerful feelings in the Emergency Service s workers.
C. CRITICAL I NCIDENT STRESS MANAGEMENT (CISM) – The process of
educating, preventing , or mitigating the effects of exposure to an abnormal or highly
unusual event. The core components of CISM are pre -incident education, on -scene
Page 3 of 9 General Order 7-29 – (04/11/23 )
CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS MANAGEMENT TEAM support, one -on-one peer crisis interven tion, demobilization, defusing, debriefing,
follow -up/referral , and significant other services.
D. CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS DEBRIEFING (CISD) – Formally , a seven -phase
process used in a group meeting, usually held 24 to 72 hours after an incident,
employing b oth crisis intervention and educational methods . The session is targeted
toward mitigating psychological distress associated with a critical incident or traumatic
event. Debriefings are neither counseling nor an operations critique of the incident.
E. DEFUSIN G – A brief confidential discussion between employees involved in a
critical incident and PST Members (PSTM) immediately following an incident. The
purpose of this is to help restore the employee ’s cognitive functioning and to help