Reference no: EM13467074

You are a counselor for a major metropolitan police force. Your job is to interview persons who are referred to you by superiors, who voluntarily come to you for counseling, or who, because of a specific incident, are mandated by departmental regulations to seek your counsel. On the last four callouts over the past 6 weeks, three of them have resulted in the offender being shot to death by your unit's sniper. You are scheduled to speak with him this week about his feelings concerning the shootings. You received a call from his wife the night before last. It seems that the sniper has taken to sleeping in the living room and not in his bedroom. His wife has been unable to convince him to sleep in bed with her for the past month. He claims that he has headaches and goes to sleep on the couch. After the last mission in which he had to shoot a suspect, the team went to a local bar that they patronize. The sniper reportedly got drunk and, while hugging another member of the team, he started crying about the three men that he had to shoot over the past six weeks. The next day, he acted like the crying incident did not happen. He either forgot it in the alcohol haze, or pretended not to remember it.

In a callout last night, the sniper and his partner took up a position at the rear of a house where home invaders were barricaded. At one point, an offender exited the back door with a gun in his hand. The sniper stood up in the open and walked right up to the offender, who was dazed at the sniper's behavior. The sniper struck the weapon from the offender's hand with the butt of his rifle, and then knocked him to the ground, where he placed him in handcuffs. Although it initially seemed to be a brave act, it violated all protocol to break cover, and it risked the sniper, his partner, and the offender's life.

You have a decision to make at this point. In a 3-5 page paper, respond to the following:

• Describe the mental state of the sniper since the three shootings have occurred in which he killed the offenders.
• Articulate two of the possible personality disorders or afflictions that the sniper has that are interfering with his work.
• Explain whether, if the sniper would get the treatment needed, he might be able to return to his duties as a sniper, or possibly back to regular uniformed duties.
• Relate how treatment of the sniper would benefit him as an individual in terms of his interpersonal relationships and his own safety.

You work in a major metropolitan city jail as a corrections officer. Your unit just got a new commander who came in from the headquarters administrative prison bureau, and this is his first assignment commanding actual COs in the field working in the cell block. Right away, you note that he is abrupt and demanding.

During a health and welfare sweep for contraband in a wing of the cell block, an ethnic male who is rumored to have been supplying inmates with controlled substances is found to have a small amount of marijuana concealed in his bunk. The new supervisor is trying to show how tough he is and is directing the CO team to only pick up all of the males that match the approximate age and ethnicity of this inmate and shake them down. All attempts by the members of the CO unit to get the supervisor to reconsider are met with an extreme violent reaction in which he starts screaming and relating that he knows this is a disloyal group and that he will see to it that the team is punished for disobeying an order. Then he starts yelling about not being able to commit to a campaign without good troops. The team became concerned about the new commander. They got together and came to you, as the senior member, asking what to do.

Please respond to the following questions. You must provide meaningful feedback to the main postings of at least two of your classmates:

• What is the likely mental state of the new commander?
• How could orders from this new commander to the unit cause issues with the corrections officers and their relationship in the inmate population?
• Do you feel that this commander should be allowed to resume this position as your commander after he sees a trained mental health professional?