[Rick Griggs]

Chiefs Ali and Rhodes have truly brought this topic into the open. When I got in to public safety over 38 years ago, I knew that I was going to see bad things and do hard things. What I did not expect was the way that I would be treated. I went into it knowing that I was expected to risk my life to save others and potentially see horrific incidents. It seemed that the more time I had on the job the worse the non-incident related events would impact me. Sometimes it was the lack of caring that I felt from supervisors and management, others it was the impact of injuries and fatalities of my friends, eventually it was standing up and trying to do the right thing for my subordinates and calling attention to the challenges they faced, only to be told that they just “needed to suck it up.” The balancing act of keeping meat in the seats and the wheels rolling against the challenges of stress, fatigue, behavioral health and family issues was very real as a leader. I made a commitment to error on the side of the employee whenever I could but that was often in conflict with my superiors. This placed me in the crosshairs of management, some who had forgotten what it was like to be in the field or even had little field time themselves. That betrayal was real and damaging.