The Role of Psychology in Reducing Harm and Trauma
Preventable Police Fatalities in New Jersey: The Role of Psychology in Reducing Harm and Trauma
Sadness, alarm, anger, anxiety are common responses to headline reports of deaths linked to police practice. In 2020, protests and civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis, Minnesota police officers led to the largest mass protests in US history (Buchanan et al., 2020). Complaints about police abuse and brutality have a lengthy history in the US (Kerner Commission Report, 1967). Much of this history involves racial bias against African Americans (Bor et al., 2018; Human Rights Watch, 1998), and a disproportionate number of cases involve people experiencing mental health crises (APA, 2021; Rogers, et al., 2019). Below we present recent cases of preventable police fatalities in New Jersey (see Table 1.) and discuss the role of psychology in reducing harm. We draw from the American Psychological Association’s (2021) Resolution on police use of excessive force, literature on racial trauma (Hardy, 2023), as well as public health perspectives and data (American Public Health Association, 2018; Bor et al., 2018).
Andrew Jerome Washington, III – help becomes harm
On August 27, 2023, Andrew Jerome Washington, III, a 52-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by Jersey City police department officers. According to CNN (Tebor, 2023), police deployed a taser prior to the fatal gunfire. Mr. Washington had a history of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Washington’s family reported he was acting strangely for days and it was suspected he had discontinued his medication. The family initially called the Jersey City Medical Center crisis team for
assistance. However, the crisis team was not successful in transporting Mr. Washington to care and they called the police (Tebor, 2023; Niemietz, 2023). The police were engaged for an hour negotiating with Washington who was behind a door. When the officers forced their way into the room, reportedly Washington moved toward them with a knife. Though the family members have questioned whether Washington actually held a knife, the outcome was fatal police gunfire. The family reported that the police responded during a similar crisis with Washington, in 2011, and he was shot in the arm (Carlin, 2023).
Najee Seabrooks - a violence prevention specialist
On March 3, 2023, Najee Seabrooks, a 31-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by Paterson, New Jersey police officers. This homicide was reported in the regional and national press (Cramer & Tully, 2023). Reportedly the police spent 4-5 hours urging Seabrooks to surrender before the fatal shots were fired. What was the nature of Seabrooks’ threat? He was threatening to kill himself. Seabrooks had arrived at his brother’s apartment at 2:00am and locked himself in the bathroom with knives. According to the New York Times (Cramer & Tully, 2023), family members reported Seabrooks did not have a history of mental health difficulty and suggested he may have had a bad reaction to something he smoked. This preventable police homicide, involved another tragic irony. Seabrooks was a member of the Paterson Healing Collective (PHC), a group of specialists, from a local hospital, trained to de-escalate violence. Members of the collective reported that the police blocked their direct access to Seabrooks when he was in crisis. Finally, at 12:51pm, when Seabrooks came out of the bathroom, the fatal shots were fired. In New Jersey, since 2019, due to conflict-of-interest concerns, police fatal assaults are investigated by the State Attorney General’s Office rather than the local county prosecutor (New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, 2019). A press release issued by the State Attorney General stated Seabrooks “lunged” at officers with a knife in his hands. A New Jersey ACLU official noted the Attorney General’s language and characterization prematurely justified the police fatality (Jung, 2023). A lawsuit on behalf of the Seabrooks family cites other Paterson police homicides suffered by people experiencing mental health crises (Moran, 2023).
Bernard Placide, - ‘point blank range’
Six months earlier, another young Black man in a mental health crisis was killed by New Jersey police. The deceased was 22-year-old Bernard Placide and the fatal assault occurred in Englewood on Labor Day weekend (9/03/22). The family denied Placide had a history of mental health impairment. According to audio released by the New Jersey Attorney General, Placide’s mother (Myrlene Laurince) told a dispatcher, "[deleted] is trying to kill me," adding, "I don’t know what happened to him. He’s been acting crazy lately” (Katzman & Noda, 2023). When police officers arrived, they found Placide’s stepfather in the bathroom with a stab wound. Then, they encountered Placide, alone in his room. Placide held a green object and was ordered multiple times to ‘drop the knife.’ Placide was first tased by one officer and then shot at point blank range by the other officer. There is a dispute regarding whether Placide was armed at the time (Sloan, 2022). The family attorney (Eric Kleiner) asserts, Placide held only a knife handle, the blade had been broken off earlier in the day. Video cam footage may shed light on that aspect of the dispute but some argue, even if Placide was armed, appropriate methods to de-escalate the incident were indicated rather than a lethal response. The New Jersey Attorney General’s office is also investigating this case.
Major Gulia Dale, III – combat veteran PTSD
Major Guila Dale, III was a 61-year-old decorated, Black army combat veteran. He had served three tours in Iraq. He was employed for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in Washington, DC, as an Equal Opportunity Specialist, at the time of his death. He commuted to his home in Newton, New Jersey on weekends. He was scheduled to retire in October of 2021. Mr. Dale had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder related to his military service. On July 4th, 2021, Dale suffered a post-traumatic stress reaction to the sound of fireworks. His wife, concerned he was suicidal, called the police for help. Four minutes after the call was placed, Guila Dale was shot and killed by two white Newton Police officers in the front of his home. According to an attorney for the one of the officers, Mr. Dale held a handgun (Comstock, 2021a; Swift & Prempeh, 2021). A local headline summarized the family’s distress, “I called for help for my husband because he was suicidal ... not for murder (Comstock, 2021a).” Valerie Dale-Corbertt, sister of the veteran, has been leading the call for a thorough investigation. She cited a January 2021 incident, where a suicidal white male fired two shots toward Newton police officers. He was allowed to drive away, without gunfire from the officers. This man was later arrested and provided medical care (Comstock, 2021a; Comstock, 2021b). According to Valerie Corbertt, this illustrates the type of de-escalation and protecting of life that her brother was denied. Eighteen months after Major Gulia Dale was killed, the New Jersey Attorney General’s grand jury cleared the officers of all criminal charges (Cowan, 2023).
Carl Dorsey – No bill
The fatal police gunfire that killed 39-year-old, Carl Dorsey in Newark, on January 1, 2021, was not related to mental health distress. Dorsey, an African-American resident of South Orange, was out with friends, shortly after midnight, celebrating the New Year in Newark. The unarmed Dorsey inadvertently bumped or collided with a plainclothes officer exiting an unmarked police vehicle. “As Det. [...] was falling to the ground, his service weapon discharged once, striking Mr. Dorsey...” (Office of the Attorney General, 2023). This official account suggests the fatal gunfire was inadvertent and accidental. However, important considerations warrant attention. The officer was one of 12 plain clothes detectives, in an unspecified number of unmarked police vehicles, working together without body cameras, in the Newark Criminal ‘Intelligence’ Unit. African-Americans, in inner city neighborhoods, are subjected to this peculiar pattern of (over-) policing that has inherent risks and associated trauma as occurred with the Dorsey fatality (Bor et al., 2018). As might be expected, the Attorney General’s grand jury declined to indict the officer who shot Carl Dorsey (Sturnsky, 2023). Newark Mayor Ras Baraka released a statement indicating the officer was no longer on active duty and the City would move swiftly to determine if there were violations of procedure or regulations involved in the case.
Discussion
For several decades, research and professional psychologists have been engaged in efforts to reduce fatal and abusive police practices, especially where the mentally ill are vulnerable (Watson & Fulambarker, 2012). Similarly, African-American community resistance to police brutality has been noted throughout the 20th Century (Kerner Commission, 1967) and continues with renewed activism and popular slogans like, ‘Black Lives Matter.’
The APA’s (2021) resolution on police use of excessive force is a call for psychology to engage and support reform on a host of levels. For instance, how policing is envisioned, how police officers (and emergency dispatch personnel) are selected and trained, combatting overt and implicit bias, and creating effective civilian oversight of police, are all vital for effective reform. Other agenda items include cultivating peer awareness among police to counteract the ‘blue wall of silence.’ In this connection, the FBI (2006) report warning of white supremacist infiltration of US law enforcement warrants attention (also see German, 2020). We do not suggest all the solutions are readily identifiable at this point. It is our goal here to outline some basic principles, and alternative perspectives, that can guide practice reform and further research.
We believe it is essential that reform, on all levels, adopt a public health orientation (American Public Health Association, 2018). That is, focus on reducing and eliminating harm, death, injury, and residual psychological trauma. De-escalation needs to be a guiding principle in police-citizen interactions. This will benefit the public and law enforcement personnel (APA, 2021). Our observation in the above cited cases is the New Jersey Attorney General’s approach has been to determine whether the police use of lethal force can be justified, while the public health question is whether the police use of lethal force was preventable (Johnson & Cobbertt, 2023). Even where lethal force might be justified, there needs to be rigorous examination of whether less than lethal measures could have been effective. This alternative question must always be engaged toward the goal of reducing and preventing fatal outcomes.
We are proposing, in addition to review of criminal or civil liability, a rigorous post-event process to examine cases that resulted in death or serious injury, as well as mental health crises interventions that were effectively resolved without injury. Data from such inquiry can help determine which types of training or technological measures that can reduce fatal and injurious outcomes. Just as the TSA investigates airline and rail disasters when there is loss of life and injuries, rigorous examination of fatalities associated with mental health crises warrants the same diligence. We call upon the New Jersey Attorney General to lead such an effort.
Our general understanding of trauma leads to recognition of the widening circle of harm associated with these outcomes. There is, of course, the profound and varied trauma suffered by the deceased and their family. This extends to friends and loved ones, and the community, as well. It is linked in our psyches with pain associated with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin, as well as intergenerationally with Emmett Till, Isaac Woodard, and others. We know and appreciate this from research and our lived experience. Noted scholars (Hardy, 2023) have described this as an aspect of enduring ‘racial trauma’ that demands clinical and societal attention.
We call for an alliance of mental health professional organizations, local and regional mental health advocacy organizations, and other concerned groups and individuals to engage in combatting and reducing police excessive and lethal violence.
References Furnished Upon Request
About the Authors
Barbara A. Prempeh, PsyD is the founder and owner of B. Resilient, LLC, a private practice that works to build resilience individually and collectively. Dr. Prempeh specializes in helping individuals, communities, and organizations overcome various types of traumas and adversities. Dr. Prempeh is currently President of the New Jersey Chapter of the Association of Black Psychologists.
Matthew Barry Johnson, PhD is a Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.
