Large group crisis intervention for law enforcement in response to the September 11 World Trade Center mass disaster.

University Behavioral HealthCare, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Personnel established a program entitled "Cop 2 Cop" in 1999 to assist law enforcement personnel within the state. The events of September 11, 2001, demanded an unprecedented response to address the behavioral health care needs of those individuals in New Jersey and New York. Although the Cop 2 Cop program was initiated as a crisis intervention hotline, the legislature which established the program also identified facilitating Critical Incident Stress Management services for New Jersey law enforcement and their families as needed to be within the scope of function. This paper describes the Cop 2 Cop program interventions with the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) which involved service provision to over 1,200 PAPD officers and an intensified process entitled an "Acute Stress Management Reentry Program" created for over 200 officers with unprecedented exposure to traumatic events.