Critical incident stress debriefing for law enforcement: practical models and special applications.

Critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) has evolved and diversified to address the needs of various subpopulations of public safety and emergency services personnel, including law enforcement. This article describes the concept of critical incident stress as it applies to police officers and other law enforcement agents. It then discusses the traditional debriefing models and the specialized modifications and applications that have been introduced to deal with the needs of law enforcement individuals and groups. Next, the role of peer-debriefing is described in addressing law enforcement critical incident stress, as well as specific examples of model programs within different types of law enforcement agencies. Finally, the as yet incompletely resolved legal and administrative issues surrounding the use of peers versus professional clinicians for critical incident intervention are addressed.