Ellen Kirschman at the RBC

This past Wednesday night we had Ellen Kirschman at the RBC.  Ellen was there to answer questions about her 2nd book in the Dot Meyerhof series, The Right Wrong Thing (book 1 is Burying Ben).  Ellen is a 30-year police psychologist.  I have seen her at the launches for the 1st 2 books in the series.  And I never cease to be fascinated by what she has to say. Here are a few gems that I learned at our meeting:

1.  There are 900,000 law enforcement officers in the U.S. and 30,000 firefighters.
2.  10% of the law enforcement officers are women.
3.  Ellen does 4 6-day retreats a year as a volunteer for the First Responders Support Network (FRSN).  This is an organization designed to work with first responders and their families to help them reduce stress.
4.  Ellen has written several non-fiction books, including I Love a Cop, written in 1994.  Now she is writing a 2nd edition.
5.  Over the years, Ellen has provided counseling in 22 states and 4 countries as an independent contractor.

If you ever have a chance to see Ellen (Kirschman, not DeGeneres) in person, do it.  You will come away with a greater appreciation for her work and for first responders in general. We've all seen what can happen in  Ferguson and with victims like Eric Garner.  But this doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of our 1st responders are doing the job that we all expect them to do.  And, as Ellen has pointed out, it's a very stressful job.