Maricopa police training focuses on vets

A service member no longer in uniform isn’t your average civilian. Police officers recognize this.

It’s one reason Maricopa Police Department personnel will receive training Wednesday to help them better understand the psyche of a veteran, especially those they may come in contact with during a critical situation.

The departmentwide training is being conducted by the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post through three, hour-long sessions in the morning and afternoon. The training will be recorded for any officers who might miss the sessions.

“This is a very, very important (event),” said VFW service officer Richard Hall. “All I can say is, it’s needed bad.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates more than 34,000 veterans lived in Pinal County in 2010. That number is expected to swell to more than 45,000 by 2020.

Kim Muniz, an Army combat veteran and VFW post member, said the mindset of a veteran going through a crisis is developed before any deployment.

“It just escalated from there,” Muniz said.

Drawing from her own experience, she explained the military transforms a person’s civilian mindset into the mindset of a soldier.

When Muniz went into the Army in 1985, part of her hand-to-hand combat training focused on the use of bayonets – the blade fitted on the end of a rifle.

Muniz said when an instructor would yell, “What’s the spirit of a bayonet?” she and other trainees would respond, “To kill. To kill. To kill without mercy.”

“It changes you,” she said of the military.

Wednesday’s training session will not solely focus on combat veterans. Even non-war zone vets could have gone through traumatic events such as sexual assault, Muniz said.

Maricopa police officers will be taught that veterans who are readjusting to civilian life are trying to learn new ways of communicating, managing daily tasks and how to appropriately behave.

When it comes to post traumatic stress disorder, police will learn about what can trigger PTSD. Muniz said all veterans have PTSD – it’s just a question of to what extent.