Making Death Notifications: A Law Enforcement Officer’s Guide

Receiving news about the unexpected death of a loved one is a traumatic event. How that news is delivered can exacerbate the trauma if it is delivered in a clumsy or insensitive way. Furthermore, how law enforcement officers deliver this news will forever impact how the receiver views the law enforcement profession. As a result, death notifications are not simply an unpleasant but necessary part of the job. Death notifications are an opportunity to serve one’s community in a compassionate way, and improve perceptions of the law enforcement profession – but only if done properly. 

This webinar will present evidence-based best practices developed from the field of medicine and psychology for how to deliver traumatic news in the easiest and most sensitive manner possible. It will address how the officer should prepare before contacting the next of kin. The webinar will suggest ways officers can use their behavior to set the stage and psychologically prepare the receiver for the bad news once contact it made. 

The training will cover what research has revealed are the best ways to deliver the message with the least trauma to the receiver, and will address the various responses the officer can expect to encounter, realizing each person processes grief differently. Finally, the training will conclude with the best ways to disengage from the interaction, and discuss officer self-care after the call is over. 

This webinar will provide patrol personnel and detectives with useful information so that they are prepared to handle this responsibility in the most professional manner possible.