Jefferson Co. sheriff adds psychiatrist to ranks

By The Associated Press

PINE BLUFF — When Stephen Broughton was hired as a part-time psychiatrist for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department he took an extra step to get ready for the job.

Broughton, 50, completed the department's part-time officer training program, which gave him the power to carry a gun and make arrests although his primary job will be counseling officers involved in violent or disturbing events.

Broughton, who is a fulltime staff psychiatrist for Southeast Arkansas Behavioral Healthcare System, began working with the sheriff's department last spring after Sheriff Gerald Robinson approached him. Robinson wanted a psychiatrist on staff so deputies could stay within the department to get help with stress or other concerns.

"He said that large departments around the country have someone the men can talk to if they get stressed out, and he wanted to know if I would be interested in doing that for him," Broughton said recently.

Robinson told Broughton that he wanted him to become a formal member of the department.

"Before I agreed to that, I did some research and learned that law enforcement is a close-knit community because they have to deal with survival every day, and basically the best way to understand them and what they do is to become one of them," Broughton said.

Broughton said he may have raised an eyebrow or two in training.

"I think they were surprised at how well I could shoot, but I did have some military background," he said.

Broughton was a lieutenant in the Naval Reserves Medical Service Corps. He said he's also helped his children in karate and his wife has a black belt.

Broughton said he and the sheriff plan to set up a program that will require officers to visit with Broughton after being involved in any emotionally-charged or highly stressful police work.

"The sheriff is putting in a policy that when somebody is involved in a shooting or investigates an accident where there are deaths involved will be debriefed afterward," Broughton said. "Before there was no one for them to come down with and they would take whatever they saw and did home with them and they really couldn't talk about it with their families either, leading to stress and eventually to burnout."

Broughton said officers often avoid counseling because of concerns of appearing weak, but requiring the counseling will help get around this stigma.

Department operations commander Maj. Greg Bolin said deputies often find themselves in extreme situations and can benefit from having a professional to talk with.

"Those needs were not always taken care of in the past, and that's what the sheriff wanted to do when he asked Dr. Broughton to come aboard," Bolin said.

Robinson said a couple of incidents in the past few years prompted him to reach out to Broughton.

"Sgt. David Wheeler was involved in a shooting and never really recovered from it," Robinson said. "There was no one for him to talk to about the incident and he went downhill after it."

Last year, Wheeler was one of three officers to receive the Medal of Honor from the Arkansas Sheriff's Association for their actions during a shooting at the Tyson Foods plant on Jefferson Parkway in 2006.

Later in 2007, Wheeler was suspended, fired and then arrested after an altercation at his now former wife's house. He was charged with one count of aggravated assault, two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, and one count of third-degree domestic battery. Those charges are still pending.

For more information see Sunday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.