From a Cop to a Cop Counselor: A Great and Rewarding Journey

By Dr. Peter Killeen
Published September 8, 2022 @ 4:06 pm PDT, American Police Beat Magazine

As a former police officer, Franciscan friar and current police psychotherapist, I would like to share my present-day personal story as a first responder and trauma clinician. I was born into a law enforcement family and followed in their footsteps. In 1975, I was hired as a police officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. At the time, the country was recovering from the Vietnam War, which had caused widespread unrest throughout much of the nation. However, being a cop was still a very honorable profession. Upon graduating from the police academy, I was assigned to LaGuardia Airport in Jackson Heights, Queens. On the evening of December 29, 1975, a bomb exploded in the Central Terminal Building in the airport, killing 11 people and injuring a great number of others. This was recognized as the first act of homeland terrorism our country ever experienced. The sight of blood pools accumulating on the floor around me, and the wooden caskets piled one on top of another left me feeling uneasy. Today, in retrospect, I believe that what I went through was a form of post-traumatic stress (PTS)…