Greenfield Police Chief Brian Giammarino experienced a critical incident when he was involved in a police shooting death on June 21 on Route 136.
About four weeks later, an attorney general’s investigation concluded that the shooting was legally justified and that Giammarino would not be charged.
The challenge now might be the toughest faced by the 13-year chief: returning to work after the distress of the fatal incident.
“We let people know that they’re having a normal reaction to an abnormal event,” Mark Proulx, chairman of the Granite State Critical Incident Stress Management Team, said.
CISM is one of many groups that help people involved in critical incidents understand what they went through and begin to recover.
An important piece of mental recovery is confidentiality, so it is not known whether Giammarino is undergoing counseling or other support, but understanding what these groups do can provide insight into what officers go through.
“There’s always a stigma,” Franklin Police Chief Dave Goldstein said of the need for confidentiality. “The idea that we are the helping professions, and we’re afraid people might think needing help makes us weak.”
Goldstein has been involved in psychological support groups since the 1970s.
“People think just because I raised my hand and took an oath, that doesn’t mean I lose my humanity,” he said. “I’m still a human being.”
The way critical incident support works is to bring together all participants as soon as possible to get a story straight, dispel misunderstandings and view the whole picture. This helps prevent post-traumatic stress, and can help participants grow from stressful experiences.
“A lot of what happens is we normalize these things for people before they manifest,” said Proulx, a former Nashua firefighter.
He admits that is does not always work, “but we have a pretty high success rate.”
Goldstein also thinks that most public safety officers successfully recover from critical incidents, and that a long-time professionals like Giammarino will be back to work soon.
“With police, EMT and fire, in the vast majority of these situations, people are fine,” he said. “We categorize it, we compartmentalize it, it changes us but we’re OK”
As for Giammarino’s return, Andrew Wood, interim chief in Greenfield, said in July that he may be back mid-August, and the town has no official reinstatement timeline. Goldstein says that the decision ultimately falls to the department and can differ town-to-town. If Giammarino is undergoing psychological treatment, it is possible that the department will seek the opinion of a counselor before his return.
The community Giammarino serves has stood behind him during this time. There is a Facebook group, “We 100% Support Chief Brian Giammarino,” with over 1,500 members.
Bill Taylor, who created the page, said he is pleasantly shocked by how overwhelmingly positive is. He said Giammarino has seen the page.
“There has not been a single post arguing against Brian,” Taylor said. “What impacted me the most is how many people must be thinking of him, and you wouldn’t necessarily see him on the street and say something to him.”
Members are using the space to tell stories and share experiences with Giammarino.