What Good Debriefs Actually Look Like: The Gap Between How Departments Process Critical Incidents and What the Science Recommends

In most departments, what happens in a debrief is shaped more by tradition, liability concern, and the personal style of whoever is running it than by any systematic engagement with what the research says actually helps. The gap between the debrief as it is commonly practiced in law enforcement and the debrief as the science recommends it is not a minor procedural detail. It is the difference between a process that supports recovery and one that, at its worst, actively increases the risk of post-traumatic stress symptoms in the people it is supposed to help.