DALLAS — Six years have passed but the pain remains.
“Professionally and personally it’s one of the worst days of my life,” said officer Joe King of the Dallas Police Department.
The evening of July 7, 2016, took a toll on officers across the Dallas Police Department. They saw their fellow officers die -- then they had to get back to work.
“We were forced to suppress a lot of it, and I think the impacts are still being felt,” said DPD Assistant Chief Ruben Ramirez.
Officers struggled emotionally and mentally.
”The reality is nothing stays buried. It all manifests,” said Ramirez.
It’s one of the reasons Dallas police have launched a new mental wellness unit for officers.
"I feel like this profession is like a daily pin prick. Every day we see bad image after bad image after bad image, bad smell. People take it home they bury it and detach, compartmentalize it and that’s not good," said King.
The department wants to let officers know it’s okay to get help instead of numbing or masking their feelings. Police Lt. Lisette Rivera will lead the unit.
"We want to normalize that it is okay to talk about the things that you experience. It’s okay to have those feelings of anger and hurt and helplessness," said Rivera.
They’ve identified officers across the department they call checkpoint officers. Those officers will call and check in on officers who respond to murders, suicides and deadly accidents.
"It’s really touching those officers with a layer of empathy and compassion for the work they are doing every day," said Ramirez.
King says he will be among those officers who will reach out because he understands.
"I got to a point where I needed to go talk to somebody seeing a friend injured or killed," said King.
The hope is still to give officers a better way of coping.
"That we are building resiliency in them so they are building that capacity and they are able to go to those traumatic calls day in and day out and go home and be ok," said Rivera.
While July 7 left behind emotional scars, the department says it will be there to continue helping officers heal.