Elizabeth Ponte, a retired Camden Police Department detective who survived an ambush and now speaks about PTSD to first responders.
A workshop dealing with stress disorders was held at Bloomfield Fire Station No. 3, on Saturday, Dec. 14.
The speaker was Elizabeth Ponte, a retired Camden, NJ, detective who survived an ambush while on a wiretapping investigation. Ponte recounted the incident.
She and her partner were in a red-light district of the city when twenty-five rounds were fired through the passenger window of an unmarked Audi hatchback in which she was seated. Unable to return fire because a bullet had struck her trigger finger leaving it dangling and not wearing a vest she ducked underneath the dashboard for cover. Her partner was hit twice in both arms.
Audio receptors in the area had transmitted the sounds of gun fire to the police station and they quickly responded. She was brought to the hospital. It was discovered that there was someone in the building who wanted to learn her identity so the hospital went into lockdown.
The incident left her feeling outraged and violated. Succeeding incidents caused these feelings to increase: the constant visitations and questions, the plea deal that was struck because the prosecutor did not think there was enough evidence to take the case to trial.
“I used to hate going to sleep afterwards because I knew I’d have a nightmare,” she said. “One in five firefighters will experience post traumatic stress disorder.”
In an interview with this newspaper, Ponte said that first responders do not want to appear weak to their “brothers and sisters” or to their superiors.
“I know a lot of police are concerned with having their gun taken from them,” she said. “But there’s certain criteria for that to take place. And I’m sure some firefighters might fear they’ll be put on light duty or placed on administrative leave.”
Ponte retired after being a police officer for nine years. She had been with the department for three years when the ambush occurred on Aug. 7, 2018. She was then on leave for one-and-a-half years and returned as the lead instructor in the Camden County Police Academy and then in the special victims unit of the detective bureau.
“I retired early,” she said. “I realized I had to get out of that environment.”
Afterwards, she worked in a salon, got her masters in public administration and began her own business, Valor & Grace, to provide information to first responders about PTSD. The Bloomfield presentation was a Valor & Grace production.
Ponte touched upon certain therapies treating PTSD. One was EMDR or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. For this, a patient’s eye movement is used to help eliminate the distress held in a memory.
She also mentioned somatic memories. These are not explicit memories such as remembering the date of your birthday, but implicit memories such as having a gut-feeling or a muscle spasm because of a past experience.
Ponte asked what aspects in the firefighters culture makes it difficult to talk about mental health?
“What wouldn’t the outside world understand?” she queried.
When she left the police department, she said it was a culture shock.
“My grandfather and father were New Jersey State Troopers,” she said. “But I wouldn’t say women experience PTSD more than men other than the fact that it’s a male-dominated career.”
For the name of her business, Ponte said “valor” comes from surviving the ambush.
“Grace is being able to bring this critical incident full circle by giving back to first responders,” she said. “And also the healing that comes with my speaking about the incident.”
About the Author
