Const. David Bratzer pulled into his driveway around midnight on May 10, 2019.
It had been a long day. After working his regular 10-hour shift as a homicide investigator with the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit, he’d been called out to a suspicious death in Duncan. He thought his day was finished — until his phone rang again.
A young woman had been murdered at a home in Brentwood Bay. Two men were in critical condition in hospital after being stabbed by a man who broke into the house high on nitrous oxide and crack cocaine. Bratzer was needed at the scene.
“I’ve been a police officer for 18 years and, to this day, I’ve never seen a crime scene as distressing as this one,” the 45-year-old married father of two said in a recent interview.
“There was a young child in the house, in great danger, and her family did their absolute best to protect her. It really affected me because I also had young children at the time.”
Seven months later, Bratzer was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2020, he was one of 579 law enforcement workers — including 115 police officers — who filed a psychological injury claim with WorkSafeBC.
Bratzer was off work for eight months. When he returned to work, first as a homicide detective, then as a Victoria police patrol officer, he began openly speaking out about his experience to help others recognize the complex symptoms of PTSD.
He did an interview with the police union’s True Blue podcast and took part in a WorkSafe panel with PTSD specialists.
“I talked about it because I was able to find a road back,” said Bratzer. “And a big part of the reason I was able to come back to work was the support of Victoria police, WorkSafe and a team of psychologists. Everyone from the rank and file to Chief Del Manak got in touch with me and let me know they supported me.”
‘Someone had to spell it out for me’
Looking back, Bratzer realized he was drained going into the traumatic murder, then worked throughout the night, 37 hours without a break.
In the days following, he waited inside the house for hours as forensic identification officers gathered evidence. He accompanied the young woman’s body to Vancouver and was present during the autopsy.
Away from the scene, as the investigation progressed, he was continuously exposed to forensic evidence captured on video and high resolution cameras, what he calls “terabytes of trauma,” that investigators go back to again and again.
“Some VIIMCU files take place over the course of years, in some cases, decades. You’re just into it so deep for such a long period of time, it’s difficult to see the way out,” he said.
Bratzer started coming in late for work. Even if he woke up at 4 a.m, he would be two hours late for his 7 a.m. shift. Or he would find a reason to leave work early.
“I was suffering from avoidance from a psychological perspective, unconsciously staying away from something hurtful.”
The Victoria Police Department has a mandatory psychological assessment for officers at high risk of exposure to trauma. After his assessment in January 2020, the psychologist told Bratzer she didn’t think he was mentally well enough to go back to work.
“I was surprised. I know myself. I have been a police officer for a long time and someone literally had to spell it out for me,” he said.
The trauma had also affected his life at home.
Bratzer had been “fort building,” upgrading his locks, installing surveillance cameras. He’d been sleeping on the couch within sight of the front door.
“I wasn’t fearful for myself. I was fearful for my family. It’s fair to say this was a senseless attack on an innocent family and somehow, in my own mind, I became fearful for my family.”
Bratzer filed a WorkSafeBC claim and went through the steps required by the organization. Although he knew something wasn’t right, he didn’t really believe he had PTSD.
“The big red flag for me was when I fractured my tooth from grinding my teeth in my sleep,” he said. “When I finally started to see the physical symptoms, I knew I had to deal with it.”
Exposure therapy and recovery
During his time off, Bratzer dedicated himself to his recovery. In the beginning, he met with the psychologist every day. He changed his sleep and nutrition habits. He put a rowing machine in his living room and exercised every day, losing 30 pounds.
At first, Bratzer was so fragile, he couldn’t watch any crime shows on TV. But he found that if he got on the rowing machine and got his heart rate up, he was gradually able to watch some shows.
“Even to this day, if I have a challenging shift, I get on the stationary bike. It’s a strategy that has stayed with me,” he said.
Bratzer hadn’t been back to Central Saanich since the murder, but the psychologist suggested exposure therapy — exposing individuals to things they fear and avoid — as one last thing to help in his long-term recovery.
Bratzer was apprehensive on the drive to the house on Meadowlark Place. He parked a block away and sat for a bit. He drove to the cul de sac and again sat for a bit, talking with his psychologist on his phone. Then he got out of the car and broke down.
“It was emotionally overwhelming and unexpected. I wasn’t prepared for how much it would affect me. It brought back a lot of feeling and images and experiences that I was still coming to terms with. It really shocked me how much it affected me.”
Bratzer got back in the car.
“That’s one of the hardest parts of the injury. You don’t realize how badly you are injured until something like that happens. And it helped me realize the limits of my recovery.”
He didn’t just face his fears that day. Bratzer also realized how much PTSD had affected his family, his health, his career, his relationships.
Recovery wasn’t slow and steady. Sometimes it was one step forward, two steps back, said Bratzer. Sometimes, he just couldn’t get on track.
Bratzer wanted to return to the major crime unit. In August 2020, he began a gradual return to work, starting with working short shifts and building around them.
On Nov. 1, 2020, the major crime unit began investigating a triple murder in the Whiskey Creek area west of Coombs. Two bodies had been found in a burned-out travel trailer, while a third body was discovered nearby.
Although Bratzer wasn’t deployed to the scene, he helped the investigation in other ways.
“I felt really good I had been able to help the team,” he said.
Five days later, the major crime unit was deployed to the murder of Kerri Weber at her home on Happy Valley Road in Langford. The unit needed Bratzer to roll out to the scene, but he was concerned about becoming retraumatized.
“It was extremely busy and stressful. My gut was telling me that I’ve made it through my first new murder case, now I need to pause and take some time to recover to ensure I’ll be able to rejoin the team down the road,” said Bratzer.
In August 2021, at the end of his time with the major crime unit, Bratzer was the crime scene manager on a murder in Bowser, taking on the same role he’d filled at the Brentwood Bay murder.
“It felt good to go in and accomplish that task. It felt good to be able to contribute to the team,” he said.
Then in late March 2022, working patrol for Victoria police, he was deployed to the fatal stabbing of a young man outside Lucky Bar on Yates Street.
He has now closed his WorkSafe claim.
“What I’ve learned from this experience, when you’re operating in a traumatic environment, it is OK to take breaks and build in opportunities to decompress.”
Victoria police Staff Sgt. Daryl Baswick describes Bratzer’s return to work as “inspirational.”
“He took on key roles at VIIMCU and he did excellent work. We very much value his significant contributions, which have continued since his return to patrol,” said Baswick. “He’s very good at his job and he’s very caring about the team and very conscious of people’s well-being.”
Presumption of psychological injury
Baswick, who worked at the major crime unit and has been part of the Wounded Warrior Run, has seen the impact operational stress injuries can have on people and their families. “I’ve also seen there can be effective treatment and return to work,” he said.
Victoria police is moving in the direction of making mental health assessments mandatory for everyone, he said.
In May 2018, the Workers Compensation Act was amended so that if first responders and emergency workers have been exposed to a traumatic event and are diagnosed with a mental disorder, the disorder is presumed to be caused by employment.
“Our primary psychological claim injuries have been rising year over year, which is expected with legislative and policy changes and a post-pandemic world,” said Tanya Houghton, WorkSafe director of special care services.
“There’s been a lot of difficulties the world has faced and our first responder groups, whether it’s firefighters or police or nurses or paramedics, are often the first people dealing with those.”
While the physical injury return to work rate is 92-93 per cent, the return to work for psychological injury is 85 per cent, she said.
WorkSafe has decades of research on how long it takes to recover from a broken ankle or a sprained back, said Houghton. But when it comes to mental health, one person with depression is not the same as another person with depression.
“Those things that are facilitating a return to work for one, may be a hindrance for another. The challenge is meeting people where they are at, getting a fulsome understanding of where they are at,” she said.
She advises people to reach out to their employers if they feel they are experiencing a mental-health reaction in relation to a traumatic event or series of events.
“Talk to your employer, open up that dialogue. We strongly encourage individuals to lean into those conversations with their employer and file a claim,” she said.
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