"Modified" Duty for psychiatric reasons?

[ancilla89]

I'm writing a scene where a detective is placed on restricted (modified?) duty after an incident caused by his (untreated) PTSD.

He has a nightmare/flashback in the middle of the night, gets his off-duty weapon out of the safe because he thinks he needs to protect his family. He doesn't use the gun, but his C.O. puts him on 30 days leave. Would this be called restricted duty, modified duty? Is 30 days too short a period? (My character will be getting mandatory psychological help while on leave.)

[just joe]

How does his supervisor even know about it? His supervisor or commander will not have the authority to impose that on him. It takes a lot of work to put someone on restricted duty or leave for a fitness for duty evaluation. At a minimum, the chief of police, the union, and the director of HR are all going to be involved. Restricted duty means you work with restrictions. Leave means you don't work.

[L-1]

Police personnel lack the medical expertise and training necessary to evaluate an officer's fitness for duty, so no one is going to be suspended or put on modified duty without first having them under go a fitness for duty exam by a medical professional.

[eagleI]

We call it Administrative leave, usually with pay. He would not be allowed to work.

If he is suspected of criminal activity then he might be "suspended", usually without pay.

Either one is at the direction of the Chief or Sheriff.

[retired1995]

Got his off-duty gun out of the safe? What's up with that? I keep several guns in my gun safe, but my carry piece is always within an arm's length, loaded, and ready to use.

But that's just me. I'm sure all the nice modern cops check their guns in at the front desk before they leave the station at the end of their shifts, right?

Undiagnosed PTSD? Sounds serious! Two tours in Vietnam (airborne infantry) and 24 years as a cop, never caught any of that PTSD stuff (unless it was undiagnosed, of course). As others have already pointed out, you are talking about a recognized mental health disorder that would require competent medical diagnosis, not some bozo supervisor's discretionary judgement.

Lots of "unlikely" in your hypothesis.