Ms McLaren, a councillor who served in the PSNI for 18 years, said most officers “all have one or two incidents that they will remember forever”.
“I remember attending a suicide 20 years ago. Even now, driving home at night in the dark, if I’m in the car on my own and I look through the rear-view mirror, I can see him on the back seat,” she said.
“I remember one colleague who worked with the murder team for 30 years, and it never fazed him, every time he went to a scene no matter how graphic.
“It was only when his own children became the ages of those victims that all of a sudden it had a huge impact on him.”
Ms McLaren said mental health had always been a major problem within the service, but attitudes towards support have only recently changed.
“In days gone by, especially during the Troubles, you didn’t go off sick with mental health,” she said.
“You maybe got a day [off] and your mates got you a bottle of whiskey.”