Keep your sponge dry. That’s one of the first — and most urgent —commands that recruits hear when they start their training with the Baltimore Police Department. Whenever Vernon Herron delivers his introductory class on officer mental health and wellness, he hands out a basic cleaning sponge to every recruit — and holds up one as a prop.
He then asks the trainees to shout out a stressful or traumatic event that happened to them or someone else. With every comment, he pours a little water onto the sponge. At first, the sponge soaks up the water, but eventually, the water starts pouring out.
“The same happens when your mind can no longer take it,” he says. “You start to do things that you normally wouldn’t do.” Ramp up drinking. Withdraw from friends and family. Become irritable and aggressive. Herron’s plea to future police officers: ask for help when you start noticing the first effects of the relentless trauma drip.
Mental health and resiliency initiatives
Herron is the director of the Officer Safety and Wellness Section (OSW) at the Baltimore Police Department, a 2,400-officer agency.
Over the past few years, mental health and resiliency initiatives have sprung up in law enforcement agencies around the country. Baltimore PD has one of the more robust, integral and hands-on programs. In July, the agency was recognized by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) as the winner of this year’s Destination Zero National Officer Safety and Wellness Award in the Comprehensive Wellness category.
“The continuing goal of our Destination Zero initiative is to identify, highlight, and make accessible new and innovative programs that can have an outsized impact on the safety of our nation’s law enforcement professionals,” said Bill Alexander, CEO of the NLEOMF.
The poor state of police officers’ physical and mental health has become a major public health concern.
Police officers are more likely to die from heart conditions at a much younger age than the general public. Rates of depression, anxiety, burnout and post-traumatic stress are also significantly higher in law enforcement. Some studies suggest that 30% of cops have a substance abuse problem. Alcohol dependence is at the top of the list. In recent years, more police officers have died by suicide than were killed in the line of duty, according to First H.E.L.P., a first responder advocacy group.
Waves of anti-police sentiments following the murder of George Floyd have put a further strain on officers’ morale, and the exodus of cops has created a vicious cycle of understaffed departments and overworked officers.
Baltimore police was ahead of the curve when, in 2017, Herron — a retired Maryland state trooper — was first brought on to reform the agency’s early intervention program.
At the time, Baltimore police were still dealing with the fallout from the killing of Freddie Grey in 2015. Six officers were charged in connection with the death of the 25-year-old man who suffered fatal injuries in police custody. One of the officers, as it was reported, had struggled with mental health issues and shown violent behavior before.
The plan to rebuild the early intervention program soon grew into the idea of a full-fledged health, safety and wellness section, which officially opened in 2018. The approach is holistic and covers physical, mental, spiritual and financial aspects.
‘The floodgates opened’
Today, the OSW office comprises three units: the Health and Wellness Unit, the Early Intervention Unit and the Retiree/Employee Affairs Unit. The office serves all Baltimore Police Department’s employees, sworn and non-sworn.
The Officer Safety and Wellness Section has seven full-time team members, three sworn officers and four civilian employees who are former cops. They manage a peer-support team and a 24/7 mental health hotline. A fitness instructor teaches mindfulness, meditation, yoga and nutrition. The office also has a therapy dog.
Initially, Herron also thought about hiring an in-house mental health clinician, but in surveys and conversations with employees found out that the officers wanted complete anonymity. The OSW team, therefore, partners with different mental health professionals throughout Maryland.
“And we make sure the counselors and therapists on our list have experience in treating first responders,” he says.
First responders and police officers, in particular, tend to be skeptical and resistant to opening up, Herron adds, and it takes mental health professionals who understand their codes and triggers to break through officers’ cynical, protective façade.
One of the facilities that Baltimore Police has partnered with is Harbor of Grace, located about 40 miles northwest of Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay. It’s an in-patient, private mental health and substance abuse recovery and treatment center for first responders — and one of only six treatment centers in the U.S. approved by the Fraternal Order of Police, the world’s largest organization of law enforcement officers.
Baltimore PD’s Officer Safety and Wellness office also provides financial education and financial planning to officers, and it takes care of employees’ spiritual needs. It has partnered with 45 chaplains of all faiths, who are available to respond to any major event or provide personal counseling if needed.
The OSW team also responds to critical incidents, like a serious injury, line-of-duty death of a department member or an officer-involved shooting.
The Early Intervention Unit is fully integrated and ties into his team’s overall health and wellness approach, says Herron. Early intervention used to be more punitive and was often a direct result of alerts, like citizen complaints against officers.
“Now, we consider these alerts an opportunity to engage the employee about issues at work or home or possible financial struggles,” he explains.
The early intervention process serves “as a conduit to connect the officers to our health and wellness resources,” Herron adds. The approach works and the proof is in the data. Between 2018 and 2023, annual interventions dropped from 250 to 48.
The success of Baltimore’s Officer Safety and Wellness office didn’t come overnight. When it first launched, Herron often went out to meet and talk with officers as they were patrolling the city. It took a while to gain the officers’ trust and for his message to sink in and stick.
“For years, police departments have beaten down their workforce,” Herron says. “It’s been discipline, discipline, discipline. And now, suddenly, you say, ‘Hey, I want to help you.’ And they go, ‘Wait, what?’”
He kept handing out his cellphone number, but for about a year, no one used it. Then, slowly, cautiously, he started to receive calls from officers, some who felt they were at the end of their rope. “After that, the floodgates opened.”
A lifeline for a veteran officer
Among the first officers who called was Sgt. Richard Watts. A military veteran and a police officer of 25 years, he worked patrol and drug crimes in the most violent parts of Baltimore.
In his life as a cop, he’s been stabbed, shot at, beaten up, run over, dragged down the street by cars. But nothing compares to the pain and despair that he felt when his life began spiraling downward in the summer of 2018.
At the time, his wife was battling serious health issues from emphysema and COPD, and she was constantly in and out of the hospital. And Watts’ department suspended him for a use-of-force incident from the previous year — a charge which he thought was “over-inflated.”
For several months, he sat at home, stressed, frustrated and bitter, turning to alcohol more and more often. His wife flatlined at the hospital. She was brought back but slipped into a coma. Shortly after, the dishwasher line in his house broke and the home was flooded. Over the next few weeks, his drinking got worse. One night, he passed out behind the wheel and woke up in a Baltimore jail.
“I thought, I’m suspended, probably losing my rank or even my job. My wife is on life support, my house is flooded and now I’m arrested,” Watts remembers. “I completely burned my life. And my DNA was all over this situation.”
That’s when he called Herron.
Herron and the OSW team helped him start an outpatient recovery program. He got sober and eventually returned to work. He was stable when his wife passed away in 2019, but last year, he relapsed after he experienced a mental breakdown. He entered Harbor of Grace for a month-long treatment.
His rocky journey has made him a better person and a better police officer, he says. Like many cops, “my ego was my enemy,” he adds. “My ego drove me into handcuffs and I was taken down from my pedestal.”
Today, he’s close to retirement and at peace with his life. Over the last few years, he’s mentored many young officers in the department, urged some to reach out to the Officer Safety and Wellness team and saved a few careers along the way.
Supporting officers’ health and wellness needs
From time to time, Herron still goes out into the field, engages with officers patrolling the streets of Baltimore and spreads the word about the department’s Officer Safety and Wellness Section.
His advice to small law enforcement agencies that want to implement health and wellness initiatives is to be creative and think outside the box. “Join resources, partner with each other for peer support and other services, act like a co-op,” he says.
He also encourages small departments to look for state and federal grants and reach out to NGOs, local businesses and corporations to sponsor wellness initiatives — from sports teams to car dealerships to athletic clubs. “Don’t always rely on the government.”
Herron says there’s no excuse for law enforcement agencies, however small, to not have a robust wellness initiative in place. “We’ve known for years about the impact that trauma has on our employees,” he notes. “They put their lives on the line every day. Shame on us if we’re not supporting them with their health and wellness needs.”
Unlike the new Baltimore police recruits, Watts never got a sponge to add to his mental health toolbox. But he has a powerful story to share — “a big success story,” as he sees it. “And the moral of the story is simple. I reached for help and help was there.”
NEXT: Discover how a Texas PD is prioritizing the mental and physical fitness of its officers, from recruits to retirees. With a proactive approach, they’re ensuring their team stays strong, resilient and ready for any challenge, both on and off duty.
