Many departments across the country have embraced police officer wellness programs, but more importantly, individual officers have sought the help of their wellness teams. This has been important in improving the profession and providing proper mental healthcare for law enforcement. The stigma officers once feared of being put on the “rubber gun” squad or being treated as a pariah because of a trip to the employee assistance counselor is now hopefully a long-gone relic. However, the work is not complete. More needs to be done because, sadly, police officers are still dying at their own hands.
Funding for officer wellness programs is often provided through yearly grants from the U.S. Department of Justice under the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMHWA). While many police departments, large and small, have some type of officer wellness program, some agencies still do not have a comprehensive wellness program in place.
In Police1’s “What Cops Want in 2024” survey on officer wellbeing, 12% of the 2,833 respondents said their agency did not provide access to mental wellness resources and support and 53% said their agency provided only limited or basic resources. This is inexcusable. The most important resource in any agency is its employees and not providing for officer mental wellness is an invitation to potential future problems.
Officer wellness programs offer many benefits
The benefits of officer wellness programs are well-known. A 2023 Police1 article details the prevention of officer suicide, and reduction of stress-related incidents, medical injuries and early retirements as some of the benefits. But these are not the only ones. Officer wellness programs should also be viewed as part of a liability reduction program.
While the primary goal of any wellness program must be officer mental and physical health, the ancillary benefits cannot be overlooked. In a 2017 article titled Psychiatric Disability in Law Enforcement, published in “Behavioral Science Law,” Marilyn Price, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, wrote that job-related stressors and/or exposure to critical incidents increase the likelihood of not only PTSD-like symptoms, substance abuse, suicide risk and depression, but also increased difficulty with interpersonal relationships and fostered aggressive conduct.
More recently, in a 2022 article titled Police Stress and Deleterious Outcomes: Efforts Towards Improving Police Mental Health, published in the “Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology,” the authors cited prior research showing that accumulated stress and traumas witnessed by police officers can lead to hyperarousal, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks or nightmares, and disconnection from family and friends, as well as emotional numbing and moodiness.
Any one of these symptoms in a patrol officer or detective is problematic but when several symptoms cluster the potential fallout is worrisome. Often the symptoms are manifested through work conduct and interactions with the public.
Precursors to discipline-related behaviors
About 25 years ago, I began to read articles about early warning systems (EWS) to identify problem officers and potential disciplinary issues. The EWS literature focused on officer behaviors, early intervention and behavior modification. Then about 15 years ago, articles appeared discussing how police discipline systems needed to change. This approach focused again on individual officer behavioral modification, as well as recruitment, training, supervision and the procedural aspects of police disciplinary systems. What was missing from each review of the EWS and disciplinary literature was the discussion of police behavioral issues relating to mental wellness. There was no apparent joinder between consideration of disciplinary problems and officer wellness concerns.
My own experience of representing law enforcement officers in over 200 disciplinary cases from 2010-2022 presents significant anecdotal evidence that many disciplinary issues are tied to some distress the officer is undergoing. I am mindful that not all disciplinary matters are tied to mental wellness issues — misfeasance and malfeasance exist in the workplace — but I have witnessed a significant number of cases that presented underlying stress and job-related matters as precursors to discipline-related behaviors.
Wellness is an integral part of operational functioning
“Is There Something Going on at Home?” is a 90-minute documentary written and directed by retired Las Vegas Metro Police Department sergeant Jason Harney, which should be required viewing by all officers and executive staff.
The film offers a poignant look into the shared stresses police families endure and the dynamics created by trauma on the job. The film was very personal for me because one of the stories featured an individual from my former department. He was someone I knew of, and his and his wife’s story was a moving example of the silent potential killer many police officers encounter in a career. After I watched the documentary, I realized that officer wellness goes beyond tending to mental and physical wellbeing; it is an integral part of operational functioning, just as firearms training, in-service classes and early warning systems.
Reflections upon my own career, that of my brother, and the many police officers I have represented and spoken to over the years, lead me to believe that the benefits of officer wellness programs run deeper than the individual. These programs are necessary for a holistic approach to police administration. Police legal advisors should push for greater integration of wellness programs into the overall operational structure. The goal is to save careers, avoid complaints that have the potential to lead to litigation and save officers’ lives. An important added participant in these programs must be the families and/or close friends of police officers. The budgetary costs are minimal compared to the preventive savings and sound investment in the human capital each police agency possesses.
