Officer Safety and Wellness Resources

VALOR Officer Safety and Wellness Initiative

The Officer Robert Wilson III Preventing Violence Against Law Enforcement Officers and Ensuring Officer Resilience and Survivability (VALOR) Initiative is an effort to improve the immediate and long-term safety, wellness, and resilience of our nation’s law enforcement officers. The initiative supports law enforcement through programs addressing topics in resilience, suicide prevention, roadway safety, partnerships, and safety and wellness research—as well as comprehensive officer safety and wellness efforts including the VALOR Program, BJA’s flagship officer safety and wellness program that provides training and technical assistance focused on recognizing indicators of dangerous situations, applying defusing techniques, implementing casualty care and rescue tactics, emphasizing professional policing standards, and improving wellness and resilience. Find more details about the VALOR program at https://www.valorforblue.org.

National Officer Safety and Wellness Group

The COPS Office and BJA formed the National Officer Safety and Wellness Group (OSWG) in 2011 to bring attention to the safety and wellness needs of law enforcement officers. Since then, the OSWG has raised awareness, increased knowledge, and encouraged law enforcement agencies to adopt practices recognizing that the most valuable resource a law enforcement agency has is the individuals who put their lives on the line every day in the name of protecting and serving their communities.

COPS Office Resource Center

The COPS Office publishes materials for law enforcement and community stakeholders to use in collaboratively addressing crime and disorder challenges. These free publications provide readers best practice approaches and give them access to collective knowledge from the field. The online resource center highlights recent and featured publications, and it is also searchable for specific titles and topics.

Fitness Program Development Considerations

Physically fit officers are less prone to injury and illness than their less-physically fit colleagues and miss less time on the job. Along with proper nutrition and other wellness programs, law enforcement agency fitness programs keep officers healthy and safe from recruitment to retirement.

Officer Suicide Post-Event Guide: Emerging Issues, Recommendations, and Considerations

An officer suicide can add layers of mental and physical stressors to their agency’s response. The information provided in this report is based on research and professional experiences and will offer some best practices and considerations for agency members and functions post-suicide.

National Suicide Awareness for Law Enforcement Officers Program

BJA has created a multifaceted approach to address law enforcement suicide, of which the SAFLEO Program is one of two critical pieces (the other being the National Consortium on Preventing Law Enforcement Suicide, with which SAFLEO collaborates closely). Through this program, BJA provides training, technical assistance, and resources to law enforcement agencies, staff, and families to raise awareness, smash the stigma, and reduce and prevent law enforcement suicide.

Combating Law Enforcement Suicide

A well, healthy officer and agency is a safer officer and agency. Health and wellness must receive the same level of attention as any other aspect of policing. Not only will the individual officer benefit but so will their agency and the community they serve.

Officer Suicide Post-Event Guide—Emerging Issues, Recommendations, and Considerations for Law Enforcement Organizations

An officer suicide can add layers of mental and physical stressors to their agency’s response. The information provided in this report is based on research and professional experiences and will offer some best practices and considerations for agency members and functions post-suicide.

Improving Law Enforcement Resilience: Lessons and Recommendations

Resilience—the ability not only to recover emotionally from traumatic events but to withstand day-to-day work-related stress—is critical to all law enforcement officers’ physical and psychological health. In addition to summarizing the discussions at the October 2016 OSW Group meeting, this report contains case studies of the emotional impact of mass casualty events on first responders in Dallas, Texas; Orlando, Florida; and San Bernardino, California. The report also provides recommendations for preparing officers for traumatic events and strategies for supporting overall resilience through physical and emotional health.

Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act: Report to Congress

With the passage of the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act, Congress took an important step in improving the delivery of and access to mental health and wellness services that will help our nation’s more than 800,000 federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officers. The act called for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to submit a report to Congress on mental health practices and services in the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs that could be adopted by federal, state, local, or tribal law enforcement agencies and containing recommendations on effectiveness of crisis lines for law enforcement officers, efficacy of annual mental health checks for law enforcement officers, expansion of peer mentoring programs, and ensuring privacy considerations for these types of programs.

Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Programs: Eleven Case Studies

Aiming to focus on innovative but replicable programs in law enforcement agencies of various sizes around the country, this report’s authors conducted 11 case studies of programs in 10 departments and one call-in crisis line in fulfillment of a requirement of the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act of 2017. Each chapter of this publication describes agencies’ programs and their origins, focusing on elements that can be implemented elsewhere in the effort to protect the mental and emotional health of law enforcement officers, their nonsworn colleagues, and their families.

National Policing Institute Mental Health and Wellness Videos

The National Police Foundation has produced several videos and recorded webinars hosted by the COPS Office and BJA on various officer safety and wellness-related subjects.

Reduce Stress About Money: The Importance of Financial Counseling

Law enforcement professionals have the same concerns as the general population about buying homes, paying for college, student loans, and retirement. Many departments include financial counseling as part of their suite of mental health offerings for their personnel.

Financial Fitness

This training covers the fundamentals of financial fitness, including key concepts to develop financial literacy, ways to prioritize financial fitness, setting financial goals to reduce stress and improve wellness, and recognizing how poor financial fitness can affect officer safety.

Police Use of Mindfulness Training for Mental Health

Center for Council, a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles, developed Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy, and Resistance (POWER), a training program to improve physical, emotional, and mental health; boost team and individual performance; and support community relations. The program’s focus is not on avoiding the stress and trauma inherent in law enforcement work but on training officers to navigate these occupational hazards for their own, their families’, and their communities’ benefit.

Responding to Mental Health and Wellness Challenges: Ideas from the Field

Based on the recommendations in Spence et al.’s Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act: Report to Congress, this article summarizes the programs developed by the recipients of the COPS Office’s 2019 LEMHWA awards.

Mindfulness Strategies for Law Enforcement Webinar Part 1

The first part of the webinar features subject matter experts providing strategies on how to use mindfulness practices and principles of the “Window of Tolerance” and practices to help law enforcement officers stay mentally and emotionally well.

Mindfulness Strategies for Law Enforcement Webinar Part 2

The second part of the webinar features a subject matter expert discussion information on dysregulation and stress.

Mindfulness Strategies for Law Enforcement Webinar Part 3

The third part of the webinar features a subject matter expert discussing information and mindfulness tools that will help law enforcement officers navigate internal signals to balance their nervous systems.

Mindfulness Strategies for Law Enforcement Webinar Part 4

The fourth part of the webinar features a subject matter expert discussing information and mindfulness tools that will help officers navigate situations both on and off duty.

National Consortium on Preventing Law Enforcement Suicide Toolkit

This suicide prevention toolkit is designed to support agencies and departments in addressing officer mental health and wellness concerns. It has all the information agencies need to develop and implement a custom approach to prevent officer suicide and strengthen officer mental health.

Officer Health and Wellness Agency Assessment Tool and Action Planning Roadmap

Police agencies have begun to establish, expand, and sustain officer safety and wellness programming to address challenges commonly faced by officers. All agencies should ensure officers have access to resources and services promoting safety and well-being. This publication is a guide for law enforcement executives or wellness program personnel seeking to establish or enhance officer wellness programs.

Preventing Suicide Among Law Enforcement Officers: An Issue Brief

To inform the work of the Bureau of Justice Assistance National Officer Safety Initiatives (NOSI) program’s National Consortium on Preventing Law Enforcement Suicide, this issue brief presents evidence-based findings on the current state of knowledge regarding the prevention of suicide among law enforcement officers.

When Stress Builds Up: Strategies to Overcome Cumulative Stress and Burnout

The IACP identifies signs that stress is accumulating and offers tips and strategies to overcome the stress before burnout becomes inevitable.

Strategies for Agency Health During a Pandemic: Maintaining Mental Health Also Key

The National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), through the COPS Office’s Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center (CRI-TAC), gathered data revealing COVID-19’s impact on law enforcement wellness at the beginning of the pandemic and well into the future. Unsurprisingly, stress levels among officers and deputies and their families have been much higher during the pandemic than they were before.

The Nationally Representative Officer Safety and Wellness Initiative

The Officer Safety and Wellness (OSAW) Initiative, a National Institute of Justice–funded longitudinal study conducted by the nonpartisan and objective research organization NORC at the University of Chicago in partnership with PERF since 2017, collects data from thousands of officers on their exposure to incidents affecting their health and well-being. This study is consistent with pillar 6 of former President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which encourages attention to the stressors, safety risks, and resilience of officers dedicated to law enforcement.

Promising Strategies for Strengthening Police Department Wellness Programs: Findings and Recommendations from the Officer Safety and Wellness Technical Assistance Project

The Officer Safety and Wellness (OSW) Technical Assistance Project was an initiative that included providing support and expertise to law enforcement agencies with respect to their employee wellness services. This publication presents findings based on PERF’s work with a preliminary group of agencies and recommendations that will be valuable to other agencies seeking to develop or grow their own wellness programming.

Executive Forum

Suicide prevention starts with the law enforcement executive. This forum guides law enforcement leaders deep into policy and strategic planning surrounding suicide prevention and response; the underlying causes of suicide; solutions for executives and agencies; and ways organizations can overcome barriers that prevent officers from seeking help.

Line-Officer Training

Law enforcement officers are at greater risk for suicide than the general population because of the unique stressors of their job. Much more can be done to mitigate these stressors’ effects. This training deepens officers’ understanding of factors contributing to suicide, warning signs in themselves and others, ways to build resilience, and options for treating unresolved issues.

Supervisor Training

Supervisors are critical in the fight against law enforcement suicide. They set the example by demonstrating healthy coping behaviors and using available resources; they stay engaged with their officers to encourage healthy behaviors and detect potential issues early; and they serve as a crucial link between officers and agencies’ suicide prevention–related messaging and resources.

Train-the-Trainer Workshop

This training equips officers to help train and educate colleagues in their own agencies to combat suicide.

Addressing Four OSW Pillars in Smaller and Rural Communities

In March 2020, the OSW Group convened to discuss law enforcement safety and wellness challenges that are unique to small and rural agencies—an essential conversation given that approximately 80 percent of U.S. law enforcement agencies have fewer than 20 officers. This meeting focused on addressing safety and tactical care via training and proper equipment; promoting physical health through testing, regular wellness visits, and fitness resources; and supporting mental wellness with confidential counseling, peer support groups, and other innovative and unconventional resources.

Kick Stress to the Curb

By helping families cope with the stress and worries inherent in having a family member in law enforcement, agencies can keep their officers healthier, safer, and better able to protect and serve their communities.

Mental Health and Wellness

Operating under stress can lead to fatigue, burnout, depression, physical and emotional ailments, post-traumatic stress disorder, and lack of sleep—all of which can impact an officer’s thought processes, reaction time, perception, and judgment. This online training module provides an overview of on-the-job stressors and techniques for managing them.

VALOR Officer Safety and Wellness Initiative

The Officer Robert Wilson III Preventing Violence Against Law Enforcement Officers and Ensuring Officer Resilience and Survivability (VALOR) Initiative is an effort to improve the immediate and long-term safety, wellness, and resilience of our nation’s law enforcement officers. The initiative supports law enforcement through programs addressing topics in resilience, suicide prevention, roadway safety, partnerships, and safety and wellness research—as well as comprehensive officer safety and wellness efforts including the VALOR Program, BJA’s flagship officer safety and wellness program that provides training and technical assistance focused on recognizing indicators of dangerous situations, applying defusing techniques, implementing casualty care and rescue tactics, emphasizing professional policing standards, and improving wellness and resilience. Find more details about the VALOR program at https://www.valorforblue.org.

Improving Officer Morale and Job Performance with a Head-to-Toe Wellness Program

The Bend (Oregon) Police Department has developed a comprehensive wellness program to improve officers’ quality of life and mitigate physical and mental health issues that can be greater threats to safety and wellness than on-the-job dangers.

Optimizing Mental and Physical Health in the Phoenix Police Department

A Phoenix, Arizona officer developed post-traumatic stress disorder following an officer-involved shooting in 2013; he turned to alcohol to alleviate his depression and died by suicide a year later. In response to this loss, the city manager formed a task force to inventory existing city programs and training available to first responders dealing with traumatic incidents and compare them to best practices in the field.

Importance of Physical Wellness

This training addresses the critical need for law enforcement officers to engage in regular physical fitness to help ensure their safety. It also provides guidance on how officers can improve their overall health and wellness through simple tasks such as maintaining a proper diet and getting quality sleep. Finally, it reviews a study illustrating how stressors encountered in the law enforcement profession directly impact officers’ physical health.

Building Personal Resilience

The Madison (Wisconsin) Police Department’s Building Personal Resilience project was developed in coordination with the University of Iowa’s College of Nursing and focuses on helping officers dissipate stress and effectively self-regulate as they endure the rigors of the job. Captain Mary Schauf (ret.) and Sandra Ramey, PhD, RN, join The Beat to share Madison’s experience. Listen to the podcast at https://cops.usdoj.gov/html/podcasts/the_beat/01-2020/Schauf_Ramey.mp3.

Officer Wellness and Resiliency During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Officer Wellness and Resiliency During the COVID-19 Pandemic provides guidance on officer mental and physical wellness.

How to Optimize Officer Resilience for Professional and Personal Challenges

CNA, a nonprofit research and analysis organization, worked with PRO Wellness Services’ team of mental health, physical fitness, and law enforcement subject matter experts to develop the Officer Readiness Assessment (ORA) tool to enable agency leaders to get a clear picture of their wellness support systems’ strengths and weaknesses in key areas of mental, physical, social, financial, tactical, and spiritual wellness.

Grief and Loss in Law Enforcement: Helping Officers and Agencies Recover and Heal

Police frequently respond to scenes where a person has died; they often interact with and support grieving families and community members; and they may experience the deaths of fellow officers as well as their own family and friends. This resource is designed to assist officers, supervisors, and agencies in understanding strategies to cope with various types of grief and loss throughout their careers.

Law Enforcement Agency and Officer Resilience Training Program: Train-the-Trainer Program Overview

Agency trainers learn resilience skills for themselves and then learn to teach those skills to their agency.

Law Enforcement Agency and Officer Resilience Training Program: Training Program Overview

This three-day interactive training includes role plays, videos, and discussions. Attendees include sworn personnel from all ranks as well as dispatchers. Focus areas include learned optimism, real-time resilience, signature character strengths, deliberate breathing, and managing difficult conversations. By the end of the course, attendees have a set of strategies and tools to call upon when managing stress, overcoming challenges, and adapting to adversity.

Enhancing Resilience by Embracing Courageous Vulnerability

It is normal human behavior to be affected by traumatic events and experiences. Subject matter experts discuss strategies for agencies to prepare and respond to courageous officers choosing vulnerability and asking for help processing trauma.

Stress Inoculation: Healthy Habits

Cardiologist and law enforcement officer Jonathan Sheinberg discusses the importance of sleep, nutrition, and fitness in law enforcement officers’ long-term physical and mental health and shares the ways his agency has adjusted daily habits to improve overall health.

Less-Lethal Weaponry, Post-Traumatic Stress, and their Impact on Officer Safety and Wellness: Emerging Issues and Recommendations

The OSW Group’s November 2018 meeting focused particularly on line-of-duty deaths (in felonious assaults as well as in accidents), mental health and suicide, and crisis hotlines and other programs to help address law enforcement health and safety. There is important work to be done in this area, and families, community members, and others can contribute as well by supporting officer safety and wellness, participating in conversations and programming, and working to reduce the negative stigma surrounding mental health issues.

Counseling Officers: Perspectives of a Police Psychologist

Mark Kirschner is a Clinical Psychologist who has spent his career working directly with law enforcement officers. Dr. Kirschner shares information about how officers can offset the unavoidable emotional stress that comes with wearing the badge. Listen to the podcast at https://cops.usdoj.gov/html/podcasts/the_beat/12-2019/Transcript_Kirschner.mp3.

The Resilient Minds on the Front Lines

Resilient Minds on the Front Lines is a program developed to support law enforcement and other first responders with tools and knowledge that can help them cope with the stress inherent to a profession requiring self-sacrifice in the name of serving the “public good.” During this episode of The Beat, the team behind Resilient Minds discusses techniques and resources available to help first responders continue helping others. Listen to the podcast at https://cops.usdoj.gov/html/podcasts/the_beat/09-2020/The_Beat_Resiliency.mp3.

S2 E1 What’s New in Blue: Officer Suicide feat. Sheriff Tim Whitcomb

The physiological and emotional toll paid by officers in the United States is an inherent part of the job that only those who have worn the uniform can fully understand. In this episode of What’s New in Blue, Sheriff Whitcomb tells the heartfelt story of a fellow officer’s suicide that became his wake-up call and spurred his crusade to help law enforcement officers minimize and dissipate the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Law Enforcement Suicide Prevention – St. Petersburg College Resources and Training

The Florida Regional Community Policing Institute at St. Petersburg College has partnered with the COPS office to create a series of publications and an online training that provide innovative resources for officers, their support networks, and law enforcement agency executives to combat officer suicide and help manage depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health issues.

Wellness Provider Vetting Guide

As stressors facing law enforcement increase, identifying culturally competent wellness professionals to meet the needs of sworn and nonsworn employees and their families has become a national priority. The FOP Wellness Provider Vetting Guide provides recommended guidelines for identifying and selecting wellness providers for law enforcement professionals and their families.

Critical Response Toolkit for First-Line Supervisors: A New Resource

PERF has developed a series of materials and a website to prepare agency first-line supervisory teams for critical incidents, as supervisors are essential to critical incident response.

Providing Officers Support Through Police Chaplains

Police chaplains provide emotional, moral, and spiritual support to officers, staff, and their families, including those of other denominations or religions (sometimes by locating other resources for individuals subscribing to other belief systems). A strong chaplaincy program can support a culture where officers feel comfortable seeking help and finding support.

Personally Destructive Behavior Scenario

This module presents real-world scenarios and gives practical suggestions to help officers offer support and identify available resources for colleagues struggling with professional of personal situations that could deteriorate and potentially lead to negative consequences.

Debriefing Trauma

Chief Dan Stump (ret.) and Tuscon, Arizona Sgt. Matt Faulk discuss debriefing after a traumatic event, how the effects of trauma linger, and how important and beneficial debriefing is.

Developing Peer-to-Peer Support Groups

Floyd Wiley and Baltimore County, Maryland Officer George Mussini discuss a peer-to-peer support group Officer Mussini developed in Baltimore County after he was involved in a critical incident, the importance of such groups, some hurdles to be overcome in creating effective groups, and how listeners can start groups in their own agencies.

Executives and Mental Health

John Bouthillette and Dr. Olivia Johnson discuss the role of law enforcement leadership in officers’ mental health.

Icebreakers

This poster helps officers identify colleagues who may be in crisis and gives them a starting point to break the ice and initiate a conversation to get them help.

Sources of Support

This poster alerts officers who may be struggling mentally or emotionally to available options for seeking help and support lines for immediate assistance.

What Happens When I Ask for Help? Removing the Mystery

Law enforcement officers collectively respond to thousands of calls for assistance daily. This webinar seeks to remove the mystery surrounding what happens when they ask for help themselves.

Law Enforcement Officer Suicide: 2020 Report to Congress

This report assesses the availability of existing mental health resources for law enforcement agencies; it provides a review of peer responder programs and makes recommendations for establishing evidence-based behavioral health and suicide prevention efforts for both law enforcement and other first responders as requested in Senate Report 116-127 accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020.

Promoting Positive Coping Strategies in Law Enforcement: Emerging Issues and Recommendations

The OSW Group’s July 2019 meeting focused particularly on alcoholism, substance abuse, and other antisocial coping strategies officers might use to help them deal with the mundane day-to-day stressors of the job that can accumulate and take their toll even in the absence of acute critical incidents. It is necessary to identify and understand the ways in which officers may struggle to manage the stress of the job in order to develop programs and services that can provide them with the skills, tools, and positive coping strategies that will enable them to build their own resilience and not merely survive but flourish.

The Cost of Alcohol as a Coping Mechanism

Law enforcement officers are frequently exposed to traumatic events on the job; there is a substantial cost to use of alcohol to cope with or avoid these traumatic experiences. This webinar describes the short- and long-term effects of alcohol misuse and identifies ways to treat alcohol use disorders and replace alcohol use with healthy coping skills.