Two Ways To Improve Policing Worldwide

There are two ways to improve policing worldwide, and they both focus on people!

Policing is a people business – Policing is work conducted by people for the greater good of all of the people.

If we want to reform and improve our policing strategies, then we need to focus on the people — the people in policing and the people we are serving.

First and foremost I believe that If we don’t take care of our people, they won’t be able to take care of THE PEOPLE!

So, how do we do that you ask?…

1. First, we must ensure that our people are as healthy and fit as they can be, every day, to do the job. This means comprehensive fitness of the mind, the body, the brain and the heart or soul of each person, sustained throughout their career.

2. Secondly, it means that those people, serving other people, should be as compassionate, professional, ethical and as honorable as possible, every day.

In law enforcement the people serving other people include all of our personnel both sworn and civilian.

Comprehensive wellness includes the strengthening and conditioning of a person physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Additionally, attention should be paid to strengthening their mindset, level of personal mastery, depth of their social support and their financial fitness. I have been teaching techniques to master all of these for years, and you can find them in my book: Armor Your Self: How To Survive A Career In Law Enforcement.

We know that a career in law enforcement presents challenges to the human spirit, and the pressures of the career deplete an officer’s idealism and spirituality in a way that is unique to the profession. Without an effective way to replenish the human spirit and restore ethical clarity, it is possible to end up in personal “overdraft,” or, worse, “bankruptcy” … and that’s when officers hurt themselves, the people around them, and the honor of the profession. The suicide rate among police officers is a symptom of this state of spiritual depletion.

Sustaining a persons compassion, professionalism, ethics and honor, every day can be an extreme challenge. It requires a set of tools and techniques that replenish their spiritual health and restore inner peace and clarity. With the right exercises you can nourish the souls of your people and replenish their reservoir of idealism and spirituality. Law Enforcement Chaplain Cary Friedman taught these tools at the FBI National Academy for years, and they are available in his book: Spiritual Survival For Law Enforcement.

Well, you ask: isn’t that what the public wants? isn’t that what the public expects of us? isn’t that what we should demand from ourselves and our peers? The answer to all these questions is of course yes!

The policing profession needs to stop, and focus its attention inward – on its greatest assets, its human resources.

To reform policing we must first strengthen and support our law enforcement professionals and the other people that support them, and then we can begin to properly serve the people in our communities.

A comprehensive wellness program should focus on developing and sustaining healthy, resilient people and then supporting and encouraging them to be compassionate, professional, ethical and honorable every day. A comprehensive wellness program within a policing agency should also focus on the organizational culture as well as the support systems that are in place to keep people performing at their optimal levels.

Then, and only then, as part of the bigger picture, we need to build bonds of trust and engagement with the people we serve, and perhaps even transition into helping community members build comprehensive wellness for themselves, their families and their organizations.

At The Law Enforcement Survival Institute we believe that Tactical Resilience™ and ethical policing practices can remedy many of the issues confronting law enforcement officials around the globe. We have started an international initiative to promote the conditioning of strong, healthy and resilient law enforcement professionals called the Tactical Resilience™ & Ethical Policing Project.

The Tactical Resilience™ and Ethical Policing Project is a comprehensive solution for policing transformation.

Tactical Resilience™
We define Tactical Resilience™ as a human quality of intentional strength and fitness exhibited through the mind, body, brain and spirit of a law enforcement professional that allows them to withstand the rigors and hidden emotional, physical, spiritual and physiological dangers of continuous high threat, high stress situations.

Ethical Policing
Ethical policing practices allow people to reconnect with the sources of the idealism that brought them into law enforcement, perform their duties with integrity, and practice excellent decision-making skills that public and police leaders look for, and can defend at any press conference.

We at The Law Enforcement Survival Institute, work to promote 5 things to help you be your best:
Building individual wellness and resilience,
Building agency support systems for your people,
Building an organizational culture of wellness for your people,
Promoting wellness leadership practices for all leaders,
Building community wellness through trust and cooperation.

We believe that If we don’t take care of OUR people, they won’t be able to take care of THE PEOPLE!

If you would like to work with us, we suggest our Tactical Resilience™ and Ethical Policing Project (TREPP) which is primarily facilitated by John Marx and Chaplain Cary A. Friedman, and with the assistance of other subject matter experts depending upon the depth of the project.

TREPP is expandable to meet the needs of your community and your budget and can use training, assessments and consulting to assist you where you need it. We build human resilience, create processes to enhance agency support systems, promote a culture of wellness, and most importantly initiative community lead Initiatives thru our Law enforcement officers as Community Action Leaders (LoCAL) project.

CLICK HERE to download our InfoSheet on TREPP.

You can “do it yourself” with our books or invite us to help you take things to the next level.

Our Key Leaders
John Marx, CPP
John Marx is the Executive Director of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute and founder of CopsAlive.com. He has created LESI’s primary training programs: Armor Your Self™, Armor Your Agency™, and True Blue Valor™. John was a police officer for twenty-three years and served as a hostage negotiator for nineteen of those years. He worked as a patrol officer, media liaison officer, crime prevention officer and burglary detective. John also served as administrator of his city’s Community Oriented Governance Initiative through the police department’s community policing project. Now John runs the Law Enforcement Survival Institute and also provides training and coaching to the leadership development programs of several Fortune 100 companies.

Cary A. Friedman, Chaplain
Chaplain Cary A. Friedman is a consultant and trainer on matters of stress-management and ethical decision-making for the law enforcement community. A hospital, prison, and police chaplain, he began consulting to the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, VA in 2001, and contributed to the design of the Spiritual Survival for Law Enforcement course for the FBI’s National Academy. Chaplain Friedman is the author of six books, including Spiritual Survival for Law Enforcement. He has provided training at the FBI Academy, the FBI Training Network, International Conference of Police Chaplains, TX Department of Public Safety, CT Department of Public Safety, and appeared on the History Channel.

For more information please contact us and we would be happy to talk with you about your specific needs and provide you with a price quote for any of our products or services that can help you. Please contact us at: 303-940-0411 or CLICK HERE to send us an email.

Good luck and stay safe!

Leave your comments in the box below

CopsAlive is written to prompt discussions within our profession about the issues of law enforcement career survival, health and wellness. We invite you to share your opinions, ask questions and suggest topics for us in the Comment Box that is at the bottom of this article.

At The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) we train law enforcement officers to cope with stress and manage all the toxic effects and hidden dangers of a career in law enforcement.

Our “Armor Your Self™: How to Survive a Career in Law Enforcement” on-site training program is an eight hour, hands-on, “How to” seminar based upon John Marx’ book of the same name. This seminar helps police officers and other law enforcement professionals armor themselves physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to build Tactical Resilience™ and survive their careers in police work. To learn more CLICK HERE. To learn about and buy the book CLICK HERE.

The Tactical Resilience™ and Ethical Policing Project (TREPP) is our international initiative to promote the health and resiliency of law enforcement professionals by conditioning our people physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, as well as paying attention to strengthening their mindset, level of personal mastery, depth of their social support system sand their financial fitness. It also provides a set of tools and techniques that, replenish their spiritual health and, restores their inner peace and clarity. TREPP is expandable to meet the needs of your community and your budget and can use training, assessments and consulting to assist you where you need it. We build human resilience, create processes to enhance agency support systems, promote a culture of wellness, and most importantly initiate community lead projects thru our Law enforcement officers as Community Action Leaders (LoCAL) initiative.
CLICK HERE to download our InfoSheet on TREPP.

The concept of “True Blue Valor™” is where one law enforcement officer has to muster the courage to confront a peer who is slipping both professionally and personally and endangering themselves, their peers and the public. It takes a system of organizational support and professional leadership to support and foster the concept of courage and intervention. We will train your trainers to deliver this program to your agency.
To learn more CLICK HERE

Our “Armor Your Agency™: How to Create a Healthy and Supportive Law Enforcement Agency” Program includes critical strategies that you will need to build a system of support and encouragement for a healthy and productive agency. To learn more CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE to read more about The Law Enforcement Survival Institute.

CLICK HERE if you would like to contact us to learn more about training for your organization.

I’m John Marx, Founder of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute and the Editor of CopsAlive.com. Connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn Twitter. and Instagram.

CopsAlive.com was founded to provide information and strategies to help police officers successfully survive their careers and improve their heathy, wellness and effectiveness. We help law enforcement officers and their agencies prepare for the risks that threaten their existence. Thank you for reading!