John Marx 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. Also during his career he served as administrator of his city's Community Oriented Governance initiative through the police department's Community Policing project. Today John combines his skills to consult with businesses about improving both their security and their customer service programs. John retired from law enforcement in 2002. When one of his friends, also a former police officer, committed suicide at age 38, John was devastated and began researching the problems that stress creates for police officers. He decided he needed to do something to help change those problems and he wanted to give something back to the profession that gave him so much. He started a project that has evolved into CopsAlive.com. Put simply, the mission of CopsAlive is to save the lives of those who save lives! CopsAlive.com gathers information, strategies and tools to help law enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful careers, relationships and lives.

To Be An American a Salute to Our Veterans

CopsAlive.com joins the NRA’ Life of Duty Channel in saluting America’s veterans. We recognize that many of our nation’s peace officers are military veterans and to all of you we say “thank you for your service”. This trailer, which is a preview of this months Patriot Profile could also represent those in law enforcement if you didn’t know that he was talking about the military.

This trailer entitled “To be an American” is a preview to this month’s Patriot Profile Feature “Broken & Undone” but it also serves as a tribute to Veterans Day. This piece focuses on… Continue reading

Searching for Best Practices in Mitigating Occupational Stress for Police Officers

EDITORS NOTE: This research project has now closed and we will publish the findings as soon as we have them available. Please keep watching as we will be starting a project to discover and publicize best practices in Agency Wellness Practices in the near future.

CopsAlive.com was asked by Wendy Seiber a graduate student at George Fox University finishing a certificate in Trauma Response Services to post this survey of best practices in mitigating occupational stress for police officers. Please take this very quick survey.

Wendy was asked to design a project examining police stress mitigation compared to best practices. She told us “My project is examining how police departments deal with work related stress and how stress is mitigated. The goal of the project is to raise awareness to the general public, the media, and the government that more funding is needed in order to help reduce the amount of work related stress officers face. By increasing the funding for training, man-power, and stress reduction programs early on, there would be a reduction in the amount spent in early retirement, paid sick leave, loss of man-power, and other related costs in the future.”

Wendy’s project consists of an online survey that should take no more than 10-15 minutes of an officer’s time. The survey is completely anonymous and never asks for names of any identifying information.

To take the survey CLICK HERE

To view the up to the minute results of the survey CLICK HERE (results are instantly uploaded on site)

TO LEARN MORE CLICK TO KEEP READING: Continue reading

Heroes Behind The Badge

Last night I had a chance to see an early premier of the new documentary film “Heroes Behind The Badge”. It was excellent!

This very moving film follows the stories of several heroes and their families. Some of these heroes perished in 2011 and the film follows their families from the incident, through the memorial ceremony during National Police Week at the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C.

This inspiring documentary was created to change the way we look at… Continue reading

The Police Officer Wellness Evaluation Response© (P.O.W.E.R.) Survey

Please take a few minutes to take the Police Officer Wellness Evaluation Response© (P.O.W.E.R.) Survey. It takes about 5 minutes, is completely confidential, and is for LEO’s ONLY. They need your help to spread the word as they are looking for 1,000 responses.

CLICK HERE to link to the survey

The Police Officer Wellness Evaluation Response© (P.O.W.E.R.) Survey is designed to collect data and measure “holistic wellness” of law enforcement personnel nationwide. This multi-dimensional approach will address: physical wellness, emotional wellness, psychological wellness, and spiritual wellness. Each area of wellness, though independent, work interdependently, to provide a better… Continue reading

Coping With On-The-Job Stress and Injuries

How many current and former law enforcement officers are out there suffering with mental and physical injuries; and how do we help them? Listen to our interview with a former officer who talks about his battles with PTSD and the injuries that forced his retirement.

Recently I had a chance to have a very candid discussion with “M” a retired officer from a mid-sized police department in the eastern United States.. “M” asked that I not use his name to protect his privacy, but he had some interesting things to say about his struggle with PTSD and the injuries that forced him to leave the job he loved.

You can listen to our… Continue reading

A Tribute to LAPD Officer Randal Simmons

LAPD SWAT Officer Randal Simmons was killed in the line of duty during a SWAT operation on February 7, 2008.

Now NRALifeofDuty.tv (presented by Brownells) has created a film about his beliefs and work as a man, and LAPD Officer. The program is entitled “Protect & Serve” and you can watch the trailer below. (A link to the full feature is at the bottom of this article)

Police Officer Simmons was shot and killed while entering the residence of a murder suspect. The suspect had called police and stated that he had shot three of his family members. The department’s SWAT team responded to the call and Officer Simmons and Officer James Veenstra were the first officers… Continue reading

Life After Law Enforcement

What are you going to do after your law enforcement career ends? Are you planning now for what you will do? We do not have complete control about how our careers will progress and what will happen to us on the job. There are many pitfalls that can derail even a successful career in law enforcement.

None of us can predict how long our career in police work or law enforcement will last, but we can create a strategy for how we want our careers to progress and when we want to leave the job. We can plan for what we will do after we leave the job for another career, or how we will live and what we will do, with our time in retirement.

I recently had a chance to speak with one such former police officer who had a plan and who is now helping others in law enforcement and elsewhere plan for their futures in many ways. His name is Brian Deegan, and he created a plan for his success while he was working as a cop and now helps others create their plans. Continue reading

Invitation to a Seminar Featuring Sean Riley of Safe Call Now

The Canyon at Santa Monica Outpatient Services would like to invite you to their Lunch & Learn Event with Sean Riley Founder of Safe Call Now where they will be discussing: “Resources for First Responders Coping with Stress & PTSD”.  Read Below for Details Continue reading

Today is PTSD Awareness Day

Today is PTSD Awareness Day in the United States.  Please visit the website for the National Center for PTSD to learn more about this terrible disorder that affects many law enforcement officers around the world.

Click on these links to learn more:
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/about/ptsd-awareness/ptsd_awareness_month.asp
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/about/ptsd-awareness/12_ways_to_help.asp

An important question for us is how many of us in law enforcement have the symptoms… Continue reading

We Support Heroes Behind the Badge, Do You?

“Heroes Behind the Badge” is a new documentary film being created to honor America’s heroes in law enforcement.  This inspiring documentary will change the way we look at the men and women of law enforcement and highlight the unselfish acts of bravery… Continue reading