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Law Enforcement Family Support Network

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Does your agency consider itself as “one big family”? Does your agency leverage all the support it can within the community? Do you involve, train and support the loved ones of the people you place in harms way?

CopsAlive recently spoke with Sue Dion Vice President of The Law Enforcement Family Support Network about their efforts to assist law enforcement agencies in the development of support systems for family members. Sue comes from a background in higher education and her husband has had careers within the United States Navy as well as two law enforcement agencies.

The Dion’s have recognized the similarities and differences between how law enforcement and the U.S. military work with, and support family members while their loved ones are serving their country, and their communities.

One concept that Sue thinks law enforcement needs to adopt from the military mindset is the concept of “Resilience” in our force deployment so that we are always “mission ready”, and capable, of handing whatever issues confront us.

She also suggests that the quality of family support can directly impact the quality of police service within our communities and should be of higher priority when we consider the fiscal and political impact of the “well being” of our employees. Providing support for families can be simple and cost effective… Continue reading

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Wellness Advice From A 30 Year Veteran of Law Enforcement

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I met Chuck Wright at the Springbrook Law Enforcement Wellness Summit a couple of months back and was very impressed by the vast amount of wisdom and experience he had accumulated in a law enforcement career that spanned over 30 years and is continuing today as he works with the first responder hotline “Safe Call Now“. I wanted you to share in some of that wisdom so I conducted a telephone interview with Chuck and was completely impressed with the quality of the stress management tips he had to offer other law enforcement officers.

In our interview Chuck, a 30 year veteran of law enforcement who served as both a parole and probation officer for the State of Washington and who is also a licensed mental health professional, told me about his background and also the challenges he faced during his career. He started as a probation/parole officer and early in his career became a licensed mental health professional. He began working with sexual and violent offenders and eventually worked with over 10,000 of them. He has also become an expert in working with law enforcement officers who have to cope with the stress of working with the worst of the worst offenders. Because of his expertise in this and other areas of mental health, he was chosen to work on the Task Force to find the Green River Serial Killer Gary Ridgeway. After Ridgeway’s arrest in 2001, nearly 20 years after the first murder, he confessed to 48 murders, more confirmed murders than any other serial killer in American history.

Because of this work Chuck was asked to address the FBI Academy about issues surrounding the stress effects to investigators working… Continue reading

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As a Police Officer How Would You Handle PTSD, or a Disability, or Both?

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Chris Dobratz has had to deal with both.  In our CopsAlive interview with former Police Detective Sergeant Christian Dobratz, an 18 year veteran of law enforcement, who was forced to retire on a disability we discuss how he successfully navigated a severe case of PTSD and then went on to a forced disability retirement because of an old back injury.  He is now an Assistant Professor of Law Enforcement, Department of Government at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

I met Chris when he traveled to my home state of Colorado to be part of a Stress Management for Law Enforcement Seminar that was being presented by CopsAlive Contributor Lisa Wimberger of Trance Personnel Consulting Group (TPCG).

Chris and a very diverse career with work at both the county sheriff level and within a municipal police department.  In his career he worked as a deputy sheriff,  a patrol officer, detective, worked on a drug task force, and medically retired as a police sergeant.  During his career he battled a severe case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder… Continue reading

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Excellent Webcast on “Survivor’s Guilt” from C.O.P.S.

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Earlier today I sat in on an excellent webcast put on by the National Concerns of Police Survivors organization on “Survivor Guilt and It’s Effect on Coworkers”.  The presenters: Kirk Clark and Linda Moon Gregory did an excellent job with a very difficult subject.  I encourage you to page down in this article to find a link to the replay of their broadcast.

Kirk Clark retired from the Jacksonville (Fla.) Police Department after an undercover drug operation left his partner dead and him with multiple gunshot wounds. Clark returned from the brink with the help of COPS, for which he now serves as president for the northeast Florida chapter. He is the recipient of the Purple Heart from… Continue reading

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CopsAlive Named in “Top 50 Criminal Justice Blogs”

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CopsAlive has received another honor by being added to the list of Top 50 Criminal Justice Blogs.

The list is maintained by the Criminal Justice Degree Schools and can be found at:
http://www.criminaljusticedegreeschools.com/criminal-justice-resources/top-50-criminal-justice-blogs

Thank you all for your continued support!

Please remember CopsAlive.com was founded to provide information and strategies to help police officers successfully survive their careers. We help law enforcement officers and their agencies prepare for the risks that threaten their existence.

We do this by Helping Law Enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful lives on the job and beyond. We think the best strategy is for each officer to create a tactical plan for their own life and career.

The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) works with individuals and organizations to help them create and sustain success in their lives and careers as law enforcement professionals. It is the primary goal of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute to become the preeminent source for training, resources and information about how to create and sustain a happy, healthy and successful life and career while providing superior law enforcement service to your community.

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ASU Now Offers Criminal Justice Courses Online

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I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Scott Decker and Professor Dan Zorich both of Arizona State University yesterday on the telephone. We talked about ASU’s creation of an online version of their program offerings from their School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Scott H. Decker is a Foundation Professor and Director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. Dr. Decker has been teaching in the field for over 30 years and was named a Fellow for the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in 2007. He also serves on the Arizona P.O.S.T. Board which establishes Peace Officer Standards for Training. He has published several books on topics involving Juvenile Justice and Street Gangs.

Dan Zorich is Manager, Online Education for ASU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and has also worked for over 35 years in Corrections, Probation and Parole programs in both Arizona and Illinois.

He has been a Case Manager of a Gang Intervention Program, a Supervisor in the Women’s Treatment Network, and the Intensive Probation Supervision programs in Arizona. He also worked his way up through the Illinois Department of Corrections from a juvenile then adult caseworker to a supervisors position in the Central Illinois Field Services (Parole) Division, finally becoming Clinical Director of the Pontiac Correctional Center in Pontiac, Illinois. Dan is a veteran of the U.S. Army.

The Arizona State University Bachelor of Science in Criminology… Continue reading

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CopsAlive Attends Police Wellness Summit

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I had a chance to travel to Portland Oregon last month where I was privileged to be part of a summit of experts on police wellness issues that was hosted by the Hazelden Springbrook Treatment Center.  Hazelden’s Springbrook campus, located 25 miles outside of Portland in Newberg, Oregon, provides adults ages 18 and over with a comprehensive range of clinical services to treat addiction.

Gathering for the summit were representatives from NYPD, Chicago PD, the San Diego Sheriff’s Office, and Seattle PD along with representatives from Safe Call Now, CopsAlive and former Police Commander… Continue reading

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CopsAlive “One of the Top 10 Facebook Pages”

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CopsAlive Named One of the Top 10 Facebook Pages for Police Departments and Foundations By Tactical Pants Blog

Visit their site and check it out, along with the other nine cool sites!

http://tacticalpants.com/blog/top-10-facebook-pages-police-departments-and-foundations/

CopsAlive.com was founded to provide information and strategies to help police officers successfully survive their careers. We help law enforcement officers and their agencies prepare for the risks that threaten their existence.

We do this by Helping Law Enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful lives on the job and beyond. We think the best strategy is for each officer to create a tactical plan for their own life and career.

The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) works with individuals and organizations to help them create and sustain success in their lives and careers as law enforcement professionals. It is the primary goal of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute to become the preeminent source for training, resources and information about how to create and sustain a happy, healthy and successful life and career while providing superior law enforcement service to your community.

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National Police Wives Assist St. Louis Officer Wounded in the Line of Duty

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The National Police Wives Association (NPWA) is a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to supporting law enforcement spouses through various outreach programs, providing resources to those new to the law enforcement community, as well as promoting volunteerism and charity within the law enforcement community in general.

One of their members husband was the St. Louis officer wounded recently and… Continue reading

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The Pain Behind The Badge

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I recently had a chance to interview Sgt. Clarke Paris of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department about his work to reduce police suicides and help police officers deal with the stresses of their jobs.

Clarke is the creator of the website: www.ThePainBehindTheBadge.com and the one documentary film of that same name.

“The Pain Behind The Badge” is a one-hour documentary film about Police Suicide created and produced by Clarke Paris in conjunction with 100 Watt Productions.

The hour long film was the winner for Best Documentary Film in 2009 at the Las Vegas International Film Festival and won Honorable Mention at the 2008 Accolade Film Festival features three real police officers from different agencies who share with the viewers their battles with job-related stress, marriage, and PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Two of these officers explain… Continue reading