What's The Point? - Cops Alive | Police Wellness and Resilience to Stress

What is it that is at the intersection of all the problems confronting your people and your policing agency?

If yours is like most law enforcement organizations you may be facing issues of high turnover, citizen complaints, unnecessary accidents, too many on-the-job injuries, too many excessive use of force complaints, low morale and perhaps even an officer or employee suicide.

If you will bear with me, I can help you improve your people and your agency but the first step is just realizing what is at the root of all of your issues.

I have an activity for you. You can do this alone or with your peers, roll-call team, command staff, dispatch staff etc.

#1 WHAT’S THE POINT?
Take a blank piece of paper (or use a whiteboard or flipchart) and draw a dot in the very middle.

In the space… around the outside of the dot make a list of the things that are troubling your people or your organization.

You can start with my examples: citizens complaints, officer suicide, excessive use of force, low morale, high turnover, on-the-job injuries, on the job, motor vehicle accidents, etc. and also add your own issues. Brainstorm in a group and list as many as you can think of.

From each of these items or descriptions, draw a straight line to the point in the middle of the page. Can you think of any other ideas that are plaguing your people or your organization such as burnout, depression, anger management issues, or low productivity? Draw straight lines from all the items you listed to the point in the center of your page. My question for you is: What’s The Point? What is it that is at the intersection of all, or most of, the issues facing your people and your organization?

The ANSWER is almost always “the Unwellness of your Employees”.

I watch a lot of body camera footage and sometimes get really concerned about some of the stupid things that some cops do these days. I believe that almost every law-enforcement agency in the world is only one bad decision away from disaster. It’s not even your bad decision, but could be the decision made by one of your dozens or hundreds of employees. How certain are you about the health and well-being of all of your fellow employees?

What is causing all of this distress? Is it poor training, poor judgement, bad hiring or low integrity?

What are you, or your organization, doing now to nurture, improve and sustain that well-being so that everyone makes the best possible decisions that have an impact on everyone else you work with, and that you serve?

With a very small change in the mindset, determination and focus of your organization, in this one key area, we can make major changes in everything that is troubling your agency. That one small change in mindset is focusing with determination on the wellness and well-being of your peers, and therefore the health of your organization. With that small turnaround, I believe that we can impact every single major issue confronting your organization today.

If you have the time, let’s try a different approach to the same issue.

#2 REVERSE IT:
Take another blank piece of paper (or use a whiteboard or flipchart) and draw a dot in the very middle.

In the space around the outside of the dot make a list of the things that your people or your organization are doing really well.

For example: Low or no citizens complaints, no employee suicides, no or low excessive use of force complaints, high morale, low turnover, few on-the-job injuries, few on-the-job, motor vehicle accidents, great citizen-police interactions, lots of citizens commending employees, etc. Add your own ideas to this list and onto the page.

From each of these items or descriptions, draw a straight line to the point in the middle of the page.

Can you think of any other issues that speak well of your people or your organization such as courtesy, healthy & happy employees, professionalism, or high job satisfaction? draw straight lines from all the items you listed to the point in the center of your page.

My question for you is again, What’s The Point? What is it that is now at the intersection of all these positive things that your people and your organization are experiencing?

The ANSWER is almost always a High Level of Wellness and Well-being experienced by your Employees

What did you learn from this exercise?

How can you incorporate some of these ideas into active discussions within your organization?

THE REAL POINT is that unwellness hurts, and wellness helps us all!

At the Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) we believe that healthy, resilient people make better decisions, are more professional and capable of compassion and are better public servants. They also lead happy and fulfilling lives, supported by strong social connections and are kinder and more charitable.

#3 MISSING THE POINT
Wellness in law enforcement should not be a program, it should be a System!

Is your agency just playing Wellness Whack-A-Mole? You know, where you respond to every issue with a new training program or initiative and still miss the mark! Are you just using a Band-Aid approach by chasing problems and trying to fix them with independent, stop-gap measures that have no strategic purpose? An effective law enforcement wellness system is not just a collection of activities, but rather a robust, comprehensive initiative with a strategic purpose, what I call a system of systems, and effective wellness systems should be strategic, comprehensive, specific, measurable and sustainable.

Consider a third diagram or exercise called, Missing The Point, where you write down all the initiatives that you have AND that you will need to build, nurture and sustain the wellness and resilience of all of your employees, which includes both sworn and civilian staff. List all of the comprehensive wellness support issues that are needed to be included in an effective wellness system to create, what I call, true Tactical Resilience™. Label the dot in the middle as “Wellness” and draw lines to it from all the things you are doing in your organization now. For the things you need but are not doing now, circle them for later development.

Wellness in law enforcement should be a system, not a program. Too many police agencies, large and small, are just dabbling in wellness and perhaps doing more harm than good. The difference is in strategy and complexity. Too many organizations focus on only one thing like emotional survival for law enforcement or just a physical fitness program, or they give you an App for your phone. An effective wellness system does more than that. It looks at the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs of people and works to condition strength and fitness in all of those areas. It also looks at the work environment and what other influences impact wellness.

A comprehensive wellness system promotes the symbiotic relationship between individual resilience, support systems, leadership and a positive, wellness oriented, culture. We all want better policing, so you can consider this police reform thru police wellness.

THERE ARE NO QUICK FIXES, NO MAGIC BEANS — THIS WILL TAKE TIME AND HARD WORK!

Policing is a people business – it’s about people protecting and serving other people. We can police without all of our cool toys but we can’t police without our human resources.

At LESI we say “If we don’t take care of our people they won’t be able to take care of THE PEOPLE!”

If you want to take these thought exercises further and continue this discussion please take our Free Police Wellness Snapshot Assessment:

We have a free online wellness systems assessment to take a quick “snapshot” of your agency to identify areas where improvements need to be made. Use this simple assessment to see where your agency is doing well in caring for people and where you may need to put in a little extra work. It only takes a moment to answer the 10 simple questions and then you will immediately receive your diagnostic snapshot survey report by email.

CLICK HERE to visit our Police Wellness website to take the survey.

I founded The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) as an assessment, consulting and training organization that is available to help you in many ways. We have a variety of products and services, including self-paced Do-It-Yourself materials that can help agencies of any size and any budget. Visit www.LawEnforcementSurvivalInstitute.org to learn more about our training, consulting and DIY products.

If you think you still have room for improvement in your agency then call me. Give me 10 minutes on the phone and I will help you build a team, agency and community!” “You have nothing to lose and everything to gain and it will only cost you 10 minutes of your time” “I will start a timer!”

John Marx, CPP
John Marx is the executive Director of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute, the author of the resilience building textbook Armor Your Self: How to Survive a Career in Law Enforcement, and is the founder of the Wellness Focused Policing initiative. John worked for 23 years in both a police department and a sheriffs office and upon his retirement founded The Law Enforcement Survival Institute as a consulting training and assessment organization that helps policing agencies be the best they can be. He is a Lifetime Certified Protection Professional (CPP) through the American Society for Industrial Security and also works as a private consultant providing training and facilitation in the leadership development programs of Fortune 100 corporations like General l Electric, Johnson & Johnson and Chevron. You can learn more about John and his work on their websites at: www.WellnessFocusedPolicing.com; www.ArmorYourSelf.com; www.LawEnforcementSurvivalInstitute.org; www.PoliceWellness.com

At LESI we believe that an effective police wellness system should be strategic, comprehensive, specific, measurable and sustainable. The LESI faculty is always available to help you build the wellness system your agency needs whether that includes building individual resilience for your people; assessing and enhancing agency support systems; developing a positive wellness culture; promoting wellness leadership practices; or all of the above, we’re available to help you so please reach out by CLICKING HERE to email or by giving us a call.

#policeunwellness, #policewellness, #armoryourself, #wellnessfocusedpolicing

Please share your thoughts in the comment 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” is a resilience building textbook, a do-it-yourself curriculum and a training program that can be presented live, on-site, virtually or through pre-recorded learning modules. These programs help 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.

Our “Wellness Focused Policing Initiative” is a people focused policing strategy to promote wellness within law-enforcement first, and then to spread that sense of care, and focus on well-being, outwardly to the people served by the police. This is not a quick fix, “flavor of the month” or a band-aid solution but rather a long-term commitment to developing the comprehensive health and well-being of both law enforcement professionals AND the people they serve. To learn more CLICK HERE. To take our quick and free online survey to see where you stand now 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!