When law enforcement officers share their experiences with friends and family, whether it’s responding to a car accident, a domestic dispute or a shooting, Atlantic County Sheriff Eric Scheffler said it can feel isolating.
“You can see the face of your loved ones literally change and you show them the bad,” Scheffler said. “We quickly realize, wow, we don’t want to share that with them so instead of coming home and bearing our souls and being able to communicate and being able to get it off of our body, we have to hold it in.”
While repressing these kinds of negative feelings may have plagued law enforcement bodies in the past, things are changing on the state and local levels as top officials are putting resiliency training to the forefront.
Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal issued a directive earlier this month that requires all law enforcement agencies in the state to appoint at least one resiliency program officer, RPO, who will be responsible for implementing the state’s resiliency training program designed to create a supportive culture.
“The men and women of law enforcement put their lives on the line every day to protect the citizens of New Jersey. Often the first to respond to a scene, these officers regularly encounter some of the most traumatic events affecting their community,” Grewal said in a news release.
The program is modeled off training used by the FBI.
Scheffler, who has served as a certified trainer for the FBI and worked with other leaders to develop the state program, said that resiliency is based on fulfilling needs in four domains: mental, physical, spiritual and social.
He said police, and first responders in general, may not know that the exhaustion they might feel from the job can stem from mental exhaustion and stress over time.
Resiliency training is designed to give them the tools to respond positively to that stress.
“We talk about how to reset that,” Scheffler said. “When you feel like that do you go to potato chips and a beer or do you go for a walk?”
Grewal also mentioned the emotional and mental toll can contribute to a range of health issues, including increased blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, substance misuse, family and relationship stress, self-harm and risk of suicide.
According to Blue HELP, a nonprofit organization that tracks and monitors law enforcement suicides, at least 167 officers died by suicide last year, more than the total number of line-of-duty deaths.
In New Jersey, 37 law enforcement officers reportedly have died by suicide since 2016, according to the organization.
“We have a special responsibility to ensure that New Jersey’s law enforcement officers are equipped with the tools they need to cope with the unique stressors of their work,” Grewal said.
The resiliency program officer will not only train the officers in their agency but also provide contact information for any other support services and programs.
RPOs are also not limited to just serving their own department. Grewal said any officer can come to any RPO for assistance.
The RPO will not replace existing support programs. Grewal said law enforcement officers are encouraged to continue to use these and other programs whenever needed.
“I think the directive is a good thing for police officers. It’s going to help them do their job better and in times of crisis have resources to call upon,” said Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae. “Any new tool in the toolbox for mental well-being is a plus for everyone.”
Each county prosecutor will appoint one or more county RPO trainers and each state law enforcement agency will appoint one or more state RPO trainers within 60 days of the directive.
They will then complete a train-the-trainer program no later than Dec. 31, 2020.
These officers will then train local law enforcement RPOs. All local law enforcement will receive resiliency training by the end of 2022.
Middle Township Police Chief and the President of the Chiefs of Police Association Christopher Leuser said he thinks the real value in this is the fact that leaders such as Grewal are talking about this issue in the open.
“This is something that has not been talked about in the open very often,” Leusner said. “I think it’s important that we bring it into the open that we talk about it that we communicate to our officers that asking for help is a show of strength.”
The department already utilizes Cop 2 Cop, a 24-hour hotline officers can call at any time, and employee assistance programs. Now Leuser is in the process of appointing an RPO that will go through a two-day training in Trenton in October.
“This is a step in creating a culture where it’s OK to talk about this, it’s OK to say I’m impacted and OK I need help,” he said.
