Matthew Rogers

Assignment #6: Mindfulness in Mountain View

As a department, we have taken steps to enhance our investment in mindfulness and

self-care for our officers. With the recent adoption of the Cordico Shield application, we have

put resources in the hands of our officers. With the recent adoption of the weekly workout

times and our chaplain program, we have done a good job at allowing our officers to care for

themselves. However, there are hurdles in place that have prevented our officers at the patrol

level from fully embracing these opportunities. I am writing to you today to advocate for

further investment in our mindfulness efforts, which is described as a “missing link” between

traditional approaches and self-care (Tejada, Mindful Policing - A New Approach to Officer

Wellness and Safety Training and Education, 2017).

Law enforcement is inherently stressful. Some studies have linked the stresses of the job

to shorter life expectancy, with numbers varying between 7 and 10 years in most studies

(Tejada, Mindful Leadership, 2017) (University of San Diego, 2020). A study in Buffalo in 2013

suggested that law enforcement could shorten lives by 22 years, citing stress, trauma, obesity,

shift work, and exposure to toxic chemicals (Vioanti, et al., 2013). While traumatic incidents are

often the easy target to blame, there is evidence to suggest that long-term elevation of the

stress hormone cortisol is a silent culprit (Yeoman, 2017). Over years of service and response to

incidents, cortisol remains at high levels in the body. The result is a body that is less equipped

to process additional stressors, slower information processing, and a slower metabolism. The

result is dire, especially when considering these effects and felt for decades of service.

Management of cortisol levels is essential, argues Chief Tejada, as police officers are 40% more
likely to be obese than their average Joe counterpart (Tejada, Mindful Policing - A New

Approach to Officer Wellness and Safety Training and Education, 2017). Other studies show that

police officers are more prone to high rates of depression, PTSD, substance abuse, diabetes,

cardiac death, suicide, and are often reluctant to get mental health treatment (Yeoman, 2017).

With the COVID pandemic enters a new, silent stress factor. Now officers now have to worry

about disease exposure, as self-quarantine and social distancing is not an option they have a

luxury to take, unlike the general public or even law enforcement administration (Borelli, 2020).

With the mental health side effects appearing to be inherent to the job, it begs the

question if current measures are treating the symptoms or treating the cause. Surely, stress

cannot be removed from the line of work. However, I’d argue that building up emotionally

resilient officers could help alleviate issues before they begin. Traditionally this meant to

stoically ignore emotion and not talk about it. We now know, with modern approaches, that

ignoring the issue only exacerbates it (POST, 2020). We owe our officers more than sending

them to therapy after the damage has already been done. Our department is grateful we have a

Peer Support Team and we are grateful to have a chaplain dedicated to our department. I am

especially grateful for the opportunity to exercise while on duty! However, these measures are

treated with an “if plausible” approach in regards to opportunity and staffing. With something

that could drastically affect life for myself and my family, I would consider these measures to be

more important than “if plausible” based on factors that I cannot control.

I am asking that this administration take a more active role in asserting a positive

environment for their officers. I am asking that this department invest in at least one hour of

CPT training per year of mindfulness exercises to better prepare our officers for the inventible
stresses they will experience. Additionally, I am requesting this training to be included in new

hire “in-house” training. Studies have shown that officers who are training with self-care and

mindfulness exercises designed to build mental health resiliency are more likely to use

appropriate levels of force and generally perform more appropriately in critical incidents

(Gustafsberg & Anderson, 2016). In other words, your officers will be better equipped to handle

stress and the training would be standardized instead of an optional, fringe practice. This would

result in happier, less stressed officers that make better decisions. It’s a situation where

everyone wins. This learned skill can be used by officers in their own time and during their

allotted workout time.

I would also like to advocate for more prioritization when it comes to workout time for

officers. Currently we are allocated three hours per week to work out while on shift, permitting

patrol staffing levels. While the thought is genuine and appreciated, the reality is officers are

rarely able to take advantage of this time without leaving their partners shorthanded.

Dangerously low staffing levels and lack of back-fill has resulted in nearly all patrol shifts to be

run at minimal staffing on a daily basis. This results in more reports and jail transports per

officer. The unfortunate side effect of higher workload is the time has to come from

somewhere, and most often this comes from the officer’s lunchbreak or their workout time.

This further exacerbates the issue, with officers having less “down time”, more workload, and

now being unable to take advantage of self-care time. A simple solution would be to arrange

work schedules to allow for more overlap. If the staffing does not allow for more officers per

team, allowing for more team overlap would achieve a similar result. It would be more
plausible, for example, to have three officers take workout time when the patrol depth is ten

officers versus only five.

In conclusion, I think we have done a splendid initial effort to allow officers to take care

of themselves. However, there is room for improvement when it comes to allowing officers to

take those steps while on duty. Simple changes with training and schedule making could have

tremendous positive effect with officers on the patrol level.

Works Cited
Borelli, F. (2020, April 1). COVID-19: Stress Awareness, Management. Retrieved from
officer.com: https://www.officer.com/covid-19/blog/21132187/stress-awareness-
management-in-the-covid19-world
Gustafsberg, H., & Anderson, J. (2016). A Training Method to Improve Police Use of Force
Decision Making: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Sage Public Journals.
POST, C. (Director). (2020). Silent No More [Motion Picture].
Tejada, J. (2017). Mindful Leadership. Retrieved from National Police Foundation:
https://www.policefoundation.org/mindful-leadership/
Tejada, J. (2017). Mindful Policing - A New Approach to Officer Wellness and Safety Training and
Education. The Police Chief.
University of San Diego. (2020). LEPS 500 Contemporary Issues in Public Safety and Law
Enforcement. San Diego, California, United States.
Vioanti, J., Hartley, T., Fekedulegn, D., Andrew, M., Burchfield, C., & Gu, J. (2013). Life
Expectancy in Police Officers: A Comparison with the U.S. General Population. US
National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.
Yeoman, B. (2017, June 14). Mindful Policing: The Future of Force. Retrieved from Mindful:
https://www.mindful.org/mindful-policing-the-future-of-force/