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| Safe Call Now® |
Circulating through
the law enforcement community since early this spring is President Barack
Obama’s call for the profession to prepare itself for issues police are facing
in the 21st Century. One of the six major pillars of the President’s
Task Force on 21st Century Policing is the topic of officer safety
and wellness. Officer safety needs little defining but it appears the topic of
officer wellness might need some refinement. Officer safety is certainly a
component of wellness but wellness in and of itself is a two ton elephant and
not as easily arrived at.
What is wellness to
law enforcement agencies? To some it might mean an annual physical, a referral
to an employee assistance program or similar. Who is responsible for an
officer’s wellness? Is it the agency, the officer or both? When we speak of
wellness are we referring to physical wellness, mental health or both?
In 2002 Dr. Kevin
Gilmartin published Emotional Survival
for Law Enforcement. In his book Gilmartin challenged law enforcement to
advance the cause of officer wellness. In 2015 President Obama challenged law
enforcement once again. When does our profession reach the point where the
challenge comes from within law enforcement to look at officer wellness
holistically and accept that it is the responsibility of both agency and
officer?
Safe Call Now®
is at the forefront of officer wellness with its Bulletproof Training Series
which was modeled after the officer development and wellness program in
Indianapolis. The program and its founder- Safe Call Now’s own Director of
Curriculum and Training Captain Brian Nanavaty- were recently honored with the
2015 Destination Zero Valor Award for Officer Wellness. The Destination
Zero Project is a cooperative effort between the Department of Justice’s
Bureau of Justice Assistance and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
Fund (NLEOMF).
Safe Call Now® and
Captain Nanavaty were also recently invited to participate in the enrichment
speaking series on the topic of officer wellness and the President’s Task Force
on 21st Century Policing at the 261st session of the FBI National Academy in Quantico VA.
The time has come to
push officer wellness to the front burner of the law enforcement agenda.
Congratulations to Safe Call Now for leading the way towards officer wellness.
For more information
on the NLEOMF and the Destination Zero Project go to http://www.destinationzero.org
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