IACP Conference Addresses Police Wellness

Over 13,000 registrants and hundreds of other walk in law enforcement officers attended the 116th annual International Association of Chief of Police conference this week and among the dozens of topics were educational seminars on the issues of police suicide, stress management, wellness, nutrition and the role of sports medicine in officer safety and wellness.  The presenters came from the Los Angeles Police Department Behavioral Sciences Unit, The Denver Police Department and the Fairfax County Police Department.

Of the resources made available… to members of IACP and attendees was an outstanding interactive CD-ROM prepared by the IACP Police Psychological Services Section entitled: “Preventing Law Enforcement Officer Suicide: A Compilation of Resources and Best Practices”.  The CD contains information about developing a suicide prevention program in your agency, sample suicide prevention materials, sample training materials, sample presentations on the topic of police suicide, sample funeral protocols, and a list of additional reading materials on the topic.

The statistics about the numbers of cops who take their own lives are far too high for us to ignore any longer.  This issues of police suicide and total wellness for police officers must become a priority in all of our discussions.

For more information on this resource and others visit http://psych.theiacp.org or their main site at http://www.theiacp.org

About Editor

John Marx was a Police Officer for twenty-three years and served as a Hostage Negotiator for nineteen of those years. He worked as a patrol officer, media liaison officer, crime prevention officer and burglary detective. Also during his career he served as administrator of his city's Community Oriented Governance initiative through the police department's Community Policing project. Today John combines his skills to consult with businesses about improving both their security and their customer service programs. John retired from law enforcement in 2002. When one of his friends, also a former police officer, committed suicide at age 38, John was devastated and began researching the problems that stress creates for police officers. He decided he needed to do something to help change those problems and he wanted to give something back to the profession that gave him so much. He started a project that has evolved into CopsAlive.com. Put simply, the mission of CopsAlive is to save the lives of those who save lives! CopsAlive.com gathers information, strategies and tools to help law enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful careers, relationships and lives.
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