What’s The Point?

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… Continue reading

3 Tips to Help You Build Effective Wellness Systems for Your Policing Organization

Here are 3 tips and 3 questions to help you build a better wellness system for your law enforcement organization.

First let me tell you what I believe, then I’ll give you 3 tips and ask 3 questions to help you, and then I’ll ask you what you believe about police wellness.

I believe: Police wellness should NOT be a program, it should be a system!

Effective Wellness Systems should be strategic, comprehensive, specific, measurable and sustainable.

There are three reasons why most law-enforcement wellness programs aren’t making their people, healthier, safer, nor more professional… Continue reading

The High Cost of Unwellness in Policing

Police officer unwellness is a crisis that needs immediate action.

Unwellness in policing is more widespread than we imagine and it is costing our communities more that just dollars and cents.

First, let’s talk about what unwellness in law-enforcement might look like:

In my Armor Your Self book, I defined comprehensive wellness within the domains of physical fitness, mental fitness, emotional fitness and spiritual fitness and gave over 180 tips, tactics and techniques to strengthen and condition resilience in those areas.

So, when we examine unwellness within those domains, it could look like: obesity, exhaustion, fatigue in the physical domain. The mental or cognitive domain could see brain fog, poor decision-making and poor communication skills as signs of unwellness… Continue reading

Try an Awe Walk

The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) is launching a series of short Resilience Building Challenges to expose you to new ideas about resilience enhancement from a group of experts within our wellness field, and specifically targeted to benefit emergency responders. So whether you want to armor your Self, build your emotional survival skills, your spiritual survival skills or just want to learn new and simple ways to add resilience building techniques to your life, we’ve got something for you. I believe that the police need to be more resilient!

Are you in?

Here is the first LESI Mini Resilience Building Challenge:

Topic: Building Resilience Using Awe

Title: Try an “Awe Walk”

Defining Awe
The Oxford Dictionary defines awe as: a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder.

The Collins Dictionary says that Awe is the feeling of… Continue reading

Dabbling in Police Wellness

Is Your Agency Just Dabbling in Law Enforcement Wellness?

There are three reasons why most law-enforcement wellness programs aren’t making their people healthier, safer nor more professional. First, they’re not comprehensive enough. Second, they’re not doing anything more than just adding new training programs and creating more “flavor of the month” initiatives. Third, they are not investing time in their people, but rather using “band-aid” measures to try and fix complex problems.

As the public asks for police reform, I recommend… Continue reading

Researching Moral Injury in Law Enforcement

EDITORS NOTE: The Law Enforcement Survival Institute was approached by The University of Colorado Colorado Springs School of Public Affairs about promoting a new research project investigating the concept of moral injury within law enforcement.  The findings from this project entitled: Advancing Officer Wellness: A Study of On-Duty Experiences and their Impacts among Law Enforcement Professionals, can be used to raise awareness of officer’s experiences and to develop programming that supports officer wellness. The Law Enforcement Survival Institute wholeheartedly supports this very interesting research and we encourage you to investigate further, join the project, and help us spread the word to others.
Here’s some information to get you started and you can connect with the links below:

Purpose Statement: In light of the stresses of police work, recent years have brought heightened attention to the tolls of the job on individual officers. These can include illness, mental and behavioral health challenges, and even suicide. There is thus a strong push for proactive efforts to advance health, wellness, and resilience among officers. This study seeks to support and advance those efforts.

Background: Policing professionals face traumatic and morally injurious events in the line of duty. the effects of trauma and moral injury can include posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, suicidality, substance misuse, spiritual and religious struggle, and more. This study is an important step in bolstering resilience among those working in the policing profession. Findings can be used to raise awareness of officer’s experiences and to develop programming that supports officer wellness…

Continue reading

What’s New at the Law Enforcement Survival Institute?

What’s New at LESI?

Pre-Recorded, Virtual, Blended and In-Person Training
Armor Your Self™ Facilitator Program
Executive Coaching and Executive Mastermind Groups
Wellness Driven Community Policing program
Resilience Pilot Project for every agency!
Tactical Resilience™ and Ethical Policing Project (TREPP)

We believe:
• Resilient Police Officers Promote Healthy Police Agencies
• Healthy Police Agencies Promote Resilient Communities
• Resilient Communities Promote Healthy Police Officers

If we don’t take care of our people, they won’t be able to take care of THE PEOPLE!

The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) is an assessment, consulting and training organization. We work with law-enforcement professionals and other first responders and their organizations who want to be at their best. Our focus is wellness and resilience.

We offer custom made solutions using a Consultative-Training/Assessment* process to help your… Continue reading

Our Contribution to Police Reform

Affecting Social Change In The Way We Train Police Officers

Current news reports are increasingly rife with stories about communities clashing with their police departments as a result of excessive force and police misconduct. At the same time, law enforcement agencies are concerned with PTSD, police officer suicides, increased incidence of illnesses amongst police officers, lower than normal life expectancy, depression, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse and ethical compromise.

All these problems stem from the same root causes: A career in law enforcement presents challenges to the human spirit, and the pressures of the career deplete officers in a way that is unique to law enforcement.

Officers experiences endless exposure to danger, stress and tragedy, which depletes their reserves of idealism, motivation and personal resilience. Without effective ways to replenish the human spirit, build resilience and restore ethical clarity, it is possible to reach a state of personal “overdraft” or,… Continue reading

The Terrible Toll Working In Law Enforcement Takes On Its People

By: Brian T. McVey, MAP

Over the last several months we have seen protests, gun violence and anti-police sentiments break out in cities around the country it has made national headlines. Unfortunately, the news doesn’t report the toll these circumstances take on officers across the country. If we truly want them to work at their best there needs to be a constant spotlight on the unique stressors those working in law enforcement face.

Our goal is to go home at the end of the night. If you are blessed to work your entire career without getting physically injured, consider yourself lucky. But, as we know, countless officers, and civilian staff members, go home daily with an emotional toll that few could possibly understand… Continue reading

LESI Wellness Panel Discussion

The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) invites you to view our wellness panel discussion that was streamed live online on April 23, 2020.

This wellness and resilience information is suitable for all first responders and your family members. We will have a live audience and will record it for others to watch, later for free, on the CopsAlive.com YouTube channel.

With all that is happening in the world today maintaining your health and wellness is of paramount importance. Law enforcement professionals, other first responders and members of the military are normally faced with the most challenging situations in the world and now with a new global pandemic to face your personal wellness is mission critical.

OUR PANELISTS
John Marx, CPP
Law Enforcement Chaplain Cary Friedman
NYPD Detective First Grade (Ret.) Mordecai Z. Dzikansky
Sgt. Clarke Paris, LVMPD (ret.)
Tracie Paris, RN, BSN
Lois James, Ph.D.
Stephen James, Ph.D.

OUR MODERATOR
Christie Ward, CSP


Time: Duration 129 minutes

Who: All First Responders and Your Family Members

What: Online discussion of everyday wellness challenges and resilience strategies

INFORMATION ABOUT OUR PANELISTS:… Continue reading