Sen. Mark Warner poses with a police dog during a roundtable with first responders Friday at the Rappahannock Regional Criminal Justice Academy in Fredericksburg. (Photo by Jonathan Hanley)
A life-changing moment for a Fredericksburg police officer occurred just before Christmas about a year and a half ago.
He was responding to a call at an apartment complex and was the first on the scene.
The 8-year-old boy was walking home from the playground with his family when his parents had just returned home. The boy ran to meet his father and mother, but he was hit by a car running from the parking lot.
Fredericksburg Police Chief Brian Layton recalled Friday that the driver of the car was not speeding or doing anything wrong.
However, the impact claimed the child’s life. He died in the arms of a police officer, whose only solace may have been that the officer spoke to him in Spanish.
“It’s something that stays with you forever, right?” Leighton said at the Rappahannock Regional Criminal Justice Academy. “but also [for] A career in law enforcement. It will stay with you forever. ”
This story was shared as representatives from more than a dozen law enforcement agencies met with U.S. Sen. Mark Warner to discuss mental health issues that first responders may face.
Warner (D-Va.) helped secure a $174,000 federal grant for the Fredericksburg Police Department to be used for mental health resiliency training and services at community academies that support more than 40 member police agencies. I’m here.
This is one of 49 grants awarded nationwide by the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Resources will be provided to train nearly 800 public safety professionals by the end of next month, Layton said.
At the meeting, which was also attended by many state and local officials, he said, “Attendees should be aware of and understand the signs and symptoms of stress and anxiety, the types of incidents that require follow-up, and effective methods. “I learned that,” he said. To manage stress. ”
One of the mental health success stories shared Friday was from Maj. Timothy Moore of the Washington Metropolitan Area Airport Authority Police Department.
One of the agency’s employees, who was part of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, struggled with alcoholism. But he was sent to a 30-day treatment program and came back sober, Moore said. The officers returned to the task force and are doing well today.
“He is now a key member of our peer support team,” Moore said.
Capt. Chad McKnight of the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office said the key to embedding mental health support and training in the department is getting veteran officers to embrace it. That way, their younger colleagues will follow suit.
“I think we can take a huge leap forward if we bring experienced people on board,” McKnight said.
In other words, instilling good mental health habits requires changing the way law enforcement works, said Airport Authority Police Lt. Timothy Breiman.
“It’s about changing the culture within the organization,” Breiman said.
Warner also pointed out that subsidies like the one paid to the Fredericksburg Police Department are technically “nondefense spending” by the federal government. So when politicians talk about cutting some non-defense spending, it shouldn’t be considered frivolous just because that spending isn’t going to defense.
“All of this stuff in law enforcement is non-defense,” Warner said.
