Well, I'll say this, one of the
reasons I think this is so important.
I think it's one of the biggest culture
changes that needs to happen and continue
to happen in American law enforcement.
You know, when I started in 1992,
if I saw a traumatic incident and I turned
to my partner in 92 and I told my partner,
hey, that call kind of screwed me up,
my partner would have looked at me and said,
dude, you got to suck it up,
we got 10 more hours.
If I would have said those
same words to a Lieutenant,
that Lieutenant would have looked
at me in 1992 and said to me,
maybe this isn't the right job for you.
Right, Right.
And the reason why this is so important
because that cannot happen anymore.
It is normal trauma that these
men and women go through,
not just here at here,
but they take those traumas at
home and they have traumas at home.
They get involved in alcohol and
other things and we need to and
we need to make sure that the
trauma officers feel is normalized.
There is no human being that needs
to see what these officers see
without going and asking for help
and then having someone speak to them
if they're having issues, right.
It's one of the reasons why we
established the Wellness unit 14 months ago,
exactly for this reason,
to ensure that our officers know that
it's normal reach out, we will help you.
We'll get you the help we need.
It's one of the reasons we started
the alcohol rehabilitation program.
You know, I also understand I'm a cop.
I'm a cop first, I'm a chief second.
So I understand the angst officers
feel when they think something
is going to be helpful from the
chief's office always thinking okay,
there's a catch to this.
Right, right, right.
And I'll tell you this,
when we started the alcohol
rehabilitation program and I didn't
even want to know who the names were.
Okay, I said we need to get them help,
get them help if they need help.
We started this program and you
know this last promotion,
there are two individuals that went
to that program that got promoted
after that program.
And I say that only but I was was
so important is because I hope that
starts sending the message that
they start trusting what we're
trying to accomplish to help.
We're very loud about it.
You know,
we start the Wellness unit and listen,
you know,
there are staffing issues as much as anybody.
But I will say this,
if something's important to you,
you have to put resources to it
because until you put resources to it,
particularly when you're
sacrificing resources that you
certainly need in other places,
you need them just as much in Wellness.
And it means nothing if you
don't put those resources there.
And so we're going to continue to be loud.
We need to continue to normalize it
to ensure our men and women know it's
okay after this tragedy happened.
You know one of the one of the things I
did is I'm at his house is I turned to
Joe King who's part of our Wellness unit.
I said Joe, when the counselors in
here tomorrow, I want every special
OPS unit to go through this.
We had our SWAT teams.
We had every special OPS unit speak to
counselors yesterday have a conversation
because again it just has to be
continued to be normalized that it's okay.
You can be a tough cop.
You can be a tough cop taking the
worst criminals off the street
and it's okay if something,
if something's bothering you.
Yeah, but it's still that same
military stigma where it's like,
well, I can't complain about this
because I will not get that promotion.
I'll get that same response
that you got in the 90s. Well,
that's what they're that's what they're
worried about. I understand that.
I complain that. Or you know what?
They're going to put me on a desk job
if I XY&Z or what have you. Listen,
we're trying to get our officers better.
And again, that example that I give about
our alcohol relatation program, when I
told people there's no strings attached.
And I guarantee you there's cops
around going, yeah, we'll see.
Well, I think they know there
were no strings attached.
I want them to come for help.
They need to come for help
and understand that.
Hey, man, if you, if you,
if you ask for help, you get the help.
It's not going to affect you.
We're all going through it.
You know there are individuals man
in this department and I don't
even talk about myself but there's
individuals that I care about from you
know you have you have individuals
like and I'll give you an example
to like not only the officers you
know you have our motor unit as
an example who do an amazing job.
Well when every officer death when we
do the escorts they come it's affecting them.
You know we have our you know
you know our our honor unit.
Our our honor guard.
You know,
our honor guard unit that shows
up to every single one and stands
at it and stands guard and
your your honor guard is going to help
open that event that I was telling you
about tomorrow at the Gaylord Texan.
You know, So you look at our
motor units as an example,
in addition to the officers,
you look at our honor guard that responds
to all of these and it's maybe something
that you don't even think about.
But those are the people you need to
talk to as well, that we need to be
proactive and to know it's OK, Right.
In the period of 12 hours, you know,
we had officers and command staff that
went from an officer committing suicide
to the scene of an officer almost losing
his life to three violent criminals
who carjacked his undercover car,
and by the grace of God and by him fighting.
We didn't lose an officer that night.
How does it affect them?
And so, you know,
we these are just not normal situations.
I understand.
They're not normal.
My command staff understands
they're not normal.
My Wellness unit understands that.
And it's Okay to ask for help.
And we have to continue to push that message
and why it's important to me for this,
not just here in the city of Dallas.
Whether other departments in the Metroplex
or in the country have Wellness units,
I know there are services available.
And every chief needs to say loud and clear,
it is Okay to ask for help
and we want to help you.
We talked about officer safety.
There's not an officer in this department
or an officer anywhere that you would say,
all right, would you risk your
life for your fellow officer?
They'll say absolutely,
sure.
Well then,
you know,
being shoulder to shoulder with them when
we have counselors not rolling your eyes,
sitting there and listening,
they're practicing officer safety
because I guarantee you there's
people in that room that needed it.
Do you foresee a time when
the stigma will not be there,
that I can still be a tough cop
and I can still ask for this, help
that. Listen, I don't think
anything happens overnight.
I'm sure there will be some individuals
that will always have that stigma.
Sure, you know, and so,
but we just need to reduce it.
We, you know there there's individuals
in this profession that that that
simply will never let go of that
and we'll look at other means often
unhealthy means to cope, right.
But to the ones that will listen right.
Particularly,
you know it's a culture change and
sometimes it's it's it's moving a a ship,
moving a a battleship around,
turning it around.
It's not going to turn around all the time,
right?
But the more that we start normalizing for
our veteran officers and just as important,
normalizing for our new recruits that are
coming in to have those conversations,
conversations that I never
had in the early 90s,
then it starts to normalize it,
you know, for them and their families.
You know,
I've had family members reach
out thankful for the Wellness
unit that that are just wives,
significant others of officers that
are here that understand we care.
That when you come and we say
you're part of our family,
those aren't just words,
you're part of our family.
We understand your mental wellbeing.
We understand the difficult job you do.
We understand the positions that
that I have to put my officers
in because our responsibilities
protect the city of Dallas.
But that comes at a cost.
And so I have to do my part to
ensure that my men and women
have the resources available if
they reach out and for us to be
proactive and reach out to them.
We reach out to our officers after
critical incidents all the time.
Officers throughout the department that our
Wellness unit has deputized as Wellness.
They could be from SWAT, robbery, homicide.
That will call officers in patrol
and ask them are you doing OK?
Yeah.
And then knowing the referral system
so then refer them somewhere else.
Yeah.
But what you're always fighting
is that officer going in. I'm OK
absolutely. You fight that.
But you got to continue to do it.
There's we cannot be,
we can't be reactive anymore.
We have to be proactive.
And so yes,
absolutely there's going to be officers.
You know that will not.
That will not take take,
take the take the help,
but they'll be one or two that will.
For every 10,
maybe there's three or four that will,
that's three or four that we possibly
save their lives or otherwise we wouldn't
have saved anybody or we wouldn't have
saved anybody as well to mental well-being.
And you know, obviously in this case it's
about saving a life because of the suicide.
But that trauma affects our
officers when they go home.
It affects our officers as they're
dealing with our community.
And so, you know,
you show me an officer who's mentally fit,
who was asked for help and is mentally fit,
I will show you a fantastic officer.
And so again,
it comes down to officer safety,
right?
We have to really start melding them
together that the same officer safety
that we preached to our officers
out in the field with regards to
dealing with violent suspects and
protecting each other and risking our
lives for each other has to mean the
same thing and looking after each
other with their mental well-being.
There is nobody that knows an
officer's mental well-being more than
their partners out in the field.
Right.
No one knows more than their
partners out in the field.
Yeah.
And and you're agreeing to do
these interviews today because I
I think more than a memo perhaps,
that you've sent out to your staff
that they're going to watch this,
they're going to hear this.
You know, they, you want them to
see their chief talking about this.
Well, of course.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean of course
I want to do that. But again,
this is not just a Dallas thing.
The leading cause,
the leading cause of death of the
American police officer is suicide.
The leading cause of death
is by our officers own hands.
So this is not just a Dallas thing.
This is a national thing that yes,
we had a tragedy, but we have to be better.
We have to be more proactive.
We have to ensure that we can
continue to normalize the trauma
that our officers feel and the
fact that when they ask for help,
we need to ensure that we have
all the resources that that
that are available for them.
And there's a lot of people willing
to help that are available for our
officers to stay healthy and stay
mentally fit for their officer safety,
which is not simply being safe from a
bullet or a knife or a fight on the street.
Yeah.
Maybe my last question to
to what degree can you,
with the family's permission,
shed any light on what your
officer we know at this point
might have been going through.
Do we do, we do we know And
have you got any clearance from
the family to even discuss
that? But we don't know. We don't know
what he was going through right now.
What I can say is there's probably half
a dozen to a dozen individuals I checked
on the officer after the shooting.
I check on all my officers after
officer involved shootings.
Certainly, it's. How are you doing?
You know, I didn't see signs.
Although like when you,
you know, after the shooting,
officers can tell me they're fine all the
time when they're not necessarily right.
But after that,
there's probably a half a dozen
to a dozen officers calling him
multiple times to check on him
that also didn't see any signs.
And you know,
I'm sure those officers are struggling.
You know,
those officers that reached out
and had these conversations,
I'm sure they're struggling
and they're going to need help.
And those are some of the
conversations that I know our teams
had yesterday with our counselors
and clinicians and experts that were
here to have those conversations.
Ultimately, in the end,
I just plead any police officer,
if they're going through trauma to
reach out for help, help is there.
And we just want to see our
officers be healthy and lead,
lead great careers and be
there for their families.
I mean,
I I talk about being here for the department.
I want them there for their families.
You know this.
This job can't define us.
I want our officers well and
healthy so they can live long
for their families and that's
the most important thing.