‘We see things that can’t be unseen:’ How JSO is breaking the stigma of officers asking for help

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Police officers work in a high-stress environment every day, and it can take a toll on their mental health. When officers go to work, they never know what they will face -- from a deadly crash involving a child to a deadly shooting -- it runs the gamut.

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Action News Jax spoke with the wife of an officer who committed suicide, and she said it came as a complete shock. She was looking forward to retiring with her late husband in about three years.

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“I just didn’t believe it, because it just was not his nature,” Catherine Swanson said.

Wearing a police badge carries a heavy weight, and sometimes it becomes too much to bear.

Last July, 60-year-old Robert Swanson took his own life. He was a JSO officer for 26 years, and in the Army for 17 years before that.

“He would come home at night and say, you know, tell some crazy story,” Catherine said. “And I don’t see how he went back to work each day.”

Catherine says part of the problem is it’s a demanding job, and there is a lack of respect for officers.

RELATED: Florida Department of Law Enforcement creates first-ever mental health seminar to address trauma

“People are gonna cuss at you and call you every name in the book and spit on you,” Catherine said. “I think that we do our officers a huge disservice. They’re overworked, [and] underpaid”.

JSO says officers work about 12-hour days with a cycle of four-to-five days on and four-to- five days off. So, they typically work about 15 days a month.

The agency currently has about 1,740 patrols officers. They need about 90 more to be fully staffed – that is a five-percent increase.

“Hollywood does not do law enforcement justice,” JSO’s Assistant Chief of District 3 Randi Glossman said. “You have to come out and ride, and actually see the horrors of society, and what people will do to others.”

READ: This Week in the 904: Children’s mental health concerns and social media

Glossman specializes in trauma assessment, and she says investing in mental health is part of the agency’s core values of community focus.

“In this career, we see things that can’t be unseen,” Glossman said. “So, it would be irresponsible to overlook the importance of ensuring that officers are equipped to handle the stressors of the job, especially incidents that trigger personal traumas of their own.”

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s data reveals in 2022, 48 officers in the state committed suicide. And last year, there were 44 officer suicides.

JSO is breaking down the stigma of asking for help by providing different resources. One of them is the POWER program – “Police Officer of Wellness, Empathy and Resilience.”

READ: FAA reviewing ways to remove barriers preventing pilots from seeking mental health support

“It’s aimed at giving officers skills that increase their self-awareness, and tools to process stress in a healthy way,” Glossman said.

The Chartrand Family Foundation provided a $500,000 grant to support it.

Other resources include a stress management team following critical incidents, and peer support teams available to officers any time.

“We have a mentorship program, we have an early warning signs program, and the sheriff and the executive staff also empower their mid-level leadership and our members to compassionately confront each other, or notify any of their other leaders when concerning behaviors are evident,” Glossman said.

They offer resources for all employees from dispatchers to supervisors.

“Unfortunately, it’s not something that we can change overnight, or within a month or within a year,” Glossman said. “But, the staff from the top down is behind all of these programs that we have, and as much as we can, we are pushing that it is okay to ask for help and we’ll back you.”

JSO has trained one cohort of 25 employees in POWER. And they are working to train two more this year – one starting in June and another in September. Glossman says they’ve already noticed changes from the first cohort with lower blood pressure levels and lower stress levels. She says the goal is to have everyone in the agency trained in POWER.

To learn about how JSO is combating the mental health stigma, you can watch the full interview with JSO below:

JSO mental health - Full-length interview

If you know someone in crisis -- call or text the 24/7 suicide hotline number 9-8-8.

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