The Weight of the Badge

The life expectancy of a police officer is devastatingly low; the average police officer lives to be 62 and this tragic statistic exists because we have not addressed the trauma our first responders experience on a daily basis. Our public safety agencies have failed our brave men and women by failing to provide a robust health and wellness program within their departments. As the Baltimore City Police Department's first Director of Officer Safety and Wellness, I built a comprehensive health and wellness program that subsequently changed the lives of police officers and the department as a whole. The tools and methods of the program have the power to improve the resiliency of every police department around the country and inspire holistic changes for individuals everywhere. We measure our success by the number of officers who survive the grueling life of police work and don't become statistics upon retiring.