Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara says the department is zeroing in on officer mental health to help bolster their numbers.
The department's wellness program focuses in on debriefing post-traumatic incidents, providing MPD officer's families with resources, and limits how many hours an officer can work on a given day.
O'Hara says he's seen the impact of the program up close when speaking with the families of the officers who are benefiting from it.
"She said, 'my husband was gone for the last two years. He didn't talk to me, he was miserable, but now he's finally back.' She was talking about her husband, who's currently a police officer and how he had healed," O'Hara explains. "He was feeling better about his job. That absolutely goes to the work of the health and wellness unit."
O'Hara also credited the departments court-mandated agreement with the State Department of Human Rights for the program's substantial progress.
Over the last year the current program has been working to help officers cope with the stressors of serving the public.
O'Hara says keeping officers on the force goes hand-in-hand with providing them top quality care.
"It's not true to say that the only people who got PTSD from what happened in 2020 in Minneapolis were the people who left," O'Hara says about the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. "I think there's a whole lot of people here that are suffering just as much, if not more. But they're the ones that decided, you know, when the going got tough, they're, they're gonna stay, quite frankly. That's what I think. We owe so much to them."
O'Hara added that a larger wellness facility and increased staffing are slated for the program by the end of the year.