First-of-its-kind in America: The state of Texas will now offer mental and emotional support for law enforcement

DALLAS, Texas – The state of Texas has just started a program that is the first of its kind and will train cops to provide anonymous counseling to other officers who are dealing with the trauma that they experience on a daily basis.

Training for law enforcement officers to provide mental and emotional support to one another is provided by the Texas Law Enforcement Peer Network, which is based in the Caruth Police Institute at UNT Dallas.

“We’ve witnessed too many times the toll it can have on an officer’s career. Not just on the officers themselves, but on their families and home lives,” said State Senator Royce West (D-Dallas), who co-sponsored the bill that created the program. West is a Democrat from Dallas. “We’ve witnessed too many times the toll it can have on an officer’s career.”

In Texas, police officers will account for 98 percent of all first responder suicides between the years 2017 and 2021.

According to Dustin Schellenger, who serves as the state director of the Texas Law Enforcement Peer Network, “there is a problem. That is part of what is driving this demand.” [Citation needed]

Before this program was established by the legislature, more than 70 percent of the state’s law enforcement officers did not have access to peer counseling.

Up to this point, there have been 300 cops trained in the particular counseling.

By using an app, officers can connect with one another even if they are more than 320 kilometers apart.

Since April, hundreds of people have downloaded the app, and 46 of those users have reported needing assistance with their problems.

“It’s amazing because it gives officers the ability to be completely anonymous and to reach out for help and have discussions they may not normally have the ability to have,” said Schellenger. “It’s amazing because it gives officers the ability to have discussions they may not normally have the ability to have.”

Chief Eddie Garcia of the Dallas Police Department has stated that he has witnessed the toll that incidents such as the attack that took place in Downtown Dallas on July 7, 2016, which resulted in the deaths of four Dallas officers and a DART officer.

Garcia stated that he believes this to be one of the most crucial aspects of law enforcement that he has encountered. “In comparison to how we did not do policing many years before, this represents a genuine cultural shift.”