Understanding Stress and Burnout in Police Chiefs

12/20/22 • 29 min

Today we will be talking about stress and burnout among police chiefs. Serving as a police chief has always been a demanding and stressful job. The past several years has been even more challenging as chiefs have dealt with significant declines in staffing, higher levels of mistrust in the community, spikes in homicides, a pandemic and widespread protests directed at the police themselves. Chiefs from the largest cities in the US turnover in less than five years, and in many cases are just exhausted from the relentless demands of the job.

We are fortunate to have Dr. Kandi Wiens with us today to help us better understand stress and burnout in police executives. She is the co-director of the Penn Master’s in Medical Education program, co-director of the Health Professions Education certificate program, and co-academic director of the Penn Chief Learning Officer executive doctoral program. Dr. Wiens is an executive coach, national speaker, and organizational change consultant. Her coaching practice is deeply grounded in emotional intelligence, burnout, and resiliency research and methods.

Kandi is also a member of the Major Cities Chiefs Association Police Executive Leadership Institute faculty. In addition to her classroom work, she provides individual coaching to each member of the class on a 360-degree assessment. She has also been engaged with research on stress and burnout among police executives which she uses to provide advice and guidance on stress management.

Previous Episode

Strategic Communications for Police Executives

Today we will be discussing strategic communications for police executives. The police continue to wrestle with significant challenges in their effort to serve their communities effectively. Increases in violent crime, loss of public confidence, and understaffing because of the inability to fill vacant positions are among them. External and internal communications are also enormous challenges for the police. They work in a fast-paced 24/7 world that requires police executives to ensure communication is strategic, timely, and accurate.
We are fortunate to have Dr. Julie Hill with us today to share her extensive experience in working on communications strategy in local government and policing. Julie has more than three decades of experience helping organizations think strategically about their communication activities and providing support to develop and execute communication plans. She has held executive-level positions overseeing the communication and public affairs operations for cities and law enforcement agencies in Charlotte, NC, and Virginia Beach, VA. She successfully guided communication responses to a range of manmade and natural disasters as the lead communication strategist, spokesperson, and senior advisor to elected and appointed officials.

I had the pleasure of working with and learning from Julie in my nine years as police chief in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Since then, we worked together on several projects, including a book on strategic communication practices for police executives, a soon-to-be-published guide on branding, and a guide on officer safety and wellness campaigns.

Next Episode

Emerging Security & Safety Technologies that are Solving Problems & Reducing Risk – Weapons Detection

Today we are excited to bring you the first in a series of episodes focused on specific innovative and evolving security and safety technology solutions that are solving problems and reducing risk. As we begin this series it should be noted that the Institute and hosts of this podcast are not endorsing these technologies or the companies who have created them. Rather we see this is an opportunity to explore technology solutions that can have significant impact on ongoing security and safety challenges.
It is a widely accepted fact, and a topic of a previous episode, that gun violence in the US continues to be a tragic epidemic. Gun violence is a leading cause of premature death in the U.S. killing more than 38,000 people and causing nearly 85,000 injuries each year. Police and security professionals and community leaders have long searched for ways to prevent, mitigate and reduce these crimes. The technology we are highlighting today aims to do that through identifying weapons before they can be used.

Today we are happy to be joined by Mike Ellenbogen – the founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Evolv Technologies. Started in August, 2013, Evolv is a growth stage company focused on protecting people from gun and bomb violence by fusing innovative new sensors and advanced AI.

Evolv’s stated mission is to “return confidence and peace of mind to people visiting public spaces”. Evolv has created a touchless screening system to identify weapons and health related threats. Through a combination of technologies that include advanced sensors, machine learning, cloud analytics and centralized data storage; the Evolv platform identifies guns, knives and explosives without disrupting people movement and flow.

Unlike traditional metal detectors, x-rays and manual bag checks Evolv’s process allows individuals to walk freely through their portals without stopping. The technology allows for the screening of 4000 people an hour in a single lane.