City of San Bruno Police Segments from What's Happening Around Towns, 3 Apr 2018

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From YouTube: Ryan Johansen on Mindfulness Training San Bruno PD

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City of San Bruno Lt. Ryan Johansen, SBPD on Mindfulness Training
March 2018
trt 8:00

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My name is Ryan Johansen and I'm, a lieutenant with the San Bruno Police Department I am currently in command of the patrol division, so I handle everything from Street patrol to k9 SWAT and the Traffic Division I was fortunate enough to meet Richard Richard Garlin, probably a couple of years ago when he was featured on mindful magazine, and he was actually sitting in a police uniform in the lotus position, which immediately caught my attention, and he had been really trying to champion this effort to bring mindfulness practice to the law enforcement profession and in keeping communication with him, I started to kind of notice that this would be a really good fit for trying to bring that type of program to San Bruno.

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At some point, and this grant has just made that a reality sooner than I'd even hoped, so we initially applied for a grant through the San Bruno Community Foundation. That was capped at $25,000, specifically with the aim of putting about half of our department through a formalized residential mindfulness program.

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Once we wrote up the initial proposal to the Community Foundation to do so, they actually reached back out to us liking the idea enough to suggest that perhaps we could create a new grant that would allow us to get the entire department through this training, and so they actually created a new grant I believe they're, calling it the first responder effectiveness, strategic initiative and allowed us to apply for the full amount required to get the entire department. Through this training.

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We have this sort of lofty goal of implementing a more long term mindfulness program into the police department as part of our officer resiliency program, and to do that obviously, a two and a half day intensive is not nearly enough, but there's funding and other challenges with trying to have an ongoing program that involves an outside entity like the mindful badge initiative. So what they've been gracious enough to offer?

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Is that part of this two and a half day intensive they're offering us that will be for them to train at least two to four of our own department personnel to be what we term mindfulness coaches? And so these coaches?

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Don't have the level of training that would be needed to put on an intensive program like what we're getting initially, but they will have some additional training that enables them to provide some ongoing, mindful courses, things like meditation and other opportunities to help the officers to reconnect with the present moment as they move months weeks in you know, years away from this two and a half day, intensive conventionally police departments utilized what we call a peer support model to ensure that they're providing some support and guidance for some of the more difficult things that police officers deal with in their job over the years.

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Traditionally. This has been a very reactionary effort, meaning that we essentially appoint staff to man, the peer support team and then, when something difficult occurs, say a shooting or a difficult, traumatic incident where they witnessed the loss of a life of someone in the field.

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The types of things that we lose sleep over night peer support says well, when that happens, let's reach out and try to make sure we have professional, counselors and clinicians and friendly support available to these officers when it when it occurs and we're now looking at the fact that we probably need to prepare officers for those difficult moments before they occur and provide them with some tools to make sure that they're prepared to take care of themselves.

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When those types of things happen in San Bruno, we generally enjoy a very good productive relationship between the community and the police department. At the same time, police officers are human beings, and even the best officers in a city like San Bruno have bad moments and bad days, and we may not treat a victim with the kind of respect that they deserve because of a call. We were on beforehand that caused frustration, or maybe we've got issues going on at home.

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That bleed over into the way that we interact in a given call at work and I. Think that giving an officer some tools to kind of recognize, when maybe they have those bleed overs from previous situations and that they're allowing them to cause an inappropriate response in the new situation, bringing them back to that present moment of realizing what they're dealing with now.

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Not what they dealt with before or might have to deal with next will reduce those it will cause them to be at their best, more often I'm familiar enough with the law enforcement culture and familiar enough with mindfulness to know that we're gonna face some resistance and implementing a program like this.

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Fortunately, I can draw upon the experience of Richard and the mindful badge initiative and know that what's tended to happen, and most of these other departments that have gone down, similar paths is that there's some initial resistance and most of it subsides as people experience the benefits of understanding the concept of mindfulness I know that there will be some people that are never going to come fully around on this and they're gonna. Think that it's a bunch of mumbo-jumbo that they're lieutenant is forcing them to go through.

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But my hope is that if it changes even a handful of officers and the quality life, the experience at home and the way that they do their job, when they're here in San Bruno, then it's a huge victory for us and I have absolute confidence that it will definitely show positive change in the way that the community interacts with our officers on a day to day basis.

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We also requested funding to conduct what we call critical site assessments throughout the city, and this basically pertains to sort of a revelation believe it or not, in law enforcement that we're much better prepared for major incidents like mass casualty incidents and school shootings and God forbid. Those things should come to San Bruno, but we're better prepared if we truly have a set plan in place specific to those venues to a given school or to a shopping mall, so that we already know about entrance and exit routes.

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We already know about emergency services and staging locations and command post locations, and these types of things, so the community foundation has also approved funding for us to bring in a third party vendor that will provide us with critical site assessments at four sites.

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We've identified throughout the city as sensitive targets or potential targets, and not only to provide the full site assessments and plans at those locations, but to provide us with the knowledge and tools to then do the same thing at all of our critical sites throughout the city and it's an integrated effort with the fire department and with other emergency services throughout the county.

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So it really gives us an opportunity to get on the same page so that, if something like this does happen in San Bruno, your emergency services are far better prepared to deal with it and are not trying to figure things out. As they're unraveling, the fire department will be intimately involved in the site, assessments and that'll be in. It will be training that we do together each time we do it so that we can better work in a unified command.

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If something were to occur, additionally, I know that the fire department requested some funding for emergency shelter, type supplies I'm, not intimately familiar with what was included in that, but I know that they were seeking to make sure that if an incident like the Glenview explosion were to occur again in the city that in that period of time that exists before all of the large-scale emergency services kick in like.

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Oh, yes- and you know, state and federal resources, we would be better equipped to make sure we can provide for our residents and I know that they were granted that funding as well without question I'm, extremely thankful towards the San Bruno Community Foundation and their forward-thinking willingness to consider this, and not just to consider the initial request for funding, but then to see the opportunity here to get an entire department through this I couldn't possibly thank them. Enough I mean on a personal level. This is something that's very near and dear to my heart.

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It's something that I think can continue. The positive change in law enforcement we've been trying to effect over the last several years, and it's not something that a smaller city like San Bruno is real likely to come up with funding for without this type of generous donation. So I know that I am extremely thankful. I can also very freely speak for the chief when I say that he's extremely thankful, we're very excited about being able to partake in this.