Mindfulness in Action: Jackson Police Department

With the generous support of community partners, the Jackson Police Department is collaborating with Becoming Jackson Whole to bring Dr. Amishi Jha’s Mindfulness-Based Attention Training to its officers and staff. The year-long program will include eight hours of in-person training, with ongoing support to encourage continued practice and a research assessment to track results. 

I’m really excited that there are lots of eyes on our department right now, in the state of Wyoming and around the country. The Jackson Police Department is the first department in the state of Wyoming to include a social worker. Other larger agencies in the country are experimenting with this as well, but none of our size and no others in Wyoming. So, lots of folks are looking to us to see how it goes. 

This gives us an opportunity to model the importance of providing emotional support and stress-management tools for our law enforcement officers, along with the technical training and physical equipment they need to do their jobs effectively.  

Suicide numbers are alarming right now, from a community standpoint and within law enforcement itself. It’s ever so important to make sure that we can take care of ourselves so we can take care of our community that’s struggling. 

Resiliency is something law enforcement has been talking about for a long time. Same with de-escalation within crises intervention training and peer-support training. But the piece we haven't spoken about much is mindfulness. I went to Phoenix to see Dr. Dara Rampersad, from the National Board of Crisis Intervention Training, speak about de-escalation. His 40-hour training on first responders and resiliency engaged an international audience, but in that 40 hours, he had only one slide about mindfulness—because no one in this field knows what to say about it. 

I believe we can’t have successful peer support, de-escalation, and resilience without mindfulness. I am committed to integrating mindfulness practice into our shared daily routines, providing opportunities for group practice at shift change, during staff meetings, and in response to particularly challenging situations that may arise. 

My hope is that by normalizing mindfulness practice within the context of law enforcement, we can improve resilience, reduce burnout, lower stress, and achieve better outcomes both within our department and for our community. 

Michelle Weber, Chief of Police
Jackson, Wyoming

Click here to sign up for Becoming Jackson Whole’s 21-Day Mindfulness Challenge!