Prioritizing officer wellness

Still, it’s a career that has challenges and is very stressful.

As a result, one of his goals is to ensure that officer wellness continues to be a priority, telling those under his command, “I want you to have the best life outside of work and the most stable life outside of work so that when come to work, you can be the best version of yourself here.”

He points out that if things aren’t quite right in an officer’s personal life, it makes it hard to come to work and be focused on doing a good job.

In addition, officers need to have resources available to deal with the trauma they experience on the job, and McDonald wants to make sure they have all the tools needed to effectively do their job — hoping to circumvent personal issues like substance abuse, he said.

That might include getting in a physical workout every day, participating in meditation or even something as simple as providing time to read a good book, he said.

McDonald said he’s found that the cardiac health for police officers in general is dismal, adding that one statistic shows an average life expectancy after retiring is only 18 months.

“We need to be doing more to make sure that officers are staying healthy while they’re working so that they can they actually can make it into retirement and enjoy retirement,” he said.