The Fremont Police Department has worked on expanding their wellness initiatives over the past several years. This includes a variety of programs and workout equipment upgrades that focus on all employees and their emotional, physical and mental well-being.
One is called the HeartStart program, which involves yearly health checkups with medical company Sigma Tactical Wellness. The voluntary program involves heart screenings such as bloodwork, electrocardiogram devices and a stress test to make sure the heart is performing well. When the medical doctor or nurse practitioner finds a health issue, the person is encouraged to follow up with their primary care provider.
Medical professionals from Sigma Tactical Wellness are aware of the amount of stress police officers go through. “You have a nuance of the variants and work cycles of when you’re working versus when you’re sleeping, the stress of the job and all of these other things that don’t affect all professions,” said Fremont Police Department Lieutenant Heidi Kindorf.
“The founder has done a lot of work specific to the longterm impacts of policing and the first responder type career, whether that be fire or even EMS, and how that impacts from a physiological standpoint,” she said. Kindorf said up to 150 people signed up for the health screenings this year and they plan to offer up to 200 slots next year.
The Flex program provides full-time employees the opportunity to either rest or work out during a “Flex Hour” during their shift. The hour can be spent taking a nap, meditating in the Wellness Room, taking a run, a walk or working out at the department gym. Police officers and dispatchers also have a four-day, 11-hour work week followed by four days off in order to maintain a work-life balance.
The Wellness Room is still being set up, but Kindorf said it will include massage chairs, yoga mats, foam rollers, stretching bands and a quiet space to relax. Kindorf said the room is a private space one person can use at a time. The department has been able to redesign and upgrade the indoor gym with brand new exercise equipment. There’s also an outdoor gym with a basketball court.
When employees have a few minutes, they can play with a furry friend. The department brought in a therapy dog named Maddox this year. Maddox is accompanied by his handler, Kathleen Brown. Brown is also a licensed marriage and family therapist, and a program coordinator with Fremont Youth and Family Services.
Maddox can be called in to provide comfort and calm for officers during stressful moments while on duty. Maddox also provides emotional support for community members going through a crisis.
Kindorf said their police officers are not the only ones experiencing high stress situations and crises. All their employees, from dispatchers to their office workers, are also experiencing stress and trauma.
“If you’re assigned to records, you’re reviewing a lot of police reports, which sometimes have a lot of troubling information,” she said. “Although you weren’t seeing it firsthand, you are vicariously getting traumatized through the things that you’re potentially reading before redacting and sending the report out.
“Our dispatchers are our first line to our community when they call,” Kindorf added. “Oftentimes [they’re] dealing with people that are in crisis in varying degrees, and sometimes they’re hearing it and they’re being traumatized that way.”
A Mindbase app offers employees a variety of physical and mental wellness tools, from breathing exercises to podcasts. All employees can use up to 20 one-hour therapy sessions per year. When an employee experiences a traumatic event in their personal or work life, a peer support team contacts that person to check in.
“Being involved in police work as a first responder, it can be very stressful,” said Kindorf. “Generally we are being called when somebody needs help or has experienced a crisis. Sometimes those things can be very traumatic, and [we’re] providing tools for our personnel to be able to process that stress and trauma in a healthy positive way.”
