Although often forgotten, the families of police officers and other law enforcement employees are negatively affected by stress that is brought home by those in policing. Many families do not know what they are signing up for when their loved one gets into a policing career, and the job changes their loved one. The Phoenix Police Department prioritizes the families of its employees and involves the family when it can. As stated earlier, the Department allows employees to bring a plus one to watch the CIB videos and provides mental health resources for both the employee and the plus one family member during and after viewing the video. The Department also provides its three-pronged approach to employee wellness to employee’s family members. Department employee’s family members utilize EAU, CPR, and the chaplains to help with personal and family issues.
To make the family of employees aware of these resources, the Department and EAU have emphasized family training. Several times a year, EAU offers a spouse and significant other training at various locations all over Phoenix and surrounding cities. This training is taught by EAU and Chaplain Fesmire. It focuses on topics such as resources available to employees and their families, how to find resources, being prepared for life’s emergencies, signs, and symptoms of stress and burnout, resilience, the importance of family support, effects of the job on families, communication, and more. The classes that occurred during fall 2020 also included topics related to Covid-19, media and social media’s negative attitudes towards law enforcement, and parents helping kids with online school and bullying for having parents in law enforcement.
The Community Engagement Bureau hosts an annual Family Day at the Phoenix Regional Police Academy, where the family of Department employees can spend a day learning about policing. Family members get classroom instruction from EAU, benefits, and a representative from the Police Executive Staff, as well as hands on training at the academy firearms shooting range, decision making with TI training simulator, and experiencing the different tools and resources available to their officers such as Special Assignments Unit (SAU), Canine, and Air Support. The Department also engages new officer’s families by incorporating family day into graduation day. Family members of officers graduating from the academy walk around the academy grounds and see what their loved one experienced over the last several months. Family members sit through presentations from academy staff, EAU, and a representative from the Police Executive Staff, welcoming them as part of the Phoenix Police Department family.