Warner meets with first responders to discuss mental health issues

US Senator Mark Warner poses with police dogs during a roundtable discussion with first responders on Friday at the Rappahannock Region Criminal Justice Academy in Fredericksburg. (Photo by Jonathan Hunley)

It was about a year and a half ago, right before Christmas, when a Fredericksburg police officer had a life-changing moment. 

He was responding to a call for service at an apartment complex, and he was first on the scene.  

An 8-year-old boy had been walking back from a playground with a family member when he saw that his parents had just gotten back home. The boy ran over to see his mother and father, but he was struck by a car coming through the parking lot.  

The vehicle’s driver wasn’t speeding or doing anything else wrong, Fredericksburg Police Chief Brian Layton recalled Friday.  

But the impact took the child’s life. He died in the police officer’s arms with maybe the only solace being that the lawman could speak to the boy in Spanish. 

“That’s something that stays with you for a lifetime, right?” Layton said at the Rappahannock Regional Criminal Justice Academy. “Not just [for] a career in law enforcement. That stays with you for a lifetime.” 

The story was one shared as representatives of a dozen law-enforcement agencies met with U.S. Sen. Mark Warner to discuss the mental health issues first responders can face. 

Warner (D-Va.) helped secure a $174,000 federal grant for the Fredericksburg police that has been used for mental health resiliency training and services at the regional academy, which supports more than 40 member police agencies. 

It was one of 49 grants awarded across the country by the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. By the end of next month, it will have provided resources for nearly 800 public safety professionals to receive training, Layton said. 

 “Participants have learned to recognize and understand the signs and symptoms of stress and anxiety,” he said at the gathering, which was also attended by a host of state and local officials, “the types of incidents requiring follow-up care and effective ways to manage stress.”  

One mental health success story shared Friday came from Maj. Timothy Moore of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police. 

One of that agency’s officers who was on an FBI joint terrorism task force suffered from alcoholism. But he was sent to a 30-day treatment program, returned and got sober, Moore said. The officer went back to the task force and today is thriving. 

“He’s now a key member of our peer-support team,” Moore said.  

A key to getting mental health support and training ingrained in a department is to get veteran officers to embrace it, said Capt. Chad McKnight of the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office. Then their younger colleagues will likely fall in line. 

“If we get the seasoned folks on board, I think we’ll be really making leaps and bounds,” McKnight said. 

Put another way: instilling good mental-health habits requires changing the way business is done at law-enforcement agencies, said Lt. Timothy Blayman of the airports authority police. 

“It’s about changing the culture within the organization,” Blayman said. 

Warner also pointed out that grants like the one that went to the Fredericksburg police are technically federal “non-defense spending.” So, when politicians talk about cutting a percentage of non-defense spending, that spending shouldn’t be considered frivolous just because it’s not going to national defense. 

“All this stuff in law enforcement is non-defense,” Warner said.