Most people would agree that it has never been more difficult to be in law enforcement. Even in a community like Centerville where police officers are largely supported, the national trend of disrespect for them has crept in. It’s a trend that has carried a significant price, Police Chief Paul Child told Mayor Clark Wilkinson and the city council at a Sept. 13 work meeting. 

“I had officers, after enduring 2020 and all the riots, there were several that were just ready to hang it up and just do another career … but it was those types of things that kept them going,” he said referring to efforts to honor local police officers. “When they come to work, they’re yelled at at work; they go home; they turn on the TV and what’s going on on the TV, and then their kids are asking them and they’re just getting the 24/7 of it, and they were just done.”

To help law enforcement personnel deal with many of these challenges the department has formed a peer support team. Among other resources the team provides debriefs for officers who deal with high stress situations such as trials and lawsuits. Child cited a recent traumatic incident in a neighboring community where a child was run over. A debrief held by the team and a mental health professional helped Centerville officers process the incident, he said. Officers from Bountiful and Woods Cross also participated in the debrief. 

To help personnel cope with the difficulties of the job, the department has also signed a contract with Previdence, a mental health service that provides twice-year assessments to law enforcement agencies. Under the program, Previdence administers data-based assessments that officers complete, which are scored by a trained clinician to determine an appropriate mode of care when needed. A member of the company’s liaison team follows up with individual officers, if necessary, to connect them to a trauma-trained therapist. The process is completely confidential between the officers and Previdence, Child said. So far about half of the department has participated in the voluntary program. Child said that he has already seen such a positive response that the department is considering making it mandatory going forward.

Community efforts that show appreciation also mean a lot to the officers who are under constant stress, he said in response to a question from Councilmember Bill Ince on how the council and the community could help. He encouraged them to join officers for ride alongs and to sit down and talk with them.

“You can’t throw enough money at them to compensate for something like that so that kind of support is critical,” Child said. “The support from the council, knowing that the council supports them, is supercritical, and engaging with them is really important.”

While a significant pay raise implemented in December was appreciated by officers, it really was a temporary fix as many police departments across the state have implemented similar pay raises, Child said.

“What we’re seeing now is everybody else did the same thing, and now we’re falling behind again,” he said. “Going forward in the next year, we’re going to have to look at that and make sure we’re not falling behind with our competition – which is everybody.”

The department is currently fully staffed but there is no leeway when officers go on vacation, are sick, retire or leave, which means all officers are stretched thin, Child said.  It’s a situation that is going to be difficult to remedy with a particularly tight job market in law enforcement, he said.

“I went through four hiring pools to try to find someone that was up to our expectations – and it took a year,” Child said of the last opening he filled. “And within that year, everyone is being taxed; we’re working overtime. We’re constantly having to move people around …We’re constantly having to do those types of adjustments, and that’s where it could be helpful to have some more available manpower resources so that we’re not doing so much of that moving people around constantly to cover shifts.” λ