A collaborative effort between multiple agencies seeks to bring together police officers to address stress and ultimately bridge the gap between community and law enforcement.

On Sept. 23, the first Life and Longevity Law Enforcement Conference was held at the Renton King County Sheriff’s Office branch with multiple speakers and roundtable discussions. The main focus was to show law enforcement and others a roadmap to an enhanced quality of life.

Bishop Ivy Gaines from Mentor Seattle said officers from multiple police departments, such as Seattle, Redmond, Bellevue and Kent were in attendance — and for future events, he wants officers from all of King County to attend.

At the forum, Gaines said they examined how stress impacts the brain and nervous system and ways to mitigate that stress. Ultimately, Gaines said they’re looking at how mitigating that stress can help the officer be their best self and interact positively with the community.

“We wanted to ensure that everyone that walked away understood that they are under a tremendous amount of stress,” said Gaines, a forum co-host. “From zero to ten, most of them may be operating consistently on the job at an eight or nine, and what that does to the nervous system, how to regulate that, to get it down to between two and five, so that when they do meet these stress points in their day and or career, they can respond in a way that is conducive to policy and the nature of relational policing.”

Gaines said that because people often do not have positive sentiments toward police, officers feel like they’re not appreciated, which frustrates them. To address this frustration, Gaines said he wanted to bring police officers together to talk about common issues such as stress.

“If that officer is of sound mind and body and mental capacity and prowess, he or she is going to be able to manage that circumstance and situation so much better than, say, someone who’s not caring for themselves, who is unaware that they’re at that eight or nine,” Gaines said. “And then they get to a stressful situation, and they meet that community member who is not at their best day or not necessarily in the mood to comply … they have a lesser chance of deescalating that circumstance than they would if they were practicing the principles, right?”

Psychologist and event co-host David Lewis said for eight years, he’s done trauma training for law enforcement, but over the past three years, he has been helping the Seattle Police Department do a training called “Before The Badge,” in which officers spend around 40 hours with Lewis. Lewis said he trains them on how to make the best use of their mind, thoughts, and health. Additionally, he said they learn how psychology and other factors allow them to be more effective officers overall.

At the forum, Lewis discussed the impact of stress on the brain, how to mitigate stress and its effects. Lewis said if people can understand how stress works in the brain and how to develop a healthier body, brain and nervous system, then things play out better in a stressful moment.

Lewis said about 80% of people at the forum said they were laid-back, patient, and better listeners and communicators when they were at their best. But when he asked who they were when they were not at their best, people said they were more irritable, less patient, and more argumentative — and they might bulldoze through a situation to eliminate the stress.

Lewis said once people hit a certain level of stress, the fight or flight region of the brain takes over, and everyone is susceptible to doing certain things, such as saying something they don’t mean or doing something they will feel bad about later on when they’re not stressed anymore. Lewis said he doesn’t want officers operating in that stressed mode daily.

Lewis said that when people are healthy, and their stress is at an ideal level, they operate from the frontal lobe of their brain, where they have the ability to slow down, process, think, and take in information best. In that mode, Lewis said officers can deescalate somebody by communicating calmly.

To mitigate stress, Lewis said officers can start by looking at their health and checking whether they’re getting enough sleep, exercising, and eating well. Next, Lewis said officers need to see whether they’re around positive people or people who cause more stress. Then, officers need to see who they can talk to in their department about their needs.

“So what you have there, man, is you have a mix of nature and nurture,” Lewis said. “You’ve got the individual person and their biology and their brain.”

The event was also co-hosted by Peony Joy Coaching and the King County Sheriff’s Office.