Mindfulness Training Complete By Majority Of Menlo Park Police

MENLO PARK, CA -- Over 88 percent of Menlo Park’s police employees have completed mindfulness training over the past two years.

Mindfulness is a state of mind and being that focuses on self awareness and acceptance to ensure peak performance in one's environment.

The training prepares first responders to take on the occupational stress and trauma of their profession. It began in 2016 when Menlo Park’s former police chief, Robert Jonsen, was presented with the idea for mindfulness training intended for law enforcement.

This training is intended to provide officers with the skills needed to enhance their public interactions and overall relationship with the community. Jonsen discussed the idea with his fellow law enforcement professionals then enrolled himself in a three-day mindfulness training class.

He received City Council approval on Jan. 24, 2017, for funding to expand the training department wide. The $177,000 appropriation provided employees with resilience immersion training over an 18- to 24-month period. In the first year, 62 police employees each attended one of three training sessions offered through the Mindful Badge Initiative facilitated by Richard Goerling, a police lieutenant from the Hillsboro, Oregon, and Brian Shiers, an instructor at the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center and a mindfulness coach for the UCLA Bruin Volleyball team.

The final cost of the two-year program came to $161,192. The Menlo Park Police Department is part of the mainstream surge in mindfulness training and practices. Some Menlo Park officers were even featured in a PBS video presentation on mindfulness titled Mindfulness Goes Mainstream.