Drafter
Clerk 04/01/2021
Title
A MOTION affirming the King County council's support for the emotional and mental health programs under development by the King County sheriff's office; and requesting the sheriff's office provide a report evaluating the programs developed by the temporary wellness and resiliency deputy coordinate position.
Body
WHEREAS, law enforcement officers face an extraordinary amount of work-related stress, often responding to traumatic situations, and
WHEREAS, some of those traumatic situations law enforcement officers must respond to on a daily basis can involve cases of child abuse, domestic violence and homicide, and
WHEREAS, repeated exposure to these traumatic and stressful incidents too often causes anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression and thoughts of suicide, and
WHEREAS, almost one in four law enforcement officers have had thoughts of suicide at some point in their life and the suicide rate for police officers is four times that of firefighters, with the number of law enforcement officer deaths by suicide is 2.3 times that of deaths by homicide, and
WHEREAS, between seven and nineteen percent of law enforcement officers have symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, compared to three point five percent of the general population, and
WHEREAS, some studies have reported that law enforcement officers may suffer from mental health related issues at a higher rate than the general population, they often self-medicate with drugs or alcohol in search of relief, and
WHEREAS, because frontline workers and first responders may turn to drugs and alcohol to forget about these traumatic incidents they face on the job, they also use substances to help them sleep when nightmares occur and keep them up at night, and
WHEREAS, law enforcement officers are tasked with making quick decisions in emergency situations; decisions which are monitored and judged by the entire county, and
WHEREAS, law enforcement officers are also on ...
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