POLICEUSA.com
WHO WE ARE.
Police Protective Fund is a coalition of law enforcement veterans and citizens dedicated to promoting the safety and well-being of police officers.
Our educational programs train and assist law enforcement officers, raise public awareness and inspire young people.
“We start with the wisdom of America’s law enforcement veterans,” states Executive Director Phillip LeConte. “Their knowledge and wisdom is the foundation of everything we do.”
WHAT WE DO.
We promote the safety and well-being of police officers through a unique collection of authoritative and engaging educational programs – created, implemented & now sponsored by our organization nationwide.
PoliceUSA.com is our home on the web, but our programming reaches into the real world: whether it’s raising public awareness through “Proceed with Caution”; instilling the spirit of citizenship and accountability in our youth through the “Junior Police Academy”; or offering the law enforcement community a place to turn in a crisis with the “Survivor Network”.
All of our programming is built on the same foundation — the wisdom and experience of America’s law enforcement veterans. Putting this wisdom to useful purpose is what unifies the diverse group of individuals with whom we work. It is also, we believe, what appeals to those who support and fund our efforts.
PROGRAMS
JUNIOR POLICE ACADEMY
Junior Police Academy motivates young people to be outstanding citizens through law enforcement education.
Since 1992, the Junior Police Academy has been bringing the world of law enforcement into the nation’s classrooms — supporting the efforts of police departments and educators across the United States.
The Junior Police Academy has built a nationwide program based on a simple, yet powerful premise: when law enforcement officers and young people are brought together, wonderful things start to happen!
It is a chemistry completely unique to the educational environment – sparking an idealism in both students and police officers alike. In re-framing the traditional role of a police officer from enforcer to mentor, JPA elevates young people to be pro-active partners in building safer schools and communities.
TOMORROW’S CITIZENS
Targeting middle school students, the program is a more than just a police academy for young people – it also teaches life skills and cultivates personal accountability.
“The kids who have graduated from the JPA have a deep sense of responsibility,” said Officer Mitchell Garcia of the Houston Police Academy, Houston, Texas “Cadet are community oriented. They will become the adults who want to make a difference.”
Junior Police Academy often marks the beginning of a young person actively assuming their lifelong role as informed citizens – extending the program’s true impact far into the future!
PROCEED WITH CAUTION
PROCEED WITH CAUTION encourages America’s motorists to use caution when encountering public safety officers on the roadway.
Careless drivers have become the leading cause of death for public safety officers.
Countless officers have experienced the danger of nearly being hit. Every officer knows someone who has been injured or killed by a careless driver. Law enforcers routinely experience a narrow margin of error when working along the roadway. It is a growing source of stress in an already stressful profession.
Our ongoing nationwide campaign seeks to reverse grim statistics and replace “haste” with “safe” - helping to restore civility to the nation’s roadways.
The campaign also directs citizens to visit us online where they will find additional information highlighting the dangers officers face, along with safety strategies for motorists.
WITHOUT VIGILANCE, THE PROBLEM WILL ONLY GET WORSE
By staying on message and keeping our call to action simple, the phrase “PROCEED WITH CAUTION” and its mandate can have a lasting impact on the way motorists drive.
RESET YOUR STANDARD FOR SAFETY
Test the power of our campaign. The next time you approach flashing lights and public safety personnel in the roadway, think: “PROCEED WITH CAUTION”! It may only be for a few seconds, but this brief window of time can save lives.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION is sponsored by the Police Protective Fund, a non-profit organization.
CRISIS PROGRAMS
The Police Protective Fund puts the experience and wisdom of public safety professionals and veteran caregivers within the reach of every department - offering assistance to their response to a line of duty incident.
The death of a public safety officer places extraordinary demands on a department - many of which are well outside the core-proficiencies of most law enforcement professionals.
We sponsor three programs that assists agencies in preparing for or responding to these exceptional circumstances:
SURVIVOR NETWORK
JOHN COOLEY SEMINARS
THE POLICE CHAPLAIN PROJECT
The combined reach of these programs extends support to law enforcement administrators, caregivers and to the greater law enforcement community, including officers and their families.
SURVIVOR NETWORK
SURVIVOR NETWORK provides online support for members of the law enforcement community in grief.
Featuring some of the countries most accomplished chaplains, the SURVIVOR NETWORK harnesses the power of the Internet and hi-definition photography to offer a spiritual retreat unique in its immediacy and impact on the viewer.
“The potential of the SURVIVOR NETWORK is way beyond church and religion. It has a sense of God breathing in it. The scriptures speak about the Spirit of God being like the wind, unseeable yet very real. That’s one of the marks of God on this process. It pulls people towards the objects of God’s affection, people who are suffering and grieving.”
Chaplain Steve Rekedal
A SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCE OF CARE – 24/7
Accessible around the clock, THE SURVIVOR NETWORK is a tool for filling the silence that often surrounds grief, providing supplemental support when people need it the most – during those hours (or on those days) when no primary support is available or practical.
CONNECTING PEOPLE TO CONTENT
Harnessing the Internet’s unique ability to connect people to content, the program can reach those who might not otherwise seek help – a slain officer’s parents, grown children, or close friends and fellow officers within the department – individuals who may be more traumatized than they outwardly manifest, and whose grief may therefore go unresolved.
KINDRED SPIRITS
Additionally, the SURVIVOR NETWORK features the testimony of other survivors kindred spirits who can speak to other survivors with an authority and conviction only furnished through common experience.
A CRITICAL TIME
A line-of-duty death is pervasive. It touches every member of a department - as well as spouses, family members and loved ones - with traumatic stress reactions. Individuals may go on to develop long-term impairment, such as Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disease. This is preventable with early crisis intervention. But unfortunately, whatever intervention that’s available tends to be too little too late.
POLICE ARE DIFFERENT
The SURVIVOR NETWORK recognizes there are unique obstacles to grieving for a police officer. Noted police psychologist Dr. Daniel A. Goldfarb put it best in an article entitled: “Why Police Officers Are Different.” In it, he states.
“Police need to be in constant emotional control. Law enforcement officers have a job that requires extreme restraint under highly emotional circumstances. They are told when they are extremely excited, they have to act calm. They are told when they are nervous, they have to be in charge. They are taught to be stoic when emotional. They are to interact with the world in a role. The emotional constraint of the role takes tremendous mental energy, much more energy than expressing true emotions.”
The SURVIVOR NETWORK seeks to offer police officers meaningful support by first recognizing differences.
“While there is no one-stop solution to grief, the SURVIVOR NETWORK can urge the process along,” observes program director Phillip LeConte. “It can be the motivation a survivor needs to seek further support at a time critical to their recovery.”
JOHN COOLEY SEMINARS
Through his seminar, “The Unthinkable: Managing the Police Funeral”, veteran police officer John Cooley shares his extensive experience and people-oriented insights to raising the professional standards by which law enforcement honors and lays to rest its fallen heroes.
Always engaging, often moving, John draws on the wisdom accumulated over his 30 years with the Los Angeles Police Department, where he coordinated over 80 police funeral and memorial services.
In training seminars held across the country, John has given attendees a rare opportunity to focus on sensitive issues that are seldom discussed and often overlooked by agencies amidst a line-of-duty death crisis.
The Seminars not only guide participants through the myriad of decisions involved in developing their own comprehensive “Line-of-Duty Death Protocol”, John also motivates participants to take action.
“It is vital to develop a Line-of-Duty Death Protocol well in advance of a crisis. Few agency or department administrators have been through a line-of-duty death as active participants, and most funeral homes know even less. But a poorly executed police funeral is an embarrassment to the city, the department, and the officer’s family.”
“My seminars & workshops will help police agencies and those responsible for managing police funerals better understand the tasks associated with such an event. The information provided represents my knowledge, experience and personal opinions.”
Sgt. John Cooley
Seminars (90 - 120 minutes)
John Cooley Seminars (90 - 120 minutes) were developed to be an educational offering at national and regional law enforcement conferences. Seminars provide attendees with an overview of what is needed to be better prepared for or respond to a line-of duty death.
Attendees are equipped to return to their agencies and evaluate their agency’s preparedness level and to implement and coordinate an updated protocol.
also offered:
Workshops (Eight Hour Session)
Workshops offer more extensive training for agencies. Typically one eight hour session (with breaks), Workshops are more comprehensive, offering an opportunity for attendees to discuss topics of mutual interest.
John’s role in Workshops alternates between presenter and group facilitator. This extended format provides an excellent opportunity for change to occur because participants can determine what will work for them, what they need to do, and how to do it.
By facilitating immediate feedback from other agency representatives, participants walk away with a comprehensive understanding of what they need to do and the resources to do it. The opportunity to share ideas leads to a network each agency call turn to for information and support.
POLICE CHAPLAIN PROJECT
Dedicated to sharing the wisdom of senior police chaplains.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
“The Police Chaplain Project” preserves the words and wisdom of America’s senior police chaplains by gathering and archiving video oral history interviews and making them available online The project offers not only practical advice to young police chaplains, but words of inspiration and hope to anyone in the public safety community.
THE SPIRITUAL FOUNDATIONS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT
The Police Chaplain Project features some of the most revered and accomplished police chaplains of the past 50 years. Using an interview format that is both simple and intimate, this ever expanding video archive is a refreshing reminder that it’s often the spiritual foundations of public service that can sustain officers through times of crisis.
OUR VISION
The project’s vision is to chronicle the history and evolution of the police chaplaincy in America, providing a rich educational resource for the growing number of caregivers to the law enforcement community. Thus far we have digitized over 25 hours of original content, making interviews accessible online, for free. We continue to produce interviews every year.
“Law enforcement professionals need to occasionally pause and heed the wisdom found in the “The Police Chaplain Project”, adds Chaplain David F. Fair, Ph.D. “Think of it as a nourishing bowl of chicken soup for those sworn to ‘Serve and Protect.’”