National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month -Officer Down Memorial Podcast

The Officer Down Memorial Podcast recently
addressed the topic of suicide & suicide prevention.

 September is National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month. This month and every month it’s important to focus on our public safety personnel's mental health. It is also important to provide all survivors and co-workers of public safety personnel who die by suicide with enduring support. 

Minnesota “Radio Broadcaster Turned Sheriff” Scott Rose has created OfficerDownMemorialPodcast.com to honor officers who have given their lives in service. Sheriff Rose has repeatedly talked about the importance of honoring the fallen, including those officers who have lost their lives by suicide. 

Sheriff Scott Rose

Sheriff Rose is the current sheriff of Dodge County in Minnesota. He started his career as a volunteer with the Sheriff’s Posse in 1996 and as a police officer with the Kasson Police Department in 1998. He started working full-time with the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office in 2002 and was elected sheriff in 2015.

According to a recent episode, Sheriff Rose explains that the goal of the podcast is to honor our fallen heroes, help us remember their service, remind us we must always support the families left behind, and to never forget their sacrifice. He emphasizes it is important to provide respect and dignity to the families of our fallen heroes.

In each episode of the Officer Down Memorial Podcast, Sheriff Rose shares the stories of how these men and women lost their lives in the line of duty. These podcasts are produced in a storytelling format sharing these officer's stories based on input from the men and women who served with them, and the families who were left behind. Older stories are written using historical documents and newspaper records.

The most recent episode is the story of Sergeant Cory Slifko, a 20-year veteran from the South Saint Paul Police Department, which is the podcast’s first officer-down story by suicide. 

Past episodes have told the stories of officers Jack Werner, Shawn Schneider, Greg Lange, John Schneider, Jason Meyer, and Matthew Hamilton to name but a few.

Suicide prevention and awareness resources

Sheriff Rose also recently completed podcasts focusing on suicide prevention and awareness, sharing information about organizations that are there to help our first responders (veterans, police, fire, EMT, front-line medical staff, corrections, and dispatch) and their families relating to mental health, PTSD, and suicide issues. These organizations included the Invisible Wounds Project, Survivors of Blue Suicide Foundation, and 1st H.E.L.P. (Blue H.E.L.P. and Red H.E.L.P.) which provide resources and treatment to our first responders that are confidential, without charge, and without judgement.

You can listen to current or past episodes of the Officer Down Memorial Podcast on your podcast app or stream episodes on the website at OfficerDownMemorialPodcast.com.

 The League of Minnesota Cities has also developed a PTSD and Mental Health Toolkit to help our members address issues of public safety mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The toolkit has resources on talking about mental health, programs, HR considerations, wellness and more.

View the PTSD and Mental Health Toolkit on the League’s website here.

If you have any questions or comments, you may contact me at tstille@lmc.org or give me a phone call at (651) 215-4051. 

Remember:  Responder Safety = Public Safety

In the meantime, stay safe and be careful -

Tracy