Anchorage Police Sergeant Matthew Hall demonstrates how to use the station’s sensory room as part of a peer support program. (Wesley Early/Alaska Public Media)
The Alaska Department of Public Safety is working to better help its officers deal with stress following recent changes to state law and a growing number of discussions about mental health and wellness among employers across the country.
Administrators of the Anchorage Police Department’s peer support program hope clearer rules about confidentiality in support sessions, part of the recently passed Senate Bill 103, will encourage more officers to access mental health services.
On the sixth floor of downtown police headquarters, there’s a small room with dark blue lighting, circular lounge chairs and soft, plush carpeting. Rain can be heard pounding in the background.
Sergeant Matthew Hall, the police department’s peer support program coordinator and a member of the force for 11 years, said the treats are usually a mix of sweet and sour candy and are intended to stimulate the standard five senses – sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing.
“These rooms focus on each sense individually and level each sense,” Hall says, “so when you leave the room, or when you’re done with all the senses, every part of your body is stabilized and it’s like you’ve hit the reset button.”
Hall said he also focuses on several other senses through a series of deep-breathing exercises.
“Vestibular sense is like the balance that we have in our inner ear,” Hall says. “Proprioception is like spatial awareness or, say, how much force it takes to pick up a pen from a table. And introspection is also an internal sense, like, ‘Am I hungry? Am I thirsty?'”
Much of Hall’s work involves helping officers respond to critical incidents, including car crashes, suicides and serious injuries or deaths resulting from officers using deadly force.
“Police officers will encounter over 200 serious incidents over the course of their careers, which is a huge number for anyone,” Hall said.
Sergeant Matthew Hall, APD’s peer support coordinator, prepares for a mock critical incident stress debriefing. (Wesley Early/Alaska Public Media)
The Anchorage Police Department launched the peer support program in late 2020 in response to a growing national conversation about mental health, Hall said.
“If you look at society as a whole right now, I think we’ve seen a lot of progress in mental health over the last few years,” he said. “Before that, there was kind of a stigma around mental health, both in and outside of law enforcement, but the need is definitely there.”
When an officer faces a potentially traumatic critical incident, Hall’s team meets with the officer to determine the best way to deal with the stress, sometimes with a member of the peer support team acting as a moderator, in what are called “critical incident stress debriefings.”
“If we were to hold such a meeting, it would basically be like a group stress debriefing,” Hall said. “We wouldn’t necessarily talk about the tactics of the call or what happened. We would rather talk about our reaction to the call.”
Hall said he hopes a new law passed by the state Legislature earlier this year will encourage more police officers and non-sworn employees, such as dispatchers and recorders, to use peer support services. Senate Bill 103 provides clear confidentiality provisions for peer support sessions.
Democratic state Sen. Forrest Dunbar, of East Anchorage, introduced the bill after hearing input from law enforcement agencies and their unions.
“The problem was that people were worried that if they knew these programs could be subpoenaed or that they wouldn’t have the same confidentiality protections as chaplains or health care providers, they would not be completely honest about or use the programs,” Dunbar said.
The law contains exceptions to the confidentiality rule, such as if an officer admits to a crime during questioning.
Hall said he also wants to see improved relations between police and residents, who have expressed grief and anger toward police in recent months after seven police shootings, four of which have killed people, since May.
READ MORE: Anchorage Mayor LaFrance Announces Police Department Reforms After Officer Kills Teen
“Not a single officer that I’ve spoken to wants to go to those calls, calls where they have to use significant amounts of force, even deadly force,” Hall said. “So in general, these incidents always take a toll on both us as officers and on the public. We’re all affected by these incidents.”
The hope is that as officers continue to take advantage of peer support services, whether it be attending group stress debriefings or using the sensory room, word will spread and the mental health of the police department will improve.
