New Madrid Police Chief looks to add chaplain program to police force

NEW MADRID, Mo. - Recently I’ve been speaking with other police chiefs and sheriffs in the area about how we can better serve our citizens as well as our employees and several of them have mentioned their chaplain program. Law enforcement chaplains serve a variety of roles in a police organization, from counseling employees and community members, to assisting in death notifications and critical incidents.

Often when police officers respond to a traumatic incident, they find themselves tasked with not only stopping a threat or investigating a crime, but also providing mental and emotional support to others on the scene. Besides the fact that police officers are not necessarily equipped to handle those types of duties, they also need to be focusing on the job at hand and that’s where the presence of a police chaplain can be invaluable.

In addition, a chaplain program helps develop relationships between police officers and the communities they serve. Chaplains, all of which are active pastors, act as liaisons between law enforcement and the community, opening up lines of communication that did not exist before.

In the end we have to ask ourselves if we are doing everything we can to provide every possible service to our citizens and employees, and we can’t say that until we have an active chaplain program in place. I’ve met with several local clergy members and hope to have volunteer department chaplains on our staff within the next few weeks.