Chaplain Program
The Chaplain Program is made up of volunteer clergy members who are available to provide counseling, spiritual and emotional support to members of the Department, their families and members of the public. All of the Chaplains must meet the high ethical, moral and professional standards set forth by the department and meet the same pre-employment procedures as other department personnel.
Chaplains are available to assist regardless of a person’s religious affiliation or beliefs. Although each chaplain is ordained through a recognized religious body, they must be ecumenical and understanding of everyone’s personal beliefs. They cannot promote their personal beliefs to others unless they are solicited by the other party.
The Chaplain Coordinator serves as the liaison between the Chaplains and the Police Department. The Chaplain Coordinator is currently a police sergeant who organizes the meetings, coordinates training, on-call and other duties. Currently, the Chaplain Coordinator is the point of contact if a chaplain is requested.
Request for Chaplains
We had approximately 30 requests for chaplains during 2018. All of these requests were to respond to assist family members on calls involving deaths in the home. The Chaplains also assisted at the Explorer Graduation and Department Memorial Service with the invocation and prayer.
On five occasions we did not have a department chaplain available to respond to the request. On three of these occasions, the chaplain coordinator was able to locate other resources to respond in place of our department chaplains. The staffing level was a factor in not having a chaplain available to respond to requests.
2019 Goals
Recruitment continues to be a top priority for the program. We did add a new chaplain at the end of 2018 to bring our total number of chaplains to five. We also have two additional candidates that should be entering the background process soon. Our goal for 2019 is to continue to reach out to local churches and other chaplain programs to try to find interested applicants.
Training continues to be a priority for the program. All of our chaplains are members of the International Conference of Police Chaplains (ICPC). ICPC provides training and support for police chaplains worldwide. ICPC held a regional training in 2018 in Arizona. One of our chaplains was able to attend the training and provided very positive feedback. There may be a regional training this year in California which we will try to send additional chaplains to if approved.
We would also like to develop a training plan for new chaplains. This would be similar to the blocks that new officers complete in field training. This would ensure that all chaplains are properly trained to safely perform their duties.
Another goal for 2019 is to get the chaplains more exposure to the operations and personnel at the Department through ride-alongs and other activities at the station. This would give them familiarity with the issues facing our employees and help build a relationship with the employees to make them more comfortable if they ever need a chaplain’s services.
We would also like to schedule quarterly meeting in 2019. In the past we held monthly meetings, however, we had very poor attendance. We changed it to only have meetings as needed. With new chaplains coming into the program we feel it is important to have a regularly scheduled meeting again to provide training and address any questions or problems that may arise.