Vol. 7 No. 1 Cheyenne (Jarvis) Jones • 15 impact on the officers’ functioning and confidence while undercover. This data should be collected through anonymous surveys sent out on a six-month or annual basis. It should also be noted that for maximum effectiveness, every officer who participated in the new training program(s) should be required to fill out these surveys. The retrieved data should be analyzed to determine if there are any additional changes that need to be made to the program, whether in duration or content. The second and third proposed solutions correspond to the issue of negative psychological effects following undercover operations: police departments and agencies nationwide should begin to specifically target the stigma in law enforcement professions relating to undercover police operations, and policy improvements should be made in order to make an array of mental health services available to officers. Addressing the mental health stigma within law enforcement environments is a crucial step toward providing aid to undercover officers struggling with the effects of their operation. With this powerful stigma still at play, even if the resources are made available, many officers would not take advantage of themout of shame or fear of discovery. In order for departments and agencies to begin to address this stigma, they must target it directly from the top down. Much of the process of deteriorating stigma revolves around transparency. Those in leadership roles within the law enforcement agency must begin the conversation about mental health to open the door for those under them to feel comfortable speaking about their own struggles. Second, policy improvements should be made in order to make an array of mental health services available to officers 1) prior to the start of the operation and 2) upon returning from the undercover operation. The United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) has already begun this process and has collected case studies to demonstrate what is effective and what is not. This process began with the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act of 2017. Through the case studies, the USDOJ has determined the following to be promising departmental adjustments regarding mental health: leadership support from the top down, hosting wellness programs while officers are on-duty to encourage participation and accessibility, providing mental health referrals for therapy outside of the department to promote honesty and openness, open feedback throughout the department, involving retired officers in mental health programming, and using mental health and wellness programs to address officers’ personal needs and challenges (Copple et. al., 2019). These suggestions are just a few examples of how departments can implement changes that effectively benefit the mental health of their officers. While these solutions are geared toward an entire department or agency, implementing such changes will positively impact both traditional and undercover officers. The final proposed solution relates to the reintegration complications that many officers face upon their termination from an undercover operation:
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=