Bluefield, West Virginia – Two local law enforcement agencies took time to address their emotional well-being.
Mountain State Educational Cooperative Services provided specialized training for officers from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department and the Bluefield, West Virginia Police Department.
These trainings taught officers more about self-management, social awareness, self-awareness, and relationship management. They were taught 66 different strategies to help them in the line of duty, divided into four categories.
Errol Randle is the strategic law enforcement director at Mountain State Educational Cooperative Services. He was previously a law enforcement officer and described these trainings as monumental.
“It’s great to come to a police department that wants to get and ensure that their officers are healthy. What that tells me is that it fosters a great culture, and when you have a great culture, the level of effectiveness and service that they provide is also high,” Randle explained.
“When you talk to the community, you learn about all of the biases that people have and the way they think, and in general, people are becoming more perceptive of law enforcement as a whole, and they realize we are not just there to lock them up. “We are there to help them in a variety of situations,” said Lieutenant Kenneth Adams of the Bluefield, West Virginia Police Department.
Randle told 59News that West Virginia is the first state in the country to provide services to educate law enforcement about emotions. MSECS is made possible by funding from former U.S. Senator Joe Manchin’s office.
