In 2021, the Tucson, Arizona, Police Department lost two members to suicide within months of each other. One was a young, well-liked patrol officer who had been present during an officer-involved shooting. The second was a respected 15-year veteran sergeant with two children and deep roots in the department. Both had rucksacks full of unprocessed trauma. Both suffered in silence.

These losses forced a reckoning: despite the agency’s stated commitment to its people, it had failed to create an environment where they could be well. The Tucson Police Department had a Behavioral Sciences Unit, a mental health support team, and a dedicated department psychologist. It wasn’t enough. The hard truth is that individuals cannot thrive in an unwell culture, and cultures cannot be well when their leaders are not.

Finding the Right Partner

In early 2022, the authors met at Boulder Crest, Arizona, during a two-day leadership program. Tucson Chief Chad Kasmar was searching for answers after the devastation of losing two members of the department. Boulder Crest Chief Executive Officer Josh Goldberg was leading an organization that had spent over a decade developing a fundamentally different approach to trauma—one grounded not in pathology but in the possibility of growth.

It was immediately clear that this was a partnership worth nurturing. They shared a conviction that the prevailing narrative around trauma in public safety had been catastrophically wrong. An entire generation of officers had been convinced that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was the inevitable price of service and that if they did this job long enough, they would become damaged and diminished. There had to be another way.

Over the past four years, Kasmar and Goldberg have partnered to spread the word to leaders about three things: the importance of being well to lead well, the necessity of leading from the front when it comes to vulnerability, and the recognition that leaders need to train their officers in how to navigate struggles.

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