The Law Enforcement Chaplain Training Program, offered by the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, is in response to the growing need for emotional and spiritual care among law enforcement officers.
Through all types of natural and manmade disasters, first responders, who are held to high standards of physical, social and mental fitness, are always there for the community.
But who is there for first responders? In response to the growing need for emotional and spiritual care to law enforcement officers, Billy Graham’s Rapid Response Team Ministry (BG-RRT) has developed a four-day/32-hour Law Enforcement Chaplain Training Program (LECTP) to train citizens, typically former officers, to become chaplains, who can be deployed where they’re needed to provide spiritual guidance, pastoral counseling and offer stabilizing support during critical times involving grief and loss.
The Plant City Police Department (PCPD) hosted a training program for 19 participants last week. The department knows first-hand how beneficial chaplains can be during times of crisis. A team was deployed to Plant City in December 2018 after Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Terry Strawn shot and killed his wife, daughter and six-year-old granddaughter before killing himself in front of three deputies in close proximity to Plant City High School.
Billy Graham Law Enforcement Ministry Manager David Rutledge said that’s exactly the type of situation the chaplains are prepared to help officers cope with traumatic events. “It goes beyond challenges to your faith,” he said. Rutledge, a former police officer who worked homicides for a significant portion of his 30-year career. “For me it wasn’t a single incident but years of absorbing other people’s pain and trauma and that sticks with you the rest of your life,” said Rutledge. After he retired and didn’t have a daily workload of calls and cases, the years of pigeonholing his emotions brought an onslaught of feelings, which he said can manifest in a myriad of ways, from high blood pressure to substance abuse to suicidal thoughts.
He said chaplains are deployed immediately following traumatic events to help officers deal with their emotions. “Studies show that if there’s a traumatic incident and you get officers talking about it as soon as it happens that can help and officers are more apt to open up to other officers,” he said. “We’re teaching the ministry of presence, simply to be there and listen.”
He recalls getting a call around lunchtime about an officer death in South Carolina. By dinner, he had four chaplains deployed to the small community, where they set up a room where officers could talk about what had happened, had ride-alongs with deputies during shifts, attended the memorial service and were available afterwards to talk and took the deputies who worked shift with the fallen officer and their wives out to dinner. “There’s no easy fix in that situation but it’s amazing how just listening to people provides comfort,” said Rutledge.
The BG-RRT began in 2001 when Franklin Graham was in New York after the 9/11 terrorist attack. He received a vision of a core of crisis-trained volunteer chaplains that could be deployed at a moment’s notice. There are now more than 2,200 volunteer chaplains throughout the world. The LECTP program was started in 2014, when Graham’s leadership team wanted to find ways to better support law enforcement.
PCPD Chief Bradford’s wife, Susan Bradford, became a crisis-trained chaplain two years ago after retiring from Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. “There were shifts where I went from death to death to death and those are things you don’t forget,” she said. “I had some anger come out just from the accumulation of it all but by the grace of God I was able to correct it with the Lord’s help.” Bradford credits her personal relationship with Jesus Christ as a key component to coping with grief and loss associated with her duties as a law enforcement officer.
She’s been deployed as a chaplain to two different grief events, both involving the death of an officer. “It seems to help to have someone there to pray with them and be there to listen,” she said. This weekend she’s going to Englewood to work alongside people who are still, months after Hurricane Ian, mucking out homes. Her reward for the service isn’t a paycheck. “My fulfillment is seeing God work miracles,” she said.
Course attendees received a BG-RRT LECTP certificate upon completion of the training. While completion of the LECTP meets some of the requirements for BG-RRT chaplaincy, an approved application along with further training is required in order to deploy as a BG-RRT chaplain.
The next LECTP will be offered Feb. 6 – 9 at Florida International University Police Department in Miami. Registration is free but students pay for transportation, lodging and meals. For more information or to register for the program visit www.billygraham.org.
