November 17, 2025 • 24 mins
Behind every strong police department stands a support system that cares for those who protect and serve. For Cape Coral Police Department, that backbone includes our Chaplaincy program and Lead Chaplain Dennis Gingerich. Gingerich has dedicated nearly three decades to supporting Cape Coral Police officers through their darkest moments and greatest celebrations.
Chaplain Gingerich shares how he transitioned from founding Cape Christian to also becoming the department's longest-serving chaplain. With warmth and wisdom, he explains the delicate balance of providing spiritual support without imposing religious beliefs, emphasizing the chaplaincy program's commitment to confidentiality, non-judgment, and professional integrity. "We serve anyone and everyone," Gingerich explains, highlighting how chaplains create safe spaces for officers to process trauma, stress, and personal challenges.
The conversation unveils powerful stories of transformation, including an officer who was initially against a ride-along but eventually shared a deeply personal trauma about his brother's suicide—something he had never disclosed to anyone else. Through these intimate narratives, Gingerich demonstrates how chaplains help address both immediate trauma and the cumulative stress that builds throughout a law enforcement career. As one officer described it, police work is like "holding a paper sack and throwing rocks into it"—each traumatic event adds weight until something eventually breaks the bag.
The chaplaincy program represents an essential component of officer wellness, recognizing that effective policing requires attention to "body, soul, mind and spirit." Whether conducting ceremonies, responding to critical incidents, or simply being present during roll calls, chaplains like Gingerich, Dr. Don Neace, and Patrick Miller bring diverse life experiences that prepare them to support officers through whatever challenges arise.
Listen now to understand how spiritual care contributes to healthier officers and, ultimately, better community policing.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape Cop
cast.
I'm one of your hosts, PublicAffairs Officer Lisa Greenberg.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
And I'm Officer Mercedes Simons.
Together we make up the PublicAffairs Office, and today we
have a very special guest.
We do, indeed we have one ofour favorite chaplains.
I say one because we only havethree.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
We have three yeah three.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
This is Chaplain Dennis Gingrich.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
You're actually the head chaplain, correct?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yes, lead.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I think they say Lead , chaplain, we love that Tell us
a little bit about yourself forthe people that don't know.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Well, I've been around Cape Coral for 39 years,
plus over 39 years.
I was born and raised in Oregon, plus over 39 years.
I was born and raised in Oregon, got my college and seminary
education in Virginia and Ipastored for seven years in
upstate New York before movingto Cape Coral.
(00:56):
But I've been here since 1986,came here to start a church and
in 1996, came here to start achurch and in 1996, when Chief
Gibbs was the chief at that timehe had come from Miami where
they had chaplains in theirdepartment and he wanted to
(01:18):
start a chaplaincy program andso I was his pastor, pastor for
him and his family.
And so he said I want you tosubmit your application.
We're going to collectapplications.
And so I did.
I knew I wanted to do somethinglike that.
I had been a chaplain in a jailin New York for seven years when
(01:43):
I was there part-time, morevolunteer kind of basis, and I
found so much fulfillment inconnecting with the correction
officers, more so than I feltconnecting with the inmates.
I think that's probably verynatural, and I found lots of
connection there and I foundlots of connection there and so
(02:04):
when it came this opportunity, Ithought, yeah, I would enjoy
that.
I would really enjoy that.
In fact, maybe there was a partof me that said, if I had a
second career, maybe I'd be acop If I would be never
entertained that seriously.
But I always just enjoyed whatofficers and law enforcement did
(02:28):
.
So I said yes and threw my namein the hat.
That's awesome.
And there were five of uselected at that time in 1996.
And so I was one of five atthat point.
I'm the only one that remainsout of the original five.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And I'm still around.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yes, it's amazing, I still haven't gone anywhere.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I know we were just talking about how you're coming
up on 30 years here at thedepartment I am.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
This is just past the line of 29.
And so I'm in my 30th year, andit's been a wonderful 30 years
it really has.
I've enjoyed so many differentcomponents of it and parts of it
and been married 50 years nowas of last year.
It was 50 years and we've gotthree children and, interesting
(03:13):
enough, our oldest son works forthe Sanibel Police Department.
He's in IT.
Oh, I didn't know that he's inIT, but he works with the
forensic people but also withthe data analysis and all the
trends and all that kind ofstuff.
He does that part too.
One of our sons is a nurse andour daughter, who's the youngest
(03:33):
of the three, is a PA.
We've got five grandkids.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Wow, you're busy.
Yeah, so outside of your workhere and you also are at a
church.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Right, yeah, I started Cape Christian.
My wife and I moved here forthat purpose 39 years ago.
That's why we moved here toCape Coral.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So we have you, Dr Don Neese, and then we have
Patrick Miller as well, right,there's three of us and I think
it's important to recognize that, even though you come from a
Christian background, you arekind of like an all-faiths basis
on whatever people need.
So if somebody isn't,necessarily a Christian, they
can still come to you inwhatever capacity.
I think you all act as acounselor as well, which is
(04:14):
really cool.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Well, yeah, what they can expect from us as chaplains
and all of us are committed inthe same way is a non-judgmental
listening ear.
Number one Just absoluteconfidentiality.
That is like core to everythingthat we do, and always to act
with professionalism in allkinds of ways and just with
(04:37):
integrity.
I mean, I think that's what webuilt the chaplaincy on, we
can't have it any other way.
So that's the core foundationand that doesn't have any faith
boundaries, that doesn't haveany religious boundaries as to
who we serve.
We serve anyone and everyone,and people need a listening ear.
(05:02):
They need that.
They need confidentiality,somebody they can trust,
somebody they can, you know,share what's going on in their
lives or whatever Be personal,family, work-related, any number
of things.
We've kind of seen it all.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, so the three of you.
Basically, if someone needssomeone to turn to, whether it's
to pray with them, whether it'sjust to be listening ear, just
to bounce ideas off of, orwhatever it is, they can contact
you and you're available forthat.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Absolutely, absolutely.
You know we've over the yearsit's a lot of personal
connection and relationship,people reaching out.
There's a lot of that.
Sometimes there's call-outsthat come from the command staff
or the top of thecommunications department or
whatever In the case of maybe anofficer-involved shooting or an
(06:03):
officer injury or somethinglike that.
So you know we go to dohospital visits, we do whatever.
One of the big joys I've had isdoing quite a few officer
weddings here in the departmentover the years.
Over the years We've of coursehad the sad occasions to do
(06:30):
families or officer deaths anddo funerals and that sort of
thing.
But you know we're privilegedcommunicators, as Florida
statute has a place for that,for clergy as well as attorneys,
for sharing privilegedcommunication and so forth.
That then isn't going to getbrought into court or anything.
It's somebody that an officercan trust that it's not going to
(06:55):
come back to bite them laterwhat they've told them and just
to provide compassionate, caringas I said earlier, listening
ear.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
But for matters of stress, for matters of trauma,
and I know you guys always areinvolved in any kind of ceremony
that we do.
We do swearing-ins we dopromotionals, retirements, those
types of things.
You guys are involved and yousay a prayer for that person or
that group of people.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Right, more the formal, ceremonial type things.
Yes, we do that on a regularbasis here and sometimes we're
not as consistent always ingetting to roll calls and so on.
But sometimes we might pray forthe officers before they go out
on their shift at roll calls aswell.
(07:43):
That would be more the informal.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, that's really nice.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
You know, sometimes it's a family member that comes
to us reaching out.
We've had spouses, we've hadothers come to us and say hey,
we're experiencing somechallenges in our family, in our
home, can you be of help?
We've seen that Sometimes it'scommand staff who reaches out
(08:08):
and says we've got some officeryou know, we've got a specific
situation officer struggling intheir life, personally or in
something work-related ornon-work-related.
Could you reach out?
Would you reach out?
And so that's involved,everything from a phone call
(08:30):
kind of conversation, an offerto set up a meeting, or I've
been, it's been in situationswhere that I've come in and done
a ride-along with that officer,nice.
And I remember one occasion, anofficer that's long since
retired but I just remember.
You know he never, never wantedany ride-alongs to go with him
(08:54):
ever, and so I remember in factit was at the old station before
this building was built.
You know like he looked at mewhen we walked out of the car
and he was so upset that thecommand watch commander had
assigned him a ride along and hesaid did somebody put you up to
this?
And before we even got in thecar and I said yes, I said you
(09:18):
got people that care for you andI don't know what's going on in
your life.
Your commander did not tell mewhat's going on.
I just know he felt there was aneed in some way and I just want
you to know.
I'm riding along tonight.
I'm just available.
You don't have to tell mewhat's going on.
You don't have to talk to meabout it.
I'm not going to ask you anyquestions about it.
(09:41):
But if you want to talk to me,this is the time, because it's
you and I for the next six oreight hours and, interesting
enough, didn't talk about it forthe next six or eight hours,
you know.
And interesting enough, you know, didn't talk about it for the
first couple hours.
But then he started talkingabout it and telling me about it
.
And it does, you know, a familyconnection thing and a whole
(10:02):
bunch of stuff.
And you know that officerbecame one of my greatest
friends.
From that point on he wouldupdate me on the situation every
time I'd see him.
The guy who didn't want me inhis car would become one of the
ones who would just I don't knowwhat I said that was helpful to
him, gave him a differentperspective, listened to him,
(10:23):
helped him to think about acouple of things from a
different perspective.
Every time I saw him after heretired it was always the
warmest kind of greeting youcould ever imagine.
But it was all because asupervisor said you're going to
do this because this guy'sstruggling right now.
And they were concerned abouthim, so that's awesome though
(10:46):
it's proof that what you do isimportant.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I was going to ask you, you know, why is it so
important for a policedepartment like ours to have a
chaplaincy program?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Well, I think, lisa, it's really a part of the bigger
picture of the culture that wewant around here and the culture
that the chief is trying to topromote, of wholeness, wellness
and thinking about more thanjust the job, thinking about the
(11:18):
people that are serving inreally rather difficult
circumstances, oftentimesextremely difficult
circumstances and all the stressand trauma is way higher than
the average person that a policeofficer has to encounter and to
go through and so to care aboutthem as whole people, because
we are body, soul, mind andspirit.
(11:39):
We are all of those things andyou can't separate out one from
the other.
We try to sometimes think, oh,it's just a physical thing or
it's's just no, our emotions areconnected, everything's
(12:07):
connected to all of those things.
We are missing a significantpart of a whole well-balanced
police force and support staffand everyone else that is doing
well in all of their lives, notjust while they're here for 12
(12:31):
hours or eight hours or whateverit happens to be in their case,
and that's so very important.
And there's tons of scientificevidence that shows even the
spiritual part of life matters.
It matters Stress.
There's plenty of connectionsthat have been done, studies
(12:56):
that have been done by secularorganizations where prayer has
shown that there's a physicalresult in reduction of stress
and health and heart rates.
I mean there's stuff thatpeople that worship regularly,
go to a place of worship in someway or another actually live
(13:19):
longer.
They've done studies.
By the way they live, they havea longer, healthier life
because of all of the otherimplications that that brings
into their lives.
So there's lots of reasons toinclude the spiritual part of
someone who represents aspiritual community.
But we're more than that.
(13:39):
I mean I have an undergraduatedegree in social work as well
and we have some training incounseling and things like that
as a pastor as a part of ourmaster's program in preparing to
be a pastor, and so while I'mnot primarily a counselor at all
, I refer a lot of people tocounselors.
(13:59):
We're well trained in caring forpeople and that's really what
this is about.
Is our department caring forthe whole employee and all
people?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
We've definitely been a lot more focused on wellness,
and I can't think of a singleperson that their home life
doesn't affect their work ortheir work doesn't affect their
home.
I think you'd have to be asuperhuman.
Everything bleeds over, so beingable to take care of that from
every aspect, because we'retaught to be physically fit for
duty, but we also have aresponsibility to be mentally
(14:32):
fit for duty, and I think thatthere's a lot that plays into
that.
So we appreciate you being hereoffering that side of things,
to make sure that we're alsomentally taken care of as well,
and just knowing that, hey, I'mnot going to force anything on
you, but I'm here as a listeningear if you want it.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
You never know the stories, because officers and
people in this department havetheir own personal stories too,
and I'll just share one morestory.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Both of them retired a long time ago.
But I remember being called outin the middle of the night one
time by a supervisor.
Her words to me were she sayswe just had some officers
involved in a suicide or thatwere involved.
They were trying to stop asuicide and weren't successful
in stopping it.
And I told one of the officersthat was closest to the
(15:24):
situation.
I told him you're either goingto talk to one of our victims'
advocates before you go hometonight or a chaplain.
You have a choice of one of thetwo.
And he said I'll talk to a ofour victims advocates before you
go home tonight, or a chaplain.
One of the choice.
You have a choice, or one ofthe two.
And he said I'll talk to achaplain.
I responded 2 30 in the morningor whatever.
Ended up standing out in themiddle of as I recall it was the
median of uh, santa barbara attwo o'clock in the morning.
(15:46):
There was no traffic back inthose days and just listening to
him in that moment of he wastrying to get this situation
stopped.
So the guy didn't harm himself.
But what?
(16:08):
To this day?
The supervisor that's longretired since and that officer
is retired.
What the supervisor did notknow was that in that
conversation came out a storythat had never been told to
anyone, and the story was whenhe was 17, his 15-year-old
(16:29):
brother committed suicide and hewas home and he always felt
blamed for not stopping it andhe carried that weight the
entire time.
Well, that obviously carriedinto the trauma of this
situation of trying to stop thisone, but wasn't successful.
(16:52):
Yeah, and he never talked aboutthat.
That supervisor never knew that.
I never went confidentiality,never talked about it.
But I can just say how helpfulthat was for him to process that
and talk about that for thevery first time.
Yep, absolutely.
In his journey of healing forhis own personal trauma now kind
(17:16):
of being triggered again by awork-related situation.
You know for the next 10 yearsthat he was here until he
retired.
You know that was a specialconnection always and he talked
about a lot of other things inhis life in that process and
(17:40):
later was involved in an officer.
In his last year or two herewas an officer involved shooting
.
He was the first one to want totalk to me and spend time and
walking through what hadhappened that day and his whole
response to the situation andeverything.
And he was one of the firstones to do that because he knew
(18:01):
the value that he had createdjust by processing it with
somebody who listened in anonjudgmental way.
That's why we're here andthat's what motivates me to
spend 30 years doing this.
When I see that kind of helpingsomeone in that way, knowing
(18:21):
that I've been instrumental insome way to helping them to
resolve some things maybe thathad never been resolved in their
life.
That got triggered in a worksituation, yeah, but who would
have known Exactly?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That's so cool because there's so much research
now within police psychology.
They've done so much researchabout how if you put something
in a narrative framework afteran event, the sooner after an
event the better as far as youremotional response and trauma to
that event.
But you've been doing that foryears and helping people for
years.
So it's just really cool now,probably after a 30, almost
(18:56):
30-year-long career, to lookback and say, hey, we've kind of
been doing this for years andit's been working.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah, absolutely, and just what I've watched in that
time period too is thecumulative stress.
It's not a one-time trauma thatyou're dealing with, but you
can push those aside.
You keep on going and you keepon going and you keep on going,
but somewhere along the line itaccumulates to the point that
(19:25):
sometimes there's a breakingpoint and you don't even realize
what caused it.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
I had a sergeant at my old department and he had the
best metaphor for it.
He's like law enforcement islike you're holding a paper sack
and then you're best metaphorfor it.
He's like law enforcement islike you're you're, you're
holding a paper sack and thenyou're throwing rocks into it.
Each rock is like some sort oftraumatic event that you might
not think it might be a smallrock at the time, but over the
course of your career can canyour paper sack really hold all
those rocks?
So excellent.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
That's so true, and I think it's important for you
know if anyone within thatdepartment is watching or
listening, to know that they canalways come to you.
It's not too late.
It's never too late.
Take the time, Take theopportunity, because you know
you want to be able to get thesethings out before the bag
breaks.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
And that's the beautiful thing we all have life
experiences and as chaplains usthree chaplains also have great
life experiences that lenditself.
I mean, you know Dr Don Neeseis one of the chaplains.
He was also a long time insidea prison in Virginia as a
chaplain there.
He's got that side of the thing,but he's been a long time, long
(20:32):
time pastor and as pastorswe've seen it all and done it
all as well, and probably one ofthe best trainings for this job
I ever did was in seminary.
I went to New York City and wespent a morning in the New York
City morgue watching autopsiesand seeing how the morgue worked
(20:52):
and that was a part of one ofthe classes I took in seminary.
That's weird.
And seeing how the morgueworked and that was a part of
one of the classes I took inseminary, that's weird.
And I'm thinking like have thisdoctor do an autopsy in front
of our eyes and explain to uswhat was going on, and so on.
I thought, man, I can't everimagine I'd use this.
Well, the very first pastorthat I had, you know, when I had
(21:12):
a 19, 20-some-year-old brothercall me and tell me that his
sister was in an accident thenight before and he was being
asked to go to the morgue toidentify his 19-year-old sister,
I knew exactly what to do.
I knew exactly that I was goingto go with him to do that and I
knew exactly what to expectwhen I did that that makes sense
(21:35):
.
Or the times when I've been onscenes here.
I didn't know what to expect.
I kind of know what to expectand all of us, in some way or
another, have had that.
A pastor, a chaplain, patrickMiller, I mean.
He served 20 years as an ArmyRanger.
That was his career.
That's awesome.
His second career now is well,he's also a pastor but he's also
(22:02):
the ROTC for Lee.
County, one of the head peoplein the Lee County School
District Office, and that's hisbackground as both a pastor he
became a pastor during that timeof serving in the Army as a
career and so we all have lifeexperiences that have shaped us,
I think, to be excellentchaplains and we're not going to
be surprised by anything Peoplesometimes separate out on
(22:24):
pastor things like live in apristine little bubble of some
sort that has never beenimpacted by the rest of the
world.
But I know in our case andthat's what we look for in
chaplains we look for peoplewho've had real life experience
and real life boots on theground kind of experience to the
point that they're notsurprised or shocked by humanity
(22:46):
.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I think our departmentyou know you're an integral part
all of the chaplains and we'realso glad that you could come on
the podcast today and sit downwith us and help us kind of let
the community know what you guysdo.
Thank you so much for coming onto the Cape Cop cast and we
appreciate you and we'llhopefully see you soon at the
(23:06):
next swearing in, or I don'tknow, what's coming down the
pike but, that's probably thenext thing that we'll see.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah, I will be around.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
All right Sounds good , and thank you so much for
joining us today.
We will see you next time.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Thank you for listening to the Cape Copcast,
where we dive into the heart ofthe Cape Coral Police Department
safety initiatives, communityrelations and the insightful
stories of different officersthat make up our department.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Please like and share our podcast.
If you have feedback, you canemail capepdpao at capecoralgov.
And remember to follow us onsocial media.
Our handle is at Cape PD on allmajor platforms.
Stay safe, stay Cape.
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape Cop
cast.
I'm one of your hosts, PublicAffairs Officer Lisa Greenberg.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
And I'm Officer Mercedes Simons.
Together we make up the PublicAffairs Office, and today we
have a very special guest.
We do, indeed we have one ofour favorite chaplains.
I say one because we only havethree.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
We have three yeah three.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
This is Chaplain Dennis Gingrich.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
You're actually the head chaplain, correct?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yes, lead.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I think they say Lead , chaplain, we love that Tell us
a little bit about yourself forthe people that don't know.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Well, I've been around Cape Coral for 39 years,
plus over 39 years.
I was born and raised in Oregon, plus over 39 years.
I was born and raised in Oregon, got my college and seminary
education in Virginia and Ipastored for seven years in
upstate New York before movingto Cape Coral.
(00:56):
But I've been here since 1986,came here to start a church and
in 1996, came here to start achurch and in 1996, when Chief
Gibbs was the chief at that timehe had come from Miami where
they had chaplains in theirdepartment and he wanted to
(01:18):
start a chaplaincy program andso I was his pastor, pastor for
him and his family.
And so he said I want you tosubmit your application.
We're going to collectapplications.
And so I did.
I knew I wanted to do somethinglike that.
I had been a chaplain in a jailin New York for seven years when
(01:43):
I was there part-time, morevolunteer kind of basis, and I
found so much fulfillment inconnecting with the correction
officers, more so than I feltconnecting with the inmates.
I think that's probably verynatural, and I found lots of
connection there and I foundlots of connection there and so
(02:04):
when it came this opportunity, Ithought, yeah, I would enjoy
that.
I would really enjoy that.
In fact, maybe there was a partof me that said, if I had a
second career, maybe I'd be acop If I would be never
entertained that seriously.
But I always just enjoyed whatofficers and law enforcement did
(02:28):
.
So I said yes and threw my namein the hat.
That's awesome.
And there were five of uselected at that time in 1996.
And so I was one of five atthat point.
I'm the only one that remainsout of the original five.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And I'm still around.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yes, it's amazing, I still haven't gone anywhere.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I know we were just talking about how you're coming
up on 30 years here at thedepartment I am.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
This is just past the line of 29.
And so I'm in my 30th year, andit's been a wonderful 30 years
it really has.
I've enjoyed so many differentcomponents of it and parts of it
and been married 50 years nowas of last year.
It was 50 years and we've gotthree children and, interesting
(03:13):
enough, our oldest son works forthe Sanibel Police Department.
He's in IT.
Oh, I didn't know that he's inIT, but he works with the
forensic people but also withthe data analysis and all the
trends and all that kind ofstuff.
He does that part too.
One of our sons is a nurse andour daughter, who's the youngest
(03:33):
of the three, is a PA.
We've got five grandkids.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Wow, you're busy.
Yeah, so outside of your workhere and you also are at a
church.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Right, yeah, I started Cape Christian.
My wife and I moved here forthat purpose 39 years ago.
That's why we moved here toCape Coral.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So we have you, Dr Don Neese, and then we have
Patrick Miller as well, right,there's three of us and I think
it's important to recognize that, even though you come from a
Christian background, you arekind of like an all-faiths basis
on whatever people need.
So if somebody isn't,necessarily a Christian, they
can still come to you inwhatever capacity.
I think you all act as acounselor as well, which is
(04:14):
really cool.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Well, yeah, what they can expect from us as chaplains
and all of us are committed inthe same way is a non-judgmental
listening ear.
Number one Just absoluteconfidentiality.
That is like core to everythingthat we do, and always to act
with professionalism in allkinds of ways and just with
(04:37):
integrity.
I mean, I think that's what webuilt the chaplaincy on, we
can't have it any other way.
So that's the core foundationand that doesn't have any faith
boundaries, that doesn't haveany religious boundaries as to
who we serve.
We serve anyone and everyone,and people need a listening ear.
(05:02):
They need that.
They need confidentiality,somebody they can trust,
somebody they can, you know,share what's going on in their
lives or whatever Be personal,family, work-related, any number
of things.
We've kind of seen it all.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, so the three of you.
Basically, if someone needssomeone to turn to, whether it's
to pray with them, whether it'sjust to be listening ear, just
to bounce ideas off of, orwhatever it is, they can contact
you and you're available forthat.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Absolutely, absolutely.
You know we've over the yearsit's a lot of personal
connection and relationship,people reaching out.
There's a lot of that.
Sometimes there's call-outsthat come from the command staff
or the top of thecommunications department or
whatever In the case of maybe anofficer-involved shooting or an
(06:03):
officer injury or somethinglike that.
So you know we go to dohospital visits, we do whatever.
One of the big joys I've had isdoing quite a few officer
weddings here in the departmentover the years.
Over the years We've of coursehad the sad occasions to do
(06:30):
families or officer deaths anddo funerals and that sort of
thing.
But you know we're privilegedcommunicators, as Florida
statute has a place for that,for clergy as well as attorneys,
for sharing privilegedcommunication and so forth.
That then isn't going to getbrought into court or anything.
It's somebody that an officercan trust that it's not going to
(06:55):
come back to bite them laterwhat they've told them and just
to provide compassionate, caringas I said earlier, listening
ear.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
But for matters of stress, for matters of trauma,
and I know you guys always areinvolved in any kind of ceremony
that we do.
We do swearing-ins we dopromotionals, retirements, those
types of things.
You guys are involved and yousay a prayer for that person or
that group of people.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Right, more the formal, ceremonial type things.
Yes, we do that on a regularbasis here and sometimes we're
not as consistent always ingetting to roll calls and so on.
But sometimes we might pray forthe officers before they go out
on their shift at roll calls aswell.
(07:43):
That would be more the informal.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, that's really nice.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
You know, sometimes it's a family member that comes
to us reaching out.
We've had spouses, we've hadothers come to us and say hey,
we're experiencing somechallenges in our family, in our
home, can you be of help?
We've seen that Sometimes it'scommand staff who reaches out
(08:08):
and says we've got some officeryou know, we've got a specific
situation officer struggling intheir life, personally or in
something work-related ornon-work-related.
Could you reach out?
Would you reach out?
And so that's involved,everything from a phone call
(08:30):
kind of conversation, an offerto set up a meeting, or I've
been, it's been in situationswhere that I've come in and done
a ride-along with that officer,nice.
And I remember one occasion, anofficer that's long since
retired but I just remember.
You know he never, never wantedany ride-alongs to go with him
(08:54):
ever, and so I remember in factit was at the old station before
this building was built.
You know like he looked at mewhen we walked out of the car
and he was so upset that thecommand watch commander had
assigned him a ride along and hesaid did somebody put you up to
this?
And before we even got in thecar and I said yes, I said you
(09:18):
got people that care for you andI don't know what's going on in
your life.
Your commander did not tell mewhat's going on.
I just know he felt there was aneed in some way and I just want
you to know.
I'm riding along tonight.
I'm just available.
You don't have to tell mewhat's going on.
You don't have to talk to meabout it.
I'm not going to ask you anyquestions about it.
(09:41):
But if you want to talk to me,this is the time, because it's
you and I for the next six oreight hours and, interesting
enough, didn't talk about it forthe next six or eight hours,
you know.
And interesting enough, you know, didn't talk about it for the
first couple hours.
But then he started talkingabout it and telling me about it
.
And it does, you know, a familyconnection thing and a whole
(10:02):
bunch of stuff.
And you know that officerbecame one of my greatest
friends.
From that point on he wouldupdate me on the situation every
time I'd see him.
The guy who didn't want me inhis car would become one of the
ones who would just I don't knowwhat I said that was helpful to
him, gave him a differentperspective, listened to him,
(10:23):
helped him to think about acouple of things from a
different perspective.
Every time I saw him after heretired it was always the
warmest kind of greeting youcould ever imagine.
But it was all because asupervisor said you're going to
do this because this guy'sstruggling right now.
And they were concerned abouthim, so that's awesome though
(10:46):
it's proof that what you do isimportant.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I was going to ask you, you know, why is it so
important for a policedepartment like ours to have a
chaplaincy program?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Well, I think, lisa, it's really a part of the bigger
picture of the culture that wewant around here and the culture
that the chief is trying to topromote, of wholeness, wellness
and thinking about more thanjust the job, thinking about the
(11:18):
people that are serving inreally rather difficult
circumstances, oftentimesextremely difficult
circumstances and all the stressand trauma is way higher than
the average person that a policeofficer has to encounter and to
go through and so to care aboutthem as whole people, because
we are body, soul, mind andspirit.
(11:39):
We are all of those things andyou can't separate out one from
the other.
We try to sometimes think, oh,it's just a physical thing or
it's's just no, our emotions areconnected, everything's
(12:07):
connected to all of those things.
We are missing a significantpart of a whole well-balanced
police force and support staffand everyone else that is doing
well in all of their lives, notjust while they're here for 12
(12:31):
hours or eight hours or whateverit happens to be in their case,
and that's so very important.
And there's tons of scientificevidence that shows even the
spiritual part of life matters.
It matters Stress.
There's plenty of connectionsthat have been done, studies
(12:56):
that have been done by secularorganizations where prayer has
shown that there's a physicalresult in reduction of stress
and health and heart rates.
I mean there's stuff thatpeople that worship regularly,
go to a place of worship in someway or another actually live
(13:19):
longer.
They've done studies.
By the way they live, they havea longer, healthier life
because of all of the otherimplications that that brings
into their lives.
So there's lots of reasons toinclude the spiritual part of
someone who represents aspiritual community.
But we're more than that.
(13:39):
I mean I have an undergraduatedegree in social work as well
and we have some training incounseling and things like that
as a pastor as a part of ourmaster's program in preparing to
be a pastor, and so while I'mnot primarily a counselor at all
, I refer a lot of people tocounselors.
(13:59):
We're well trained in caring forpeople and that's really what
this is about.
Is our department caring forthe whole employee and all
people?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
We've definitely been a lot more focused on wellness,
and I can't think of a singleperson that their home life
doesn't affect their work ortheir work doesn't affect their
home.
I think you'd have to be asuperhuman.
Everything bleeds over, so beingable to take care of that from
every aspect, because we'retaught to be physically fit for
duty, but we also have aresponsibility to be mentally
(14:32):
fit for duty, and I think thatthere's a lot that plays into
that.
So we appreciate you being hereoffering that side of things,
to make sure that we're alsomentally taken care of as well,
and just knowing that, hey, I'mnot going to force anything on
you, but I'm here as a listeningear if you want it.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
You never know the stories, because officers and
people in this department havetheir own personal stories too,
and I'll just share one morestory.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Both of them retired a long time ago.
But I remember being called outin the middle of the night one
time by a supervisor.
Her words to me were she sayswe just had some officers
involved in a suicide or thatwere involved.
They were trying to stop asuicide and weren't successful
in stopping it.
And I told one of the officersthat was closest to the
(15:24):
situation.
I told him you're either goingto talk to one of our victims'
advocates before you go hometonight or a chaplain.
You have a choice of one of thetwo.
And he said I'll talk to a ofour victims advocates before you
go home tonight, or a chaplain.
One of the choice.
You have a choice, or one ofthe two.
And he said I'll talk to achaplain.
I responded 2 30 in the morningor whatever.
Ended up standing out in themiddle of as I recall it was the
median of uh, santa barbara attwo o'clock in the morning.
(15:46):
There was no traffic back inthose days and just listening to
him in that moment of he wastrying to get this situation
stopped.
So the guy didn't harm himself.
But what?
(16:08):
To this day?
The supervisor that's longretired since and that officer
is retired.
What the supervisor did notknow was that in that
conversation came out a storythat had never been told to
anyone, and the story was whenhe was 17, his 15-year-old
(16:29):
brother committed suicide and hewas home and he always felt
blamed for not stopping it andhe carried that weight the
entire time.
Well, that obviously carriedinto the trauma of this
situation of trying to stop thisone, but wasn't successful.
(16:52):
Yeah, and he never talked aboutthat.
That supervisor never knew that.
I never went confidentiality,never talked about it.
But I can just say how helpfulthat was for him to process that
and talk about that for thevery first time.
Yep, absolutely.
In his journey of healing forhis own personal trauma now kind
(17:16):
of being triggered again by awork-related situation.
You know for the next 10 yearsthat he was here until he
retired.
You know that was a specialconnection always and he talked
about a lot of other things inhis life in that process and
(17:40):
later was involved in an officer.
In his last year or two herewas an officer involved shooting
.
He was the first one to want totalk to me and spend time and
walking through what hadhappened that day and his whole
response to the situation andeverything.
And he was one of the firstones to do that because he knew
(18:01):
the value that he had createdjust by processing it with
somebody who listened in anonjudgmental way.
That's why we're here andthat's what motivates me to
spend 30 years doing this.
When I see that kind of helpingsomeone in that way, knowing
(18:21):
that I've been instrumental insome way to helping them to
resolve some things maybe thathad never been resolved in their
life.
That got triggered in a worksituation, yeah, but who would
have known Exactly?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That's so cool because there's so much research
now within police psychology.
They've done so much researchabout how if you put something
in a narrative framework afteran event, the sooner after an
event the better as far as youremotional response and trauma to
that event.
But you've been doing that foryears and helping people for
years.
So it's just really cool now,probably after a 30, almost
(18:56):
30-year-long career, to lookback and say, hey, we've kind of
been doing this for years andit's been working.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah, absolutely, and just what I've watched in that
time period too is thecumulative stress.
It's not a one-time trauma thatyou're dealing with, but you
can push those aside.
You keep on going and you keepon going and you keep on going,
but somewhere along the line itaccumulates to the point that
(19:25):
sometimes there's a breakingpoint and you don't even realize
what caused it.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
I had a sergeant at my old department and he had the
best metaphor for it.
He's like law enforcement islike you're holding a paper sack
and then you're best metaphorfor it.
He's like law enforcement islike you're you're, you're
holding a paper sack and thenyou're throwing rocks into it.
Each rock is like some sort oftraumatic event that you might
not think it might be a smallrock at the time, but over the
course of your career can canyour paper sack really hold all
those rocks?
So excellent.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
That's so true, and I think it's important for you
know if anyone within thatdepartment is watching or
listening, to know that they canalways come to you.
It's not too late.
It's never too late.
Take the time, Take theopportunity, because you know
you want to be able to get thesethings out before the bag
breaks.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
And that's the beautiful thing we all have life
experiences and as chaplains usthree chaplains also have great
life experiences that lenditself.
I mean, you know Dr Don Neeseis one of the chaplains.
He was also a long time insidea prison in Virginia as a
chaplain there.
He's got that side of the thing,but he's been a long time, long
(20:32):
time pastor and as pastorswe've seen it all and done it
all as well, and probably one ofthe best trainings for this job
I ever did was in seminary.
I went to New York City and wespent a morning in the New York
City morgue watching autopsiesand seeing how the morgue worked
(20:52):
and that was a part of one ofthe classes I took in seminary.
That's weird.
And seeing how the morgueworked and that was a part of
one of the classes I took inseminary, that's weird.
And I'm thinking like have thisdoctor do an autopsy in front
of our eyes and explain to uswhat was going on, and so on.
I thought, man, I can't everimagine I'd use this.
Well, the very first pastorthat I had, you know, when I had
(21:12):
a 19, 20-some-year-old brothercall me and tell me that his
sister was in an accident thenight before and he was being
asked to go to the morgue toidentify his 19-year-old sister,
I knew exactly what to do.
I knew exactly that I was goingto go with him to do that and I
knew exactly what to expectwhen I did that that makes sense
(21:35):
.
Or the times when I've been onscenes here.
I didn't know what to expect.
I kind of know what to expectand all of us, in some way or
another, have had that.
A pastor, a chaplain, patrickMiller, I mean.
He served 20 years as an ArmyRanger.
That was his career.
That's awesome.
His second career now is well,he's also a pastor but he's also
(22:02):
the ROTC for Lee.
County, one of the head peoplein the Lee County School
District Office, and that's hisbackground as both a pastor he
became a pastor during that timeof serving in the Army as a
career and so we all have lifeexperiences that have shaped us,
I think, to be excellentchaplains and we're not going to
be surprised by anything Peoplesometimes separate out on
(22:24):
pastor things like live in apristine little bubble of some
sort that has never beenimpacted by the rest of the
world.
But I know in our case andthat's what we look for in
chaplains we look for peoplewho've had real life experience
and real life boots on theground kind of experience to the
point that they're notsurprised or shocked by humanity
(22:46):
.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I think our departmentyou know you're an integral part
all of the chaplains and we'realso glad that you could come on
the podcast today and sit downwith us and help us kind of let
the community know what you guysdo.
Thank you so much for coming onto the Cape Cop cast and we
appreciate you and we'llhopefully see you soon at the
(23:06):
next swearing in, or I don'tknow, what's coming down the
pike but, that's probably thenext thing that we'll see.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah, I will be around.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
All right Sounds good , and thank you so much for
joining us today.
We will see you next time.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Thank you for listening to the Cape Copcast,
where we dive into the heart ofthe Cape Coral Police Department
safety initiatives, communityrelations and the insightful
stories of different officersthat make up our department.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Please like and share our podcast.
If you have feedback, you canemail capepdpao at capecoralgov.
And remember to follow us onsocial media.
Our handle is at Cape PD on allmajor platforms.
Stay safe, stay Cape.
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