Awards Ceremony

The Destination Zero Officer Safety and Wellness Conference

The Destination Zero Officer Safety and Wellness Conference is an annual gathering of law enforcement officials who are dedicated to improving the safety and wellness of their employees.

This year’s event will be held virtually from the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C., on October 15, 2021, beginning at 9 a.m. ET. The conference will feature topics on OSW initiatives like Cardiac Wellness, Suicide Prevention, and Officer Traffic Safety. You will also meet national award winners and hear from the experts on where officer safety and wellness is headed in 2021.

The Destination Zero Officer Safety and Wellness Conference, the annual gathering of law enforcement officials who are dedicated to improving the safety and wellness of their employees, was held virtually from the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C. on October 15th, 2021, beginning at 9 am EST. This year’s conference featured topics on OSW initiatives like Cardiac Wellness, Suicide Prevention and Officer Traffic Safety. The virtual conference was livestreamed.

Watch Sessions One through Six

Play Video
Speakers:
  • Marcia Ferranto, CEO, National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum
  • Gabe Esposito, Director, Corporate Securities, Verizon
  • Maylon Carroll, Channel Manager of Government Sales, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
  • John Matthews, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Initiatives, National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum

Session One:

Cardiac Wellness and Proper Health Screenings for Law Enforcement

Speakers:

  • Dr. Benjamin Stone, PHD, Chief Executive Officer, Sigma Tactical Wellness
  • Dr. Jon Sheinberg, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Sigma Tactical Wellness

About:
The Sigma Tactical Wellness team has successfully screened and diagnosed cardiac risk factors for over 6,000 officers and has saved lives by identifying the problem before it is too late. They’ve pioneered a novel system of cardiometabolic screening which incorporates advanced cardiovascular biomarker detection, cardiac imaging, and cardiopulmonary exercise testing to identify coronary disease. Dr. Stone will discuss the law-enforcement-specific screenings they hold, trends they’re seeing around the country, and why law enforcement professionals are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease than the general public.

Session Two:

Improving Wellness and Resiliency

Speakers:

  • Vernon Herron, Director of Officer Safety & Wellness, Baltimore City (MD) Police Department
  • Sheriff Brian Gardner, Linn County (IA) Sheriff’s Office

About:
Representing the Baltimore City Maryland Police Department, Officer Safety and Wellness Director Vernon Herron will share his law enforcement background and journey as a law enforcement executive in officer safety and wellness. The Director will also address his agency’s accomplishments in keeping officers on-the-job while maintaining confidentiality and enhancing resiliency. Following Director Herron, we will have a special presentation on Covid Mitigation strategies for Law Enforcement Executives from Sheriff Brian Gardner, the 2020 Destination Zero National Officer Safety and Wellness winner in the Comprehensive Safety category. Sheriff Gardner will walk us through all the actions he took to protect his officers, staff, and inmates during pandemic.

Session Three:

Comprehensive Officer Safety

Speakers:

  • Sheriff Brian Gardner, Linn County (IA) Sheriff’s Office
  • Chief William Balling, Sidney (OH) Police Department

About:
Sheriff Brian Gardner of the Linn County (IA) Sheriff’s Office and Chief William Balling of the Sidney (OH) Police Department are both previous Destination Zero National Officer Safety and Wellness Award winners in Comprehensive Officer Safety. The Chief and Sheriff will present on the initiatives they’ve undertaken at their respective agencies and the successes found. In addition, they will offer strategies for other agencies on how to pursue a culture of safety even within budgetary constraints. Sheriff Brian Gardner has implemented successful a wide array of general, traffic, pandemic preparedness and wellness programs of safety to ensure the health and safety of his officers and staff. Following the sheriff, we’ll get a chance to hear from Chief Will Balling of the Sydney, Ohio Police Department on how he’s created a culture of safety at his agency, briefing each new officer on the stressors of a career in law enforcement.

Session Four:

SAFLEO and Suicide Awareness for Law Enforcement

Session Sponsor:   Starbucks

Speakers:

  • Cheryl Steele, Vice President of Global Security & Resiliency, Starbucks Coffee Company
  • Brandon Post, Retired Captain & Senior Research Associate, Institute for Intergovernmental Research
  • John Bouthillette, Retired Chief & Senior Research Associate, Institute for Intergovernmental Research
  • Vince Davenport, Associate Deputy Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance

About:
Representatives from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the SAFLEO Program will introduce the program to our attendees and present many of the key points in suicide prevention. They will touch on how officer’s lifestyles and work life can contribute to a cycle of despair that leads to suicidal ideation and how to recognize those signs. The mental and physical wellness of our law enforcement officers is paramount. The law enforcement community deserves better access to officer wellness and suicide prevention resources to help address their well-being. The National Suicide Awareness for Law Enforcement Officers (SAFLEO) Program, supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, answers that need. SAFLEO offers training, customized technical assistance, and online resources designed to help officers engage in help-seeking activities and for agencies to implement wellness and suicide prevention strategies.

Session Five:

Officer Traffic Safety

Speakers:

  • Maylon Carroll, Channel Manager of Government Sales, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
  • Lieutenant James Preston, Harris County (TX) Constable’s Office Precinct #5
  • Nick Breul, Senior Program Manager, Destination Zero

About:
Lieutenant James Preston, of the Harris County Constable’s Office, Precinct Number Five – a 2021 Destination Zero National Officer Safety and Wellness Officer Traffic Safety Award Winner – will tell us what changes they made to achieve an eighty-nine percent decrease in crashes on Priority One calls over two years while enhancing safety and accountability. Then we’ll hear from Destination Zero Senior Program Manager and retired lieutenant, Nick Breul, about current year officer traffic safety fatalities compared with previous years and the resources that the National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum (NLEMM) offers through our Partnership for Traffic Safety with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Session Six:

Seven Years of Destination Zero

Speakers:

  • Chief Thomas Manger, United States Capitol Police
  • Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald, Story County (IA) Sheriff’s Office
  • Stacia Hylton, Director of the US Marshal Service (Ret.)
  • John Matthews, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Initiatives, National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum

About:
Three esteemed members of the Destination Zero Selection Committee will share the history of Destination Zero from 2014 to now. The Selection Committee is made up of current and former distinguished local, state, and federal law enforcement executives. Paul Fitzgerald, Story County (IA) Sheriff, Retired Director of the Us Marshal Service, Stacia Hylton, and Chief of the United States Capitol Police, Thomas Manger will discuss the direction they’ve seen officer safety and wellness take in the past 7 years. They’ll highlight agencies that have submitted innovative programs – ranging from rural departments with only a dozen sworn officers to major metropolitan police forces with thousands and everything in between. As the concepts of officer safety and wellness have begun to become more widely accessible over the years, the Selection Committee has started to see an uptick in the competitiveness of each category and will share where they think the direction of the next year of award-winning programs will go.

Watch 2021 Awards Presentation

Play Video
Speakers:
  • John Matthews, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Initiatives, National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum
  • Greg Cappetta, Manager of Public Safety Outreach, Verizon
  • Chief Bill Partridge, Oxford (AL) Police Department
  • Chief Doug Woodard, West Carrolton (OH) Police Department
  • Deputy Chief Tonya Arrington, Charlotte-Mecklenburg (NC) Police Department
  • Constable Ted Heap, Harris County (TX) Constable’s Office Precinct #5

About:
Watch as the 2021 Destination Zero National Officer Safety and Wellness Awards are given out to four agencies that have proven themselves to be proactive in maintaining the health and safety of their officers. We offer awards in four categories each year: General Officer Safety, Officer Traffic Safety, Comprehensive Safety and Wellness.
We would like to extend congratulations to this year’s winners:

  • General Officer Safety – West Carrolton (OH) Police Department
  • Officer Traffic Safety – Harris County (TX) Constable’s Office Precinct #5
  • Officer Wellness – Charlotte-Mecklenburg (NC) Police Department
  • Comprehensive Safety – Oxford (AL) Police Department

In addition to our four winners, we’d like to acknowledge the 8 finalist agencies we had this year:

  • Fort Smith (AR)Police Department
  • Sioux City (IA) Police Department
  • La Mesa (CA) Police Department
  • McHenry County (IL) Conservation District Police Department
  • Norfolk (VA) Police Department
  • Montgomery (TX) Police Department
  • National Institutes of Health Police Department, Maryland
    Miami Beach, Florida, Police Department
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