Enhance Leadership

Enhance Leadership, Wellness and Training Within the NYPD

The Police Foundation sponsors a variety of professional development opportunities and scholarships across the Department. At the request of the NYPD Office of Professional Development, the Police Foundation sponsored the creation of The Commanders College, a two-week training program for commanders as they take on leadership positions within the Department. The training focuses on financial management, public speaking, human resources management, leadership essentials and wellness. From leveraging technology to fight crime & improve the working conditions for our officers, to strengthening the relationship between our precincts and the communities they serve, Commanding Officers take on a tremendous responsibility.

Project ABLE (Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement) trains first responders in intervening when necessary to prevent their colleagues from causing harm or making costly mistakes. ABLE aims to create a police culture in which officers routinely intervene to prevent misconduct, avoid police mistakes, and promote officer health and wellness.

Members of the NYPD must navigate a wide range of stressors in a constantly changing, fast-paced environment with evolving external influences, such as legislation and changes in public support, that further compound these stressors. To address these issues, the NYPD has been providing prevention and response-based resiliency services that support the mental, emotional, and physical health of its workforce, along with reviewing, maintaining, and enhancing facilities and asset management across the Department.  Through its Precinct Enhancement Fund, the New York City Police Foundation partners with the NYPD Facilities Management Division to meet the requests and needs of the Department as it improves its facilities throughout the city, including 77 Precincts, 9 Housing Areas, and 12 Transit Districts, and specialized commands city-wide.

The Police Foundation also supports the NYPD Employee Assistance Unit Health & Wellness Section, which utilizes the department’s first-of-its kind emotional support canines, helping to break down traditional mental health stigmas and assisting members of the service in times of need. Specially trained to detect human stress levels and helping to calm those undergoing duress, these dogs are brought to critical incidents, training sessions and therapeutic sessions to support members of the Department in need.

Finest Care, a partnership between the NYPD and New York-Presbyterian Hospital to connect all uniformed service members with free, confidential counseling and other mental health services, was launched with the Foundation’s support in 2019. The program stemmed from the success of Project COPE, which provided free mental health services for all NYPD employees immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Foundation funded a groundbreaking video and training curriculum about depression and police suicides called “By Their Own Hand” in 1989, which remains relevant today. The video received national attention from law enforcement agencies. The research and evaluation was conducted by an independent investigator from Columbia University.

• During the Coronavirus pandemic, the Police Foundation provided PPE including more than 800,000 masks, 200,000 pairs of gloves, 180,000 containers of hand sanitizer, and 3,600 meals to officers, as well as more than 8,000 hotel room nights to officers needing to isolate.
• The Police Foundation sponsors continuing education and scholarships for members of the NYPD through the Department’s Office of Professional Development, to enhance leadership and to provide opportunities for continued learning and professional growth.
• The Foundation launched an NYPD Families Hardship Fund in 2017 for the emergency benefit of family members of NYPD officers wounded in the line of duty.
• The Foundation established a Hurricane Sandy Hardship Fund to provide relief grants to NYPD personnel and for the benefit of the Department in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
• When the NYPD established the Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Foundation hired a consultant to design a strategic action plan for the office to help its mission of promoting a fair, safe, inclusive, and accommodating work environment for all members of the Department.
• In an effort to enhance the NYPD’s proficiency and capacity to investigate sexual assault cases, the Foundation is funding a detailed assessment of the NYPD Special Victims Division‘s processes and procedures for investigating and prosecuting such cases.
• Since 2001, the Foundation has sponsored the annual NYPD Women in Policing Conference to offer information, along with keynote speakers, to enhance women’s professional and personal lives. The audience has grown over the years to more than 1,600 women.
• In 2019, the Police Foundation sponsored a mental health consultant to provide clinicians and crisis counselors at roll call training alongside the NYPD Employee Assistance Unit, Department Chaplains and Precinct Commanders.