Arlington Police Department Looks Internally With Summer Mindfulness Instruction

Arlington TX

01 June, 2022

6:44 PM

Description

By Alexis Allison | Emily Wolf, Fort Worth Report May 31, 2022 A lot about policing has changed in the 12 years Aaron Oden has been with the Arlington Police Department. In that time, he's seen a rise in national scrutiny of police misconduct, increased oversight mechanisms and a shift in the way officers are expected to approach the job. "There's an arduous process to becoming a cop. … You are excited about coming into this job and naive," he said. "You wanna help people, catch bad guys, and you don't understand the impact of the things you're gonna see and potentially what you're gonna have to do." The stress of the job builds up. Without an appropriate release, it can be deadly. "You see the really bad interactions with police on social media … but 99% of the time, when that comes from a traffic stop, maybe they weren't wearing a seatbelt, you're seeing the tip of the iceberg," Oden said. "The seatbelt that day happened to be the straw that broke the camel's back." To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.