Deacon Robert A. Baker, Sr.

AREA - “I’m the faith aspect,” explained Deacon Robert Baker of his involvement with Cop2Cop, a statewide program designed to help law enforcement officers and their families cope with the grueling stresses of the job.

The program offers this slogan: “It takes courage to help others. It takes more courage to ask for help.” Cop2Cop is a 24-hour confidential hotline staffed by retired members of law enforcement and is the only program of its kind in the country—dedicated to suicide prevention, substance abuse counseling and mental health support for police officers.

These are “quiet” but widespread, serious problems confronted by the ranks of law enforcement; the unseen, real-world pressures of the job that typically are not written into the scripts of Hollywood action movies. Given the “macho” image of the profession, as well as the stigma placed on those suffering from depression or other mental health problems, it is a difficult leap of faith for many police officers—male or female—to come to terms with the stress that they face and seek help.

However, calling the hotline literally can be a matter of life and death. Cop2Cop has been instrumental in averting more than 40 suicides since becoming operational in New Jersey in November 2000. A startling, tragic law enforcement statistic indicates that, throughout the country, police officers are eight times more likely to commit suicide than to be killed in the line of duty—hence the urgent need for such a support network.

When an officer or family member dials 1-866-267-2267 (Cop2Cop), on the other end of the line will a former member of law enforcement as well as someone who is a licensed clinical social worker, known as a “Cop Clinician.” Each counselor is a trained mental health professional functioning as peer supporters.

Specific services include peer and clinical support, clinical assessments for mild or severe problems as determined by an experienced, professional counselor and referrals to a member of the Police Clinical Network Providers or a Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) team.

Deacon Baker works as a CISM member. Confidentiality, while ensuring the safety of everyone involved, is the cardinal rule of Cop2Cop. The director of Research and Planning and Capital Campaigns for the Archdiocese of Newark, Deacon Baker said he found his way to Cop2Cop through his brother Frank—a police sergeant—and the deacon’s two sons, who are all members of the Jersey City Police Department. Deacon Baker, who was ordained in 1999, has been chaplain of the Hudson County Sheriff’s Department the past four years.

He said being a deacon and working with the program has had an immense impact on his faith, primarily through providing a “deeper understanding” of his ministry. As a member of the clergy, he stresses, it is important to establish a “connection” with active police officers. Expanding his role in the program, Deacon Baker revealed he soon will start answering the hotline phones.

Quoting Deacon Edward Porter, retired director of the archdiocesan permanent diaconate, deacons bring the faithful “up to God.” Every time he vests, Deacon Baker said he realizes “how much I love my ministry.”

Margaret Young, a volunteer coordinator of Cop2Cop, said the staff includes two members with degrees in clinical psychology and three mental health specialists. In all, 40 retired officers provide initial peer support over the telephone.

A key to the procedure employed in the program is “communication,” Young said. Most of the time those who call “want a listening ear.” Issues most often raised by those who call in are stress, depression, domestic violence, marital difficulties, alcoholism and substance abuse.

Young describes the training as intensive, with suicide assessment as the primary focus. Cop2Cop, she said with evident pride, has been a “tremendous success.” In fact, Young continued, the program became “intimately involved” in offering its services to not only the law enforcement community, but to all first responders in the aftermath of 9/11. After the terrorist attacks, she noted, calls increased 300 percent.

Shelia Hobson, a retired lieutenant from the Homicide Department of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, is one of the mental health professionals who answer the phone. Underling the proven benefits of Cop2Cop, Hobson—a Baptist minister—also cites the very real mental health issues for police officers. It is important to always answer calmly, keeping in mind that the person who is calling is “reaching out.” When a call comes in, she continued, it is vital to engage the caller and “listen” to what is being said.

Hobson said that Cop2Cop is a situation in which someone is “not running away (from problems), but running to a source of help.” She explained that “law enforcement is the only profession in which you get up in the morning not knowing if you are coming back (home alive).”

Police officers believe they are always “in charge, but they are not,” she declared. Those who wear the badge are “always police officers. Law enforcement has its own culture.”

For example, she explained that retirement is especially tough for most police officers because “they have never known themselves as civilians.” In addition, those in law enforcement tend to “isolate themselves.” For many police officers, Hobson stressed, placing a call to Cop2Cop is “a big step.”

A caller does not necessarily receive a referral, she said, but noted that follow-up calls are made five days after initial contact. Since the program’s inception, added Hobson, some 17,000 calls have been received. The success rate, she says proudly, stands at a lofty 97 percent. That success is determined by feedback from callers in such areas as satisfaction with the service, if the referrals were utilized and whether the caller would recommend Cop2Cop to others.

Her religious training has helped tremendously. “God has helped me,” she said. “He has been my rock.

Louis Kleeman, a retired police officer with a quarter century of service, has been a volunteer peer consultant in the program for two years. “I understand the problems; I have lived them myself,” Kleeman confessed. He views Cop2Cop as “being there to lend a hand, having someone to talk to.” The program is funded through a grant from the New Jersey Department of Personnel under the direction of Commissioner Rolando Jones, Jr. and presented by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s Behavior Health Care unit.

Deacon Baker described law enforcement as a “really large family. It doesn’t matter what patch is on your sleeve. We are really brothers and sisters who are not separated by department.” He is proud of how he has been accepted as a chaplain and deacon among the ranks of law enforcement. He said those involved in the support program are “true heroes” for the police officers they serve.