Glimpse: To Pause & Protect

A peek at Mindful's October feature about a groundbreaking mindfulness program being taught to Oregon police officers.

Photograph by Mark Mahaney

We wanted to do a story on a mindfulness program being offered to members of the Hillsboro Police Department in Oregon—the first of its kind. It’s designed to teach mindfulness techniques so that officers not only cope better with the myriad stresses of their jobs, but are better able to serve their communities, with greater awareness and empathy.

What our writer, Pulitzer prize-winning Seattle Times reporter Maureen O’Hagan didn’t expect was how recent events made the department more open to talking about stress and taking an out-of-the-box approach to dealing with it.

“Basically, the department hit rock bottom,” says O’Hagan, pointing to an incident involving a veteran officer who faced off against the rest of the police force last January. It left the team shaken, and the current police chief dedicated to finding new approaches to supporting the men and women in the department.

For more than just this Glimpse: