MILWAUKEE — The overnight death of a Milwaukee police officer sent shockwaves through departments across the area.
Many first responders embraced one another and paid their respects outside the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office. Some turned to the Milwaukee Police Department's (MPD) Wellness Team. It is a team made up of mental health services, peer support, and faith support through a chaplain.
Bob Goodsell is the founder of Blue Line Chaplains, a non-profit that provides mutual aid to Wisconsin police departments.
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"They work in a difficult environment and sometimes they need somebody to talk to," Goodsell stated.
As you can imagine, all those services worked overtime Monday to meet the needs of MPD officers.
"The chaplain becomes a liaison between the police department and family," Goodsell said.
George Papachristou is MPD's chaplain. Given Monday's events, he was unavailable to talk to us. Goodsell said over the next 24 to 48 hours, the chaplain will prepare for critical incident debriefs.
WATCH: MPD chaplain speaks on behalf of fallen officer's family
"The purpose is for the people who responded to fill in the gaps of what they missed," Goodsell said.
In addition to a chaplain, MPD's Wellness Team also includes Officer Benjamin Ade and K9 CRUSH.
Officer Ade was also unavailable Monday.
But, when we spoke with him a few weeks ago, he explained his role as a wellness coordinator and the need for MPD's first-ever facility service dog.
"We have multiple different ways we can approach someone," Ade stated prior. "Having her (CRUSH) around you can just tell it brightness people's day."
K9 CRUSH has one role, comforting officers. She was doing just that Monday morning outside of the Medical Examiner's Office.
The third key component is mental health services. Officers can decide to utilize all three services or none, ultimately it's up to them.
