Words of the Wise Podcast: Chief Brent Newbanks — Wellness Is an Ongoing Journey

Chief Brent Newbanks of the Mead Police Department reflects on an unexpected path from studying engineering to discovering law enforcement through a part-time campus police position. After nearly 24 years with a larger agency, he joined Mead to help establish and develop a young police department while continuing to support officers in the field. His department’s wellness philosophy begins with the phrase he places at the end of nearly every internal email: stay safe and healthy. Chief Newbanks believes officers cannot protect others if they are not physically capable and healthy themselves. Gym reimbursements, fitness education, defensive-tactics training, and plans for an in-house gym make exercise easier to incorporate into everyday life. Chief Newbanks also sees wellness as an evolving and individualized process rather than a finished program. What supports one employee may not help another, so officers need a menu of tools they can combine into a system that fits their physical health, mental health, assignment, and stage of life. The goal is for employees to leave the profession healthier and more stable—not physically depleted and emotionally broken after ten or fifteen years. His advice to younger officers is to identify and hold tightly to the reason they entered the profession. The job will overwhelm them with responsibilities, difficult calls, and repeated exposure to loss. Taking time to recognize the lives they helped and the calls that ended well can protect their purpose and provide the resilience needed for a long career. Views and experiences shared by guests are their own and do not represent verified facts or the views of the host.