Pflugerville Police Chief Honored For Mental Health Programs

PFLUGERVILLE, TX — Pflugerville Police Chief Jessica Robledo recently was recognized for launching a suicide prevention program designed to protect and enhance the mental health of officers in her department.

The police chief's life-saving work was honored along with efforts of six other state law enforcement officials by the Institute for Law Enforcement Administration during a Dec. 30 gala at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The event at the university's stadium was dubbed the ServePro First Responder Bowl for officer suicide prevention programs.

After nearly three years with the Pflugerville Police Department, Robledo has worked to change the culture of the department by emphasizing the importance of first responder mental health, officials described in a press advisory. As a result, officers in Pflugerville receive annual mental health resilience checks, have access to peer support and are constantly engaged in conversations about mental health in their profession.

Pflugerville Police Chief Jessica Robledo.

The latest of such conversations has led to an awareness campaign dubbed #SmashtheStigma. After seeing a rise in police officer suicides across the country, the chief wanted to use her voice to help bring awareness to the issue and offer her support to officers across the country, officials noted. Working with the city’s videographer, Robledo wrote a moving voice-over that turned into Smash the Stigma, a police suicide prevention video featuring Pflugerville officers and showing powerful imagery about the difficulties and mental toll of police work.

While focused on Pflugerville officers, the video was designed in a way that is applicable across communities in sharing its simple yet powerful message. Since posting the video on Nov. 14, 2019, it has been viewed more than 1,000 times on YouTube, reached some 3,000 people on Twitter and has had more than 1,800 views and 61 shares on Facebook.

For more information, see:

• Smash the Stigma: https://youtu.be/pYkPrw79528.
• Critical Conversations: https://youtu.be/W-npQWJUPcw.

>>> Photo of Jessica Robledo via Pflugerville Police Department.