Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta Delivers Remarks at the Launch of the Howard C. Liebengood Foundation

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

I first met Serena when she and other families of fallen officers came to the Justice Department to celebrate the passage of the Public Safety Officer Support Act of 2022. Their persistent advocacy led to expanded coverage of the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program to include officers who are disabled due to mental health disorders or die by suicide as a result of on-duty trauma. At that meeting, we reflected on Howard Liebengood’s suicide three days after he and his colleagues tried to protect the Capitol from attack on January 6, 2021.

I was struck then, as I have been many times since, by Serena’s quiet but immense power. Heartbreaking loss that would devastate any of us activated her. She is clear-eyed, in a way that can only come from deep personal experience, about the need to do more than simply talk about officer mental health and wellness, but to shift our entire way of thinking about and addressing it.

And that is why all of us are here tonight.

For too long we have placed some of society’s toughest and most entrenched problems at the feet of police. And that continues during a historic recruitment and retention crisis, on top of an incredibly difficult and dangerous job.

Too often the public takes police officers for granted and expects them to be stoic heroes in the face of repeated exposure to traumatic situations. Officers signed up for this profession, but they are human beings. It is beyond belief — and frankly, not fair — to think that this disproportionately high exposure to stress, danger, and trauma doesn’t affect them.

Officers need access to resources and support. But we have seen that access and awareness are not enough. There is still a gap between availability of resources and a culture of openness where officers will actually use and benefit from those resources.

Serena’s vision for the Howard C. Liebengood Foundation is that we must do more than offer a program or a pamphlet to officers who ask for it. We need to remove the stigma around asking for help. We need to collaborate across sectors and systems and approach this problem holistically. We need to change agency culture so that caring about and for one another is woven into the fabric of every law enforcement agency in this country.

There is a role for all of us, from police chiefs who can create environments where their officers feel welcome, to officers who can learn warning signs and look out for each other, to the medical and public health professionals who can offer guidance and expertise, to those of us at all levels of government—federal, state, local — who can support agencies that are doing it right and offer assistance and training to those who don’t know where to start.

I was thrilled when Jim and Serena first told me about this endeavor, and seeing all of you here in this room makes me even more so. This is an urgent national issue, for officers across the country, but ultimately for all of us and our communities. Healthy officers — in mind, body, and spirit—are officers that can build and maintain the police-community trust that is so vital to public safety.

Thank you, Serena, for your vision and leadership, to Jim and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), for putting your expertise and relentless energy to work on this important issue, and to the Board and leadership of this foundation for your commitment to this work.