Understanding Stress and Burnout in Police Chiefs

Today we will be talking about stress and burnout among police chiefs.  Serving as a police chief has always been a demanding and stressful job.  The past several years has been even more challenging as chiefs have dealt with significant declines in staffing, higher levels of mistrust in the community, spikes in homicides, a pandemic and widespread protests directed at the police themselves.  Chiefs from the largest cities in the US turnover in less than five years, and in many cases are just exhausted from the relentless demands of the job.  

We are fortunate to have Dr. Kandi Wiens with us today to help us better understand stress and burnout in police executives. She is the co-director of the Penn Master’s in Medical Education program, co-director of the Health Professions Education certificate program, and co-academic director of the Penn Chief Learning Officer executive doctoral program. Dr. Wiens is an executive coach, national speaker, and organizational change consultant. Her coaching practice is deeply grounded in emotional intelligence, burnout, and resiliency research and methods.

Kandi is also a member of the Major Cities Chiefs Association Police Executive Leadership Institute faculty.  In addition to her classroom work, she provides individual coaching to each member of the class on a 360-degree assessment.  She has also been engaged with research on stress and burnout among police executives which she uses to provide advice and guidance on stress management.