Policing's Well-Being Problem: Stigma, Isolation And The Retention Crisis
From Forensic Focus by Forensic Focus: Digital Forensics, Incident Response, DFIR
April 13, 2026 · 54 min
About this episode
Dr Sarah-Jane Lennie discusses mental health and well-being in policing, focusing on the impact on police families and the stigma surrounding these issues.
Dr Sarah-Jane Lennie, Associate Professor at the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Uniformed Public Services at Anglia Ruskin University, joins the Forensic Focus Podcast to talk about mental health and well-being in policing — and the often-overlooked toll on police families. Drawing on 17 years as a police officer before moving into academia, Dr Lennie shares the moment her own mental health forced a career-defining decision, and how that experience shaped her research into the culture of silencing, stigma, and emotional masking that still pervades policing today. She explains why the context of policing — the trauma, threat, and violence — is not what harms officers most; it's how they're treated by the organisation afterwards. Dr Lennie describes the isolation partners face, the vicarious trauma they absorb while debriefing their officers, the intergenerational patterns that pull children of police into the same job with the same emotional rules, and the practical support families are asking for. She also discusses the Leapwise National Police Wellbeing Survey, the shift away from "resilience" messaging, the role of the academic working group at Anglia Ruskin, and why…
People in this episode
Guest: Dr Sarah-Jane Lennie
Topics covered
- mental health
- policing
- well-being
- stigma
- police families
- vicarious trauma
Keywords
- PoliceWellbeing
- MentalHealth
- PoliceFamilies
- VicariousTrauma
- DigitalForensics
- DFIR
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Centre of Excellence for Equity in Uniformed Public Services, Anglia Ruskin University, Leapwise National Police Wellbeing Survey
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