KANSAS CITY, MO — A former Kansas City Police Department officer is working to make life after law enforcement better for other former officers.
I first connected with Jessica Flores a couple of months ago, after she reached out to respond to another story of mine.
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Jessica spent about a decade in law enforcement, as an officer with both KCPD, and Gladstone police. She tells me she got into it to be a voice for victims, but eventually felt as if she wasn't really able to make a difference.
Now that she's no longer with the force, she's started a podcast called The Next Shift, specifically to help officers and first responders figure out how to transition into whatever may be next.
"Nobody tells you what it's like to not be a cop anymore," Flores told me when we sat down together.
Jessica's grandfather was an officer, and she knew from a young age that's what she wanted to do. She eventually had to leave the force because of an injury to her right hand/wrist, which made her unable to fire her gun.
She tells me that trying to figure out what was next was a real challenge, until someone mentioned coaches who work with former CEOs to figure out their next professional steps.
That gave her the idea of working with officers who were leaving, either because of retirement, or any other reason.
"I'm able to work with them, and talk them through that and really, I get to help them rediscover their identity, redefine their purpose," she told me.
"All we have to do is break through those layers, and get to the person behind the badge. Who were you before you started this? What did this job do for you and to you? And how can we use all of that to create your next shift?"
Jessica has already produced more than 50 podcast episodes, and one of her guests was
Rachel Murdock, a licensed therapist who specializes in working with first responders.
I reached out to her and asked about the role mental compartmentalizing plays for officers.
"It can be appropriate in the moment when they are at a call for service," Murdock told me. "We want them compartmentalized. We don't want them thinking about 3 calls ago, because that's a safety concern."
"But we want to revisit that at some point and allow your brain and body space to process it. So we don't want somebody to compartmentalize it and sweep it under the rug forever."
Flores tells me that she's now trying to grow this conversation.
In addition to her podcast, she's also having regular Zoom conversations with officers and former officers across the country, with more people joining all the time.
And she's having individual conversations with people here in the KC metro area, like former Overland Park officer Justin Seals, who described to me some of the challenges he's faced.
"When I was a cop, I actually made a point not to say I was a cop when I introduced myself," Seals told me.
"I used to say I worked for the city of OP, didn't say what I did. And I actually realized I started identifying more as a cop when I left. I feel like I had to bring that out, and say, 'Oh yeah, I used to be an officer for ten years.' And I'm just now getting to the point where that doesn't feel as relevant, because I think I was still identifying with it."
You can find The Next Shift podcast by clicking here.
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