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When an officer retires, whether it’s after 20, 25, or 30 years, there’s often a handshake, a plaque, maybe a party. Then the uniform goes in the closet, and that’s it. After decades of service—after countless nights on patrol, after seeing humanity at its worst and sometimes at its best—suddenly, you’re just… done.

There’s no transition program. No debrief. No structured counseling. No real roadmap for what comes next.

Contrast that with the military: service members who retire or separate are connected with the VA, with veteran service organizations, with peer support programs. They’re eligible for medical and mental health services for the long term. Whether or not the system is perfect, there is a system. For cops? Not so much.

When it comes to support for retired officers, it’s really a mixed bag.

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Every day’s a Saturday.

That’s one of those great retirement sayings.

What it means is you get to do what you want, when you want.

After thirty years of being told where to be, when to be, and how to be, it’s very liberating.

My wife was at work and I had finished all of the little chores I wanted to get done around the house. I sat down and fired up the streaming services. I was looking for a little movie I could put on and probably take a nap. My search stopped on “The Fastest Woman on Earth”

That put a twist in my afternoon plans.

“The Fastest Woman on Earth” is a 2022 documentary about Jesse Combs, her quest to break the woman’s land speed record, and her ultimate death.

I was familiar with Jesse Combs, I had watched her in a number of television shows over the years, specifically “Overhaulin” and “Mythbusters”. I also enjoy documentaries so clicking play was a no brainer.

I started crying about 5 minutes into the film and couldn’t stop crying the rest of the afternoon.

As cops we get very good at compartmentalizing trauma. When we deal with all of those horrible thing’s day in and day out, we put them behind a door, lock it tight, and throw away the key.

Something in that movie opened one of those doors for me and let it all out.

It was a rough afternoon

But it would have been rougher if I didn’t understand what was going on with me.

[Insert Intro]

Mental Health for Law Enforcement is an issue that we still fight today. Even though we should know better, we still stigmatize getting help. We still want to portray ourselves and our profession as stoic, strong, and above those emotions.

We are not.

I wanted to talk to an officer who had experience dealing with mental health issues, someone who understood the problem and was willing to deal with it head on.

That’s when I connected with Zachary Saenz.

Zachary has over 8 years in law enforcement and has served as a patrol officer, field training officer, and now is a patrol sergeant. He is an advocate for mental health in law enforcement and his story is an important one to hear.

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When I retired from the Bloomington Police Department, I was done. I knew that, walking out the door. There was no way I was going to go back to the department and work for them again. I was moving on with my life.

But, to be fair, it was easy for me. I had prepared for retirement. I had followed the Dave Ramsey financial plan and was debt free save for my home mortgage. I had a substantial emergency fund and I had a job, teaching.

I started traveling the country and teaching right away, and I have to say being my own boss was a massive benefit.

But most officers when they retire aren’t in the same position. Many of them haven’t prepared for the possibility of retirement. They haven’t put away any money. They have no idea what they are going to do.

And that hurts.

When you combine the challenges of financial needs, the lack of social interaction, boredom and the loss of identity of being a cop, going back to the job is easy to understand.

Let’s take a moment and look at each of those reasons for going back to the job.