Boise Police Department Awarded for Efforts to Help Veterans in Crisis

Chief accepts award on behalf of community veterans resource network
Boise Police Department
News Release
Michael F. Masterson
Chief of Police
Contact: Lynn Hightower
Communications Director
Thursday, January 08, 2015

On average, Boise police officers encounter approximately one veteran per week facing a crisis and in need of assistance, and officers are provided the opportunity to aid in referring the veteran to one of the network partners. These interactions demonstrate the value of the program, and that its objective is being met.

Boise Police Chief Michael Masterson thanked and congratulated members of the group Joining Forces for Treasure Valley Veterans for their work over the past five years. The group, brought together by the Chief and other members of the Boise Police Department is made up of over 50 organizations across the Treasure Valley providing community resources for local veterans in need. Masterson credits the success of JFTVV for the Boise Police Department recently being named the recipient of the annual IACP and Cisco Systems Community Policing Award for 2014. This is the second straight year that Boise PD has received the prestigious international award.

“This award is not the work of any one person, or a small group of people, or even one organization,” Masterson said on Thursday. “This award is a coordinated community response involving dozens of people across the Treasure Valley coming together with great ideas and a dedication to helping the men and women who served our country and helped give us the quality of life that we enjoy here in Southern Idaho.”

In July 2009, Boise police confronted one of Idaho's most decorated soldiers, George Nickel, a military veteran diagnosed with PTSD and suffering from a traumatic brain injury, in a deadly force encounter.

Fortunately, no one was hurt. This encounter became the focal point for a community policing initiative called Joining Forces for Treasure Valley Veterans that has not only saved lives but has led to a plethora of improved services for military veterans in crisis.

Boise police played the lead role in facilitating 50 stakeholders from a variety of disciplines who meet monthly to coordinate a multitude of veterans resources including housing, transportation, employment, alcohol and substance abuse treatment, suicide prevention, coordination of benefits, education counseling, and veterans treatment court services. What started with a small group of criminal justice system professionals has expanded to a coordinated community response (CCR). The network currently consists of 86 individuals representing 21 different community based organizations supporting their active military and veterans. It's a no cost, highly successful, community-based initiative, focused on building trust, communication, and cooperative relationships which can be easily replicated and transferred to other communities.

The objectives that the Joining Forces for Treasure Valley Veterans Network expected to accomplish include:

1. Develop a better understanding of services' available in the community for military veterans and their families
2. Develop a higher level of trust among partners through frequent meetings and partnerships
3. Improve the quality and timeliness of services provided to veterans
4. Identify the resources available to veterans in their communities and make them widely known to other veterans in need of services could obtain access

In 2010, the Boise Police Department worked together with Sergeant George Nickel to document his 2009 police interaction. They created a video that included the audio recordings from the dreadful night to capture the intensity of the situation. The intent of this video was to provide an opportunity for other law enforcement agencies to learn from a real-life situation of a police interaction with a veteran suffering from PTSD.
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