Anthony Varchetto (provided)
Police officers deal with more stress and trauma than most of their neighbors just by the nature of their job — something that Anthony Varchetto, co-founder of Rosemont-based Blue Star Security and head of Protos Security’s off-duty division, knows well.
“Law enforcement is a noble profession, but it takes a toll on the officers,” he reflected. “Trauma and stress over the course of their career can be detrimental to someone’s health. [That level of stress] is not normal, right? A normal person doesn’t experience those incidents. Which, at the time, you might not think it affects you, but in the long term it does.”
Varchetto was a Chicago police officer for over 22 years, retiring in January 2022. He notably served on the Chicago Police Department/Drug Enforcement Administration task force. Both of the companies Varchetto works for employ off-duty police officers.
He said that, in recent years, the police departments have gotten better at supporting their police officers, but there are gaps. That is why, in 2020, he joined a group of police officers, attorneys and business owners to found Bank the Blue, a nonprofit that helps officers get appointments with mental health service providers, as well as hold workshops and training to help officers recognize signs of depression and suicidal ideation.
The fact that the number of officers who are reaching out to Bank the Blue is increasing, Varchetto said, suggests that they are on the right track.
Varchetto said that, while the departments have gotten better in connecting their officers to mental health resources, “they lacked the resources to be available for everybody and anybody at any time.”
“There are times when officers needed assistance and they had to wait several days, or even longer than that, to receive the treatment, just because there weren’t enough resources readily available,” he said. “When an officer needs help, they don’t need help next week, they don’t need help three days from now, they need it now. And, unfortunately, [the higher than average rate of] suicide in law enforcement is real.”
Another issue, Varchetto said, is that the officers may hesitate to reach out to resources in-house, because they worry it might lead their departments to relieve them of their law enforcement powers, or that it might lead them to “being deemed unstable.”
Bank the Blue addresses this by working with mental health professionals who have experience treating law enforcement officers. The nonprofit connects the officers to clinicians in their area, and their service is free to the officers.
“These are third-party clinicians that do not work for the police departments, they have private practices, so the officers can feel safe,” Varchetto said.
They also send out retired police officers trained in outreach to roll calls, where they can promote what Bank the Blue offers and other resources. Bank the Blue trained 30 departments throughout Illinois on “things to look for in their officers that may be signals that they could be experiencing problems, because a lot of them aren’t forthcoming.”
“We’ll train the entire police department at a seminar, and, you know, it just spreads like a fire, you know, the awareness spreads,” Varchetto said. “I have to believe that some of those trainings have prevented issues, or made somebody, let’s say, in a supervisory role, notice something about an officer that maybe wasn’t right, and maybe question them, and [get them] to seek out help.”
He said since Bank the Blue launched, it has had “over 100 officers” throughout Illinois use their services.
“That number continues to grow,” Varchetto added. “We’re getting the word out.”
In the long run, he said, they want Bank the Blue to expand nationwide.
Bank the Blue’s annual fundraiser is coming up this Thursday (May 28). It will be held at Chicago’s Theatre on the Lake. He said that he found that attendance grows every year, in large part because those who attend it once tend to come back.
“[What Bank the Blue does] is near and dear to me,” Varchetto said. “I was a policeman for 23 years. My family’s the police. My closest friends are the police. Nationwide, I have over 3,000 police officers that work for us. They’re family. To me, if we can even save one life, it was well worth it.”
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