When the Cottage Grove, Minnesota Police Department talks about officer wellness, it approaches the subject with the same discipline it brings to a tactical plan. The department’s Positive Impact Team (PIT) studies national best practices, drafts wellness and peer-support policies, and turns those ideas into daily habits. Every employee completes an annual “Neck-Up Checkup” alongside a full medical screening, and officers take their squad cars home so they can roll straight into service without the added stress of a shift-change commute. A grant-funded therapy K9 provides an approachable outlet on difficult days.

Mind and Body, One Mission
Cottage Grove builds redundancy into mental-health resources. Free professional counseling, a trained peer-support team, critical-incident debriefs, and an on-site meditation room give officers multiple, stigma-free paths to process stress before it becomes a crisis. A chaplain program adds a faith-based option, and Riggs, the agency's community and staff therapy dog deepens that safety net.

Physical readiness receives equal respect. The station gym stays open around the clock, and officers are encouraged to work out while on duty. Department-wide fitness challenges keep motivation high, while a certified nutrition coach and simple “green” upgrades—better lighting, healthier snacks, quieter spaces—reinforce that wellness is part of the job description, not an extracurricular. The department’s commitment extends well beyond the badge: paid parental and bereavement leave, city-supported volunteer hours, regular social events, and a proactive Community Impact Team all help officers keep family and neighborhood ties strong.

PepperBall: A Daily De-Escalation Option
Cottage Grove is also a strong adopter of the PepperBall system, integrating non-lethal options into patrol cars and specialty units alike. Having an accurate, distance-based tool that officers can deploy—rather than relying immediately on higher levels of force—offers a tangible wellness benefit. It reduces physical injury risk for officers and subjects, lowers the likelihood of protracted use-of-force reviews, and helps keep stress levels manageable during critical incidents. By giving deputies a proven middle ground between verbal commands and lethal options, PepperBall supports the department’s broader mental-health strategy: empower officers with choices that preserve safety, uphold community trust, and allow everyone to go home healthy at the end of each shift.

Cottage Grove’s holistic program shows that wellness is not a side project; it is the mission behind the mission. By combining layered mental-health support, on-duty fitness, family-friendly policies, and field-proven non-lethal tools like PepperBall, the department offers a blueprint any agency can follow to build healthier, more resilient workforces—during Mental Health Month and every month of the year.

PepperBall

Published on May 16, 2025