At Attorney General Holder's Request, UB Expert on Police Health, Wellness Will Participate in Law Enforcement Summit

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- John Violanti, PhD, professor of social and preventive medicine in the University at Buffalo's School of Public Health and Health Professions, will participate in a Law Enforcement Executives Summit on June 27 at the invitation of U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr.

The Summit is being held to discuss challenges and future directions related to policing in the new economy, procedural justice and officer wellness and safety. It will take place at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington.

Violanti, a police veteran, who served with the New York State Police for 23 years, is an expert on issues related to police officer wellness and safety. For more than two decades, he has been involved in designing, implementing and analyzing police stress and health studies, focusing on assessment of psychological and biological indicators of chronic police stress and trauma, subclinical cardiovascular and metabolic disease in police, shift work and health, and the epidemiology of police suicide.

Violanti also is the principal investigator on the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) study, an ongoing National Institutes of Health-funded study, which is one of the first population-based studies to integrate psychological, physiological, and subclinical measures of stress, disease, and mental health status.

According to the invitation, Attorney General Holder is convening the conference in order to generate a national conversation on issues facing law enforcement departments as they operate with less fiscal capacity. Public perceptions of fair treatment in police conduct and the policies, practices and technologies that protect law enforcement personnel also will be discussed.

Violanti lives in Depew.