From a police officer:

I am a police officer in Texas and I want to get a part-time job in mediation.. How do I go about that? I want to get into the line of mediation that pays…can ya help me? thanks!.

Kris responds:

We love to hear from law enforcement officers who see the benefit of mediation in community problem solving.

Your question is a hard one and I get questions like this from many fields. The short answer is, “it is very, very difficult” to make a living as a mediator. However, police departments are rising to the challenge of public accountability particularly when citizens have registered complaints. The Austin Police Department now has a program whereby citizen complaints are investigated for appropriateness for mediation and, if so, then a referral to the Dispute Resolution Center occurs. My advice is to look within your own police department or those that offer such a service. Better yet, propose to develop such a program. Those departments that are using mediation within their Internal Affairs Departments are reporting success. Give Larry Oliver a call at APD 512-974-5701 if you would like to investigate their program further. He might know of where in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, similar programs are launching.

The most important thing you are doing is putting the “peace” back into the term “peacekeeper” for your valuable role in the community.