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Sergeant Tracy Trepini details South Lake Tahoe police wellness program, city funds support services
Summary
Sergeant Tracy Trepini presented the department’s wellness program to the Police Advisory Commission, describing a peer-support team, the Mindbase wellness app and a contract with PT Revolution. She said the city allocated $100,000 per year for five years to sustain the pilot.
Sergeant Tracy Trepini, supervisor of the Police Department wellness program, told the Police Advisory Commission on May 7 that the department built a three-part wellness approach for officers: a peer support team, a Mindbase wellness app and a contract with PT Revolution for fitness and rehabilitation services.
Trepini said the effort began after Chief Stevenson solicited volunteers in 2022 and 10 staff members completed POST-certified peer-support training. "Our people are our greatest asset," she said, explaining that the program aims to reduce stress, prevent early retirement and support officers after planned and unplanned high-stress incidents such as evacuations during the Caldor fire.
The Mindbase app, Trepini said, is a confidential, phone-based resource available to police, fire and family members. It provides a central hub of employee-assistance resources including crisis lines and a directory of peer-support contacts. The department also contracted with PT Revolution to provide nutrition guidance, physical-therapy services and fitness training; Trepini described the PT Revolution pilot as personable and accountability-driven, with clinicians who follow up on scheduled appointments.
An agency representative told the commission the city council approved a $100,000-per-year budget allocation for five years beginning in 2023 to continue those contracted services, which department staff said will cover officers and other city employees. Commissioners asked how many counseling or physical-therapy sessions are included; the department said mental-health and physical-therapy sessions are typically limited to about five or six sessions but that exceptions may be made when additional care is needed.
Commissioners also pressed on confidentiality and on whether program use can be tracked. The chief’s office said usage counts (how many people access the app) appear in sterile reports but do not disclose names; "I don't have any idea who went and got services, and I don't want to know," the department representative said, arguing privacy is key to maintaining trust in peer support.
Trepini acknowledged the difficulty of quantifying prevented incidents but said the program has produced anecdotal successes and that the team is pursuing guest speakers and additional regional coordination to strengthen supports. She said the department will evaluate app enrollment and usage before renewing contracts, and that some contracts (Mindbase and PT Revolution) may come up for renegotiation in 2026.
The commission took no formal action on the presentation. Commissioners agreed to include continued support in the next report and asked staff to provide the wellness "menu" of services for commissioners to review offline.
