National Police Association Podcast with Guest, Kate Klasen, Business Owner & founder of BISHOP'S MISSION
Hi. This is sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith with the National Police Association, and this is the National Police Association podcast. You know I love dogs, and I love to bring dogs and their handlers on this show as often as possible. And I was fortunate enough to meet a woman who is doing amazing work with a pretty amazing dog. And I thought you needed to meet her, needed to hear her story, and needed to know more about her organization.
Betsy Smith:Kate Klayson, welcome to the show.
Kate Klasen:Thank you, Betsy. I'm happy to be here.
Betsy Smith:So your organization is called Bishop's Mission. So who's Bishop?
Kate Klasen:Bishop, if I can get him to stand up for me. Bishop. So this is Bishop, and he I say he's the founder of Bishop's Mission. He is my companion, my partner in crime. But Bishop is he's trained at the service level, he's trained to recognize PTSD.
Kate Klasen:And we started working with first responders, and so that started the mission.
Betsy Smith:I love it. And he is such a beautiful dog. But first, I gotta find out more about you. I gotta ask you the question I ask everybody. Who is in law enforcement?
Betsy Smith:And you have a great story. Why'd you become a cop?
Kate Klasen:To defy the rest of the family?
Betsy Smith:I love I love that you're such a rebel, Kate.
Kate Klasen:My my whole family were around the fire department. I'm the only one in my family that was law enforcement. And I actually had started in nine eleven dispatch, and I was a dispatcher for a few years and decided to go on the other side of the radio and finish out my career in patrol. So, it almost kind of was one of those things where I just kind of fell into it. It wasn't like I grew up thinking I wanted to be a cop.
Kate Klasen:I actually got my EMT license, and I really thought that I was going to go on the paramedic side. But the nine eleven dispatch job was for a police department, and that started becoming my surroundings, and so I just stuck with it.
Betsy Smith:I just love that story. And so as a nine eleven operator and a police officer, you you saw the fun side of that job, but of course you also saw the difficult side of that job, and cops as well as firefighters, paramedics, EMS workers are of course involved in so much trauma. See and are involved in so many critical incidents, and it affects our mental health, doesn't it?
Kate Klasen:Oh, big time. And I think for me, at least in my experience, I did almost twenty years. And then, like I said, I grew up in a first responder household that they didn't recognize mental health awareness. And so there was a lot of self medication that I grew up seeing in that field. So I didn't realize that I was being affected by it.
Kate Klasen:It didn't until I started working with Bishop and started working with a trainer and the trainer said to me this is what he is supposed to look for for PTSD. That's when I said I do some of that stuff. Do I have PTSD? Because it just never dawned on me that I was being affected by the job.
Betsy Smith:So how does a dog detect post traumatic stress? I mean, they can't walk up to somebody and have them fill out a questionnaire or ask them questions. So what does a dog do?
Kate Klasen:They do their form of going around and asking questions by using their sense of smell. So he's taught to recognize certain fidgets, like being fidgety, shaking your leg a lot. That's a form of anxiety to shake your leg. So he'll see that and he'll actually come up and alert if he sees somebody doing that. But really, ultimately, it's more of a sense of smell.
Kate Klasen:So from my understanding, from working with the trainers, when it comes to medical issues, far as like diabetes and seizures and that type of stuff, we actually give off a smell that's more sweet when it comes to PTSD and other mental health stuff. We actually give off something that is more of a sour smell. So it's not necessarily that they're going, Hey, you've got PTSD. They just know from the pheromone that something's going on with you.
Betsy Smith:Is that from cortisol or what substance do we give off?
Kate Klasen:For the PTSD, I think it is the cortisol. Yeah. And yet, at the same time, what I've noticed with him, even though that that was the core of what he was trained for, I have been around people that have had the medical side of things happen. I've had students that were diabetic. I've got somebody that comes into my shop right now and she's got POTS.
Kate Klasen:He's able to sense that and he'll still work on them even if he smells that as well. So I feel like once they're in the service world, they may be able to pick up on more than just what they've been trained to do.
Betsy Smith:So how did you decide to start Bishop's mission? And in fact, how did you hook up with Bishop?
Kate Klasen:Yeah, that's a story for another podcast. I actually had started with another therapy. Well, they weren't therapy at the time. I started with another nonprofit organization that wanted to start a therapy program. And when I was put in charge of that, started working with it, that's when they came back and said that they didn't want to do that program anymore.
Kate Klasen:But I was already kind of getting the momentum going, so I thought, well, then I'll start Bishop's Mission. It was during that time period that I wasn't really looking for another dog. Bishop, long story short, was actually supposed to go to my mom and dad. So they were ready to rescue another dog. And I talked them into getting the Dalmatian knowing that I was going to be maybe using him for therapy work.
Kate Klasen:They decided that at the last minute, this dog isn't going be right for them. And I just, you know, my gut wouldn't let it go. I knew that I still had to go pick him up. And I even said to my parents, I said, well, I'm still going to go and I'm still going to pick him up. Whether he's supposed to be in my house or yours, I don't know.
Kate Klasen:But he needs to be here. So, I went. It was a twelve hour drive to go get him. So, I went and picked him up, adopted him, came home, and that's when everything just kind of fell into place that he was going to stay mine. And once I decided that I was going to keep him, that's when I started working with him as far as training and knew that I wanted him to be more on the service level than just therapy level.
Betsy Smith:Now, Dalmatians very smart. They're visually appealing, but, again, we're used to seeing them either in Disney cartoons or sitting on a fire truck. And but how did you determine that this rescued dalmatian was smart enough and had the aptitude for doing the work that you guys are doing now?
Kate Klasen:Well, it was funny because I grew up with the dalmatian. Kind of ironic, right? So I grew up with a Dalmatian. And when we were sitting here thinking about doing the therapy program, what to me, all I kept thinking was what would be a good dog to represent that would want people to come up and see the dog. And I didn't want to do a German Shepherd because I thought German Shepherd may actually provoke some PTSD depending on what the situation was.
Kate Klasen:And that's when I thought, well, what about a Dalmatian? Because the Dalmatian that I grew up with was awesome. And I contacted different rescues. And when I contacted this rescue, I told them exactly what I was looking for. And that's when they came back to me and said, we think we might have one that might fit what you're looking for.
Kate Klasen:And when I got him back, his story is actually kind of amazing, but the rescue actually handed me a packet. And in this packet was everything about Bishop that was from the previous owner. So they spelled out everything and spelled out all the training that he had had up to that point. So even though he wasn't certified for canine good citizen or any type of obedience thing, he had everything already to go. So I started taking him to the training classes and the trainers were evaluating him.
Kate Klasen:And right off the bat, we were able to, without really taking him through too many classes, certify him for canine good citizen. Once I started working with him from that point, then he got his advanced canine good citizen and then just kept working with them. And there's the only thing that I can say about Bishop, I think he was born to do this job because sometimes he just picks up on it and he surprises me. It's very fascinating to to watch him work. But I have another Dalmatian that's in training right now, and she's very smart too.
Kate Klasen:She picks up on a lot of things, but there's just something about Bishop that I just think that he was born to do this and we were meant to come together to do Bishop's mission.
Betsy Smith:How does a beautiful purebred dog like Bishop end up in a rescue?
Kate Klasen:Oddly enough, was able to talk with the previous owners and they got him during COVID and so they were able to be at home with him when they first got him. And then once things started opening back up, they had to go back to work and just didn't have the same amount of time and didn't think that that was fair to him. So that's when they went ahead and released him.
Betsy Smith:Well, that was so fortunate for you and for him. So once you got him, you know, up and running, if you will, trained for the type of work you're doing. What does a day in the life of Kate and Bishop look like for first responders?
Kate Klasen:So, what we do is I went and got trained through first responder trauma counselors. I did their peer support academy. Then I came back to Arizona and got certified for critical incident stress management. And so, what I'm trying to build with Bishop's mission is to be a party peer support team that can offer animal assistance. So, if the department doesn't have a dog or they don't have a program or a lot of times now the departments do have their own programs, but sometimes the dog is tied up on other things.
Kate Klasen:So, what I'm trying to do is build a group that the departments know that they can call. They have reliable handlers. I love therapy groups. I think therapy groups definitely have their place and purpose. But I also understand that coming into a first responder type incident, Mrs.
Kate Klasen:Jones with Fluffy might not necessarily understand that. And and I've heard feedback in my journey here that there have been handlers that don't have that type of response background and they go and they want to help out. But then when they hear certain things, it actually was a little bit stressful for them.
Betsy Smith:Right. Very often, first responders end up counseling the counselor, don't they?
Kate Klasen:Yeah, yeah. And so this is where as a former first responder myself, coming in with a dog that knows how to recognize PTSD, a responder that's had PTSD, that we get called in to help out and assist with critical incident debriefings. I can, as a handler, now read the room. So if they're doing their debriefing, it's beneficial, number one, that I'm there as support so they can come talk to somebody if they're not comfortable talking to somebody within their department. Now they have a third party that they can come talk to.
Kate Klasen:But with Bishop, as they're doing the debriefing, I at least understand and intuitively know how to read the room because I'm looking at it as a first responder. So do I want Bishop to sit here and go and, you know, as somebody is venting out about the incident that happened and have Bishop like go up there and, you know, start bothering this person. No, I'm going to pull back and I'm going to wait and I'm going to read the room and have him go when it's appropriate. So I think that that's also an added benefit of having handlers that were also first responders to go in as a third party to recognize what's going on and then utilize the animal assistance properly.
Betsy Smith:Talk about the importance of peer support when it comes to first responders, because that's something, it's relatively new in the law enforcement space especially, and not every law enforcement leader is a fan of peer support. Explain what it is and why it's so effective.
Kate Klasen:Yeah. And I don't understand why they're not a fan, though at the same time. I know we have some generational differences as well and different understanding because if I talk about Bishop's mission with my dad, he still doesn't necessarily understand it because to him, you know, this is part of the job and you just deal with it. But I also know too, as when I was a first responder, my family had moved to Arizona. So I didn't have family to come home to.
Kate Klasen:I didn't have family to spend holidays with. I was divorced. I didn't have a husband. I never had kids. So I actually went through my career being alone.
Kate Klasen:Yes, I dated other responders, but what I found with that is, at least the ones that I was with, it became more of a competition. Like my day wasn't so bad because this is what my day was. And so I was still a lot of times being disregarded. And I think that is a major feeling when it comes to being a first responder. You just feel like you're not being heard within the department or whatever the surroundings may be.
Kate Klasen:And I think that's where I come from a viewpoint of coming into this. My whole point of doing it is to know that you don't have to be alone. Like, I felt like I was alone. I didn't have anybody to really turn to. I felt and knew at that point in time because I was patrol in Illinois.
Kate Klasen:Illinois wasn't very receptive to going and getting help. And if they found out, then you would be considered unfit for duty. So there was this challenge because where's the outlet? Where do you go? And you need some sort of outlet.
Kate Klasen:And so my outlet at that point in time was working out. But unfortunately, that made me beat my body up. And so now I'm paying the price. So with Bishop's mission, I think peer support is really important because we don't always necessarily need to go to a therapist. Sometimes you just need to vent and let it out and say, hey, it bothered you because we have to recognize that we're still human beings.
Kate Klasen:And so with Bishop's mission and being a third party, you might not feel comfortable within your own department to go talk to somebody. But hey, we're here. We're here and you don't have to do this alone. I'm here to listen to you. Bishop's here if you need him that you can come in, you can talk to him, and you don't even have to talk to me.
Kate Klasen:However you need to release that, I think is really important.
Betsy Smith:And post traumatic stress doesn't have to be a chronic forever condition, does it?
Kate Klasen:No. And that's what I learned. So when I left, that was an experience within itself because when you leave, they you think that you're still gonna have your friends that backed up each other on the street and, you know, you put your life in each other's hands. And then you leave and you're done. You're gone.
Kate Klasen:They don't really necessarily keep in touch with you. That's a lot to process. And I would like Bishop's mission to be another outlet for retirees that are going through that aspect of it as well. Maybe, you know, be peer support even for those that aren't on the job anymore. There's a lot of resources I find that are out there that are for responders that are on the job.
Kate Klasen:I don't see as many resources for the ones that are now off the job. And I think that's just as important to recognize because PTSD doesn't just go away. You go through different modalities. You can deal with different aspects of it. But does it ever actually 100% go away?
Kate Klasen:No. And so having a third party peer support to go in there and talk about that, I think, is beneficial on many different levels. But no, I don't think it's something that you have to live with it in a hypervigilant state forever. You can definitely use different modalities and deal with it. But every once in a while, things come up, and you know what?
Kate Klasen:That's okay. That's what we're here for.
Betsy Smith:How do you think the current atmosphere that we're living in in 2025 when it comes to law enforcement, you know, almost five years of really cops, especially being demonized, being vilified. What have you seen? How does that affect police officer mental health?
Kate Klasen:When I was on the department, I also taught at the police academy. And before I left, you can see the dynamic of politics changing. And I even said at that point, you're setting these kids up to fail because they're afraid to do their job, because now they're being watched. Now, you know, they can be considered for murder. Now that there's all this extra pressure that there's sometimes that I'll sit back and I'll see some of these videos that are happening nowadays on top of talking to some of the responders out there.
Kate Klasen:I think it makes them hesitate a lot. And so therefore that hesitations makes the outcome a little bit different. And I think that actually affects them a little bit more because it was bad enough at the time because every single critical incident that you have And I'm I'm going to say I'm speaking for myself on this one. This might not be for every responder, but I find that it's a very common thing. Every single critical incident you have, you go home and all you do is replay that in your head over and over and over again and think to yourself, what could I have done differently?
Kate Klasen:What could I have done differently? What could I have done differently? And then that's when the department comes and now they do these debriefings and you can learn from it. But that still doesn't take away like, what could I have done differently? And that's where I think peer support can step in and really help out with that.
Kate Klasen:And with the atmosphere that we have nowadays and being a little bit more hesitant and everybody relying on cameras a little bit more, I can see where those thought processes are probably really, really going strongly in their heads. What could I have done differently? Because something may not have been caught on the camera. That doesn't mean that it didn't necessarily happen, but that's the the atmosphere that we're in nowadays. If it wasn't on camera, then it didn't happen.
Kate Klasen:Right?
Betsy Smith:When you walk into a critical incident debriefing, and for the people listening and watching who aren't involved in the first responder world, it's basically after some kind of a critical incident, again, it's an officer involved shooting or a homicide, a child involved death, I mean there's all kinds of things, a terrible fire, there's all kinds of things that we want to have everybody get together and process it. When you are going into one of those and you walk in with Bishop, what do you see when in that initial reaction? I'm so curious.
Kate Klasen:It's funny because a lot of times when I walk into a department for the very first time, it's usually kind of like, Who is this person? Although they're questioning me, they look at him and they're like, oh, and they come up and they'll start petting him. They'll start talking to him. They afterwards will come up to me and say that they're really happy that he was there when there's been a couple of departments that utilize this more frequently. And I've gotten the feedback.
Kate Klasen:It's so funny. There's a couple of times where I don't really get a whole lot of feedback, but then I was at a fundraiser and some of the responders were coming up to me and they're like, Oh, Bishop, you know, this was so awesome. He was so great. He's the best dog. He was in our debriefing.
Kate Klasen:And so it makes me realize how much he actually affects that because I don't get the feedback at that point in time. And now I've actually gotten the feedback that they actually show up to the debriefing because they know that Bishop's going to be there.
Betsy Smith:I love that. That's awesome. Speaking of fundraising, dogs aren't cheap and neither is doing a program like you're doing because you you travel around, you obviously are available to respond, you have a website, you do training, all of that. How do you fundraise and what are those needs? What does all that look like?
Kate Klasen:It's a lot. It's a lot. And really, quite honestly, I am still trying to learn what our best fundraising avenue is going to be. Right now, I've been doing individual donations, and that's where I want the departments to know and understand and for the responders to know and understand Everything that we do is being sponsored for them. I don't want them to not feel that they can reach out and utilize our services because of budget concerns.
Kate Klasen:If you if you wanna dog at your debriefing, we're here for you. And so right now, I'm doing more individual fundraising, but hopefully 2025 and the years ahead, we can actually come up with what is going to be our best fundraising options. One of the things that I also want to establish too is a veterinary emergency fund for the service dogs of first responders and veterans. And so I'm really trying to get fundraising off the ground to get that established only because Bishop had an emergency. And as I'm in the vet office, they handed me the estimate of what needed to be done.
Kate Klasen:And I joke around and I say that was the price of a new car, but he was worth every minute of it. And this is my first service dog. So I now understand that bond where it's it's much different than it is with just your pet dog. And some of these responders and and veterans, this is what helps keep them going day by day. So I would really like to help them out if they're in that situation where they need emergency funds to not have to make that decision to put the dog down if we can help them financially.
Kate Klasen:So that's the other part of the fundraising that we're trying to get off the ground.
Betsy Smith:I love that. You're just doing amazing work. Kate, where can people find you and Bishop's social stuff website? Give us all of it.
Kate Klasen:So you can find us on social media through Facebook. We've got Instagram and, TikTok for however long that's gonna be around, but you can find us under Bishop's Mission at those sites. And then my website, www.bishopsmission.org. And on the website is also a contact page. And those are probably the best ways to to get ahold of us.
Betsy Smith:Outstanding. Kate Clayson and Bishop, we can't thank you enough for spending time with us today. And if you'd like more information about the National Police Association, you can visit us at nationalpolice.org.
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