Policing in England and Wales faces a reckoning over the levels of trauma experienced by officers and staff as “trauma tracker” tools are to be mandated by ministers to ensure the psychological toll caused by exposure to death, abuse and neglect is recorded. A Home Office white paper published in January outlined a legislative push to make trauma monitoring systems mandatory across all 43 forces in England and Wales. Leading the development is Insp Stuart King, an officer with 23 years of service, who helped develop a prototype system being used by his force, Avon and Somerset police. By linking an officer’s individual collar number to every harrowing incident they attend, the tracker creates a permanent, digital record of cumulative exposure that cannot be ignored by a changing rotation of supervisors. “When I joined 23 years ago, I don’t even remember the word ‘trauma’ being mentioned,” King said, reflecting on a career that began in 2003. “It wasn’t defined.…