Copyright WEAU
ST. LOUIS (InvestigateTV) — A Missouri police officer is helping other officers cope in the immediate aftermath of a critical incident, such as an officer-involved shooting. Matt Frkovic has worked at the O’Fallon Police Department for nearly 13 years and is also a handler for the Department’s K9 Loki. Together, they police the streets of O’Fallon, working to prevent crime. During his time in law enforcement, Frkovic has also worked for federal agencies performing high-risk search warrants. “My career is filled with death pretty much,” he said. “You go to suicides and car accidents and all those other things. Through that time, you start to realize, hey, maybe this job is starting to have like a pretty profound effect on who I am as a person, maybe changing me, and maybe I’m not the person I want to be because of the job.” The Night Everything Changed One evening in 2022, Frkovic was dispatched to a call about an armed man threatening to kill his parents, himself and police at a home in north O’Fallon. The man barricaded himself inside the house before coming outside and confronting officers. Police said the man refused to drop his gun and fired at officers. Frkovic and several other officers returned fire, killing him. All of the officers involved were physically uninjured. “He called me and told me he’d been in an officer-involved shooting, and my mind goes to the worst things,” said Katie Frkovic, Matt’s wife. “The climate with the public, the media and law enforcement, it’s just like, what is our life going to look like now?” Officers are routinely placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation into a critical incident. Frkovic said he was not prepared for the series of events that would follow. He remembers one conversation with an attorney who laid out possible outcomes. “About six hours after my shooting, I met with my attorney, and she looked me in the eyes, and she said, ‘hey, I want you to know, the state is going to come after you, you’re going to be civilly sued and when you think it’s all over the federal government is going to come after you,’” he said. “I thought about my kids. I don’t think the general public understands that happens. There are criminal investigations for every officer-involved shooting.” In the days that followed, Frkovic said he became anxious and cut off from friends and co-workers while the investigation was ongoing. “The days following, I remember being so worried about him because I could just see he wasn’t himself,” said Katie. “We felt really alone, you couldn’t talk to anybody about it, you couldn’t talk about it, you felt really isolated.” Frkovic said he started noticing changes within himself. “My peers kept asking, ‘Hey Matt, are you okay? Is everything alright?’ My wife was asking me if everything was alright, and again, I was raised in an era where I was like, I’m fine, I’m fine,” he said. Soon after, his anxiety began manifesting physically. “The truth of it is, I was really struggling with anxiety to the point that one night I woke up and I was covered in hives,” he said. “That anxiety started leading to depression and some other things.” The St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office found the shooting justified, and Frkovic and the other officers returned to work. Still, Frkovic and his wife continued to reflect on their experience. “In law enforcement, we talk about the brotherhood, the thin blue line and all these other things, and we were confused,” he said. “Because that day, if I had got shot and died, there would have been all these organizations that would have reached out and provided all this assistance to my family, and because that didn’t happen, there wasn’t a single organization that reached out, there were no resources offered to anyone.” “Nobody prepares you for this,” added Katie. “Nobody talks about this part of it like what happens when you do your job, and you make it?” The 10-78 Project So, in 2023, the Frkovics founded The 10-78 Project, a non-profit aimed at decreasing the stigma around mental health in law enforcement by stepping in to assist an officer in the immediate aftermath of a critical incident. It starts with delivering flowers to the officer’s spouse, along with a care package of food, gift cards and a booklet of mental health resources, all within 24-48 hours of an incident. The Frkovics offer to share a meal with the officer and their family, allowing the officer to talk as much, or as little, about the incident as they wish. “We’re our own worst enemy in a lot of cases,” he said. “Guys don’t want to go get help because they’re embarrassed. Taking a proactive approach to helping people, I think, is slowly but surely starting to end the stigma surrounding police mental health.” In January 2025, the 10-78 Project took a group of law enforcement officers from around Missouri on a weekend retreat, providing an opportunity to meet and visit with other officers who have experienced similar traumas. The weekend, which included both geese and deer hunting, is one of several retreats the non-profit has provided to officers in the last two years. “How many cops are involved in something, and they don’t feel supported, and they don’t feel like they have the resources, and they just wash their hands of it and say, ‘I’m done?’” said Katie. “How many good cops are we losing that are out there protecting the community?” The 10-78 Project helps officers from different departments across the St. Louis region and beyond. Read the complete story by clicking here. Submit story tips to our Investigators Share errors or concerns with our Digital Editors Watch full episodes of InvestigateTV+ Subscribe to the InvestigateTV YouTube Channel
