The Dangers of Police Work - Essay Example

Introduction Police officers carry out necessary and often dangerous undertakings. Their occupation involves dealing with human beings (considered the most dangerous species in the world) in the most dangerous and stressful circumstances. Police officers are supposed to respond to persons beating each other, shooting at each other, stabbing each other, among other brutalities. In their customary tour of duty, they can deal with the greatest range of human emotions. Police officers also respond to such situations as hostage situations or burglaries and they face the risk of meeting armed rivals. Most frequently, they respond to ‘unknown disturbances or problems’ whereby a person may be asking for help but the police officer does not actually know what he/she is to expect or he/she is not able to gather more information regarding the situation (Dempsey & Forst, 2007). The duties of police officers involve operating in various kinds of circumstances, with much of their work being outdoors walking the beats assigned to them or riding in patrol cars. Their work is deemed extraordinarily dangerous – while carrying out their duties, some police officers are wounded or even killed. Police work can entail horrid tasks, which expose them to dangerous, sordid or depressing situations. They may be required to deal with all kinds of people in diverse situations. These dangers are usually traumatic for the police officers as well as their family members. Generally, police work holds the potential for the unpredicted and the unknown, and most individuals who take on this job possess a strong commitment and passion for it. Police work may involve being on duty 24 hours a day – even when not on call, the law requires a police officer to respond to criminal activity or to emergencies, during which no consideration is made for time of day or night or even weather conditions (Ferguson, 2007). Gaines and Miller (2007) explain that the dangers of police work are both physical and mental/psychological. They indicate that according to the United States’ Justice Department policing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the US with 261 of every 1000 officers’ targets of non-fatal violence annually. Between the year 2003 and 2004, over three hundred police officers were murdered in the line of duty. They further assert that police work, in addition to physical dangers, involves considerable mental stress and pressure. The United States’ Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that together with being a surgeon, firefighting, driving a taxi, among others, police work is among the top ten most stressful jobs in the US. To make the matter worse, police officers must cope with social isolation, which, in any job, brings about one of the highest rates of divorce. Consecutively, stress brings about other problems – compared to the average American, police officers are 300% more prone to alcoholism. In the same way, compared to the average life expectancy of the general public (71%), a police officer’s life expectancy averages 57%. This statistic can be ascribed to police officers’ highest rank among other careers in diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension rates (Gaines & Miller, 2007). Wagoner (2009), a commander, in his response to the question on benefits and dangers of a police officer, pointed out that dealing with other people’s problems daily is not easy and that there is no fun in watching people die or be hurt (it is hard mentally and at times physically). He further asserted that not all individuals are willing to go to jail when needed and thus some will do whatever they can to fight a police officer. Dempsey and Forst (2007) note that unfortunately, the dangers involved in police work are on the increase and every year, numerous police officers are either killed or injured while on duty. They also note that the likelihood of becoming infected with such life threatening illnesses as AIDS is high as more of the general public is affected. Police officers are also faced with the risk of exposure to dangerous chemicals in their line of duty. For instance, police officers and deputies are always subject to the possible contaminations from an assortment of toxic compounds including but not limited to iodine, lithium and lye whenever they have to enter methamphetamine laboratories to arrest an offender or when processing contaminated offenders. In fact, police officers seldom have time to prepare fully for emergency call for service and in most instances; they depend on their training and, based on an ever changing set of circumstances, make split second decisions (Brucia, 2011). The-Crankshaft Publishing (n.d) records that although the rate at which workers in a number of other jobs (for instance, construction, timber cutting, and commercial fishing) in the United States are killed on the job is higher than that of police officers, policing happens to be one of the few professions that involve an ubiquitous threat of facing attacks and being killed by fellow human beings. Moreover, police officers face a great risk of being killed or injured inadvertently since they frequently operate in dangerous activities that do not have to do with criminal operation aimed at them (for instance, search and rescue handling vehicle mishaps and emergency driving). It further indicates that according to FBI, police officers are assaulted and killed in a broad array of situation and ways, and the means as well as circumstances of attack differ noticeably between nonlethal and lethal assaults. Dempsey & Forst (2007) explain that every year, the FBI maintains records of law enforcement officers who in their line of duty end up sustaining injuries, accidentally get killed, and those who are victims of murder. These records from the FBI reveal the degree of danger that police officers face. According to these records, in the decade ending 2003, 688 police officers were killed, 697 perished in accidents, and other numerous officers sustained injuries in the over 550,000 citizen-perpetrated attacks of the U.S. police officers (The-Crankshaft Publishing, n.d). The FBI’s report for the year 2005, for example, indicated that in fifty-three incidents, felons slain a total of fifty-five local as well as state law enforcement officers while in the line of duty. It further indicated that of these officers, fifteen were slain either in the course of stopping vehicles for violations or the resultant vehicle pursuit, eight were ambushed by their assailants, eight were killed in various arrest situations, seven were killed in the course of conducting investigations on disturbance calls, and seven were murdered while carrying out investigations on suspicious circumstances or individuals. Further, three were slain in their efforts to resolve hostage or other high-risk situations, two were killed while dealing with mentally deranged individuals, and one was killed while handling an inmate. Four police officers were also murdered while carrying out investigative activities including interviews, searches and surveillance (Dempsey & Forst, 2007). It is important to point out the fact that of the fifty-five murdered officers in 2005, fifty were slain with firearms and thirty of the fifty officers had their body armors on when they were being shot. While the bullets penetrated the body armor in some instances, in others, the bullets hit the body parts not covered by the body armor. This is a clear indication of the lack of reliable protection for the law enforcement officers, leaving them exposed to the dangers of firearms in the hands of felons. Worse still is the increasing felons’ tendency of using body armor too, which is a constant threat to police officers. In Minneapolis for instance, in the year 2006, a report indicated that felons were increasingly hitting the streets with bullet-resistant vests on. Although these body armors are expensive, felons are increasingly accessing them owing to the fact that they are becoming increasingly affordable and available over the internet. This is empowering criminals to get more violent culminating into heightened risky working conditions for police officers (Dempsey & Forst, 2007). Likewise, off-duty officers as well as officers in plain clothes unfortunately exhibit high rates of shooting fatalities. Taking into consideration the fact that armed off-duty officers are normally expected to take suitable action upon encountering criminal situations as noted earlier on, this is highly attributable to the fact that they suffer from the deficiency in normal tactical advantages, including communication, cover and backup. In addition, off-duty officers as well as other officers in plain clothes may frequently be mistaken for perpetrators in criminal situations. Police work therefore calls for great and constant physical stamina, strength and alertness, in addition to mental alertness – police officers must be ready to live by an often erratic and unpredictable work schedule (Ferguson, 2007). Drugs and substance use in communities is another major threat to police officers. This continuously and unremittingly endangers police officers since in essence, abuse of drugs and alcohol leads to irrationality that greatly contributes to the dangerous conditions facing police officers. As Dempsey and Forst (2007) point out, since the 1980s, the urban drug business has been on increase owing to a tremendous cash inflows and instantaneous pleasure, which over the years has led to proliferation of youthful, urban, uneducated and unemployable males, armed with an array of dangerous weapons including automatic assault weapons akin to military ones. They quote the writing of Barbara Raffel (Prince of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice) that failure to recognize the drug business-associated violence jeopardizes citizens and police officers alike, and worse still, renders the policing job almost unfeasible. Conclusion Apparently, police work involves operating in horrid tasks, thereby exposing them to very dangerous, sordid or depressing situations. Seeing that the threat of assault is always present for police officers, these professionals must find ways of alleviating the risks they face daily by putting into action various tactics intended to lessen the possibility that they will be hurt. They begin this approach to the job in the academy, where they are taught that vigilance is paramount and compulsory in all their dealings with citizens in order to avoid being taken by surprise. They therefore demonstrate a protective posture always, which in some cases heightens tension in, and/or damage the police-community relations. Worthy noting is the fact that in recent years, several police agencies have taken upon themselves the responsibility of reducing the fallout potential that police officers’ protective posture poses. One way in which they accomplish this is by educating members of the public about the dangers that police officers face and the ways in which they are trained to deal with these dangers. This is in addition to offering to officers a specially-designed training that ensures that neither their sense of probity nor citizens are violated by their self-protective steps. All the same, I concur with The-Crankshaft Publishing (n.d) who asserts that the danger that police officers face on America streets will continue to be a spring of tension between the public and the police officers. References Brucia, S. (2011). The Real Dangers of Police Work. Retrieved from http://lodi360.com/2011/07/13/the-real-dangers-of-police-work/ Dempsey, J. S. & Forst, L. S. (2007). An Introduction to Policing. Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Ferguson, (2007). Public Safety. New York: Infobase Publishing. Gaines, L. K. & Miller, R. L. (2007). Criminal Justice in Action. Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning. The-Crankshaft Publishing, (n.d). Danger and Police Work. Retrieved from http://what-when-how.com/police-science/danger-and-police-work/ Wagoner, C. (2009). Police/Benefits and Dangers of Police Work. Retrieved from http://en.allexperts.com/q/Careers-Police-1531/2009/12/Benefits-dangers-police-work.htm Read More