Police Officer Stress - Research Paper Example

Police Officer Stress Job roles and responsibilities of a police officer involve numbers of complexities and difficulties, making it not only challenging for the professionals but also hazardous and life-threatening at frequent occasions. The dangers associated with policing are often argued to give rise to traumatic situations for the police personnel that further increase the chances of stress amid these professionals. A critical understanding of the context makes it evident that there are various stressors identifiable in the job roles shared by police personnel. With the aim to investigate these stressors and the extent to which these influence the psychological stability and decision-making strengths of the officers, the research paper explores different types of traumatic behavior observable amid the police personnel while performing in their occupational environment. This paper further makes an attempt to testify the claim that police officer stress is not manufactured by the police officers but it is a real problem that the agencies tend to ignore. Keywords: Police stress, policing roles, stressors identified within police officers, policing agencies’ applied stress-coping programs Police Officer Stress Studies conducted in the past few years have revealed that policing roles and responsibilities incorporate high potentiality of serious hazards, which may lead the police personnel to experience different types of traumatic and stress related conditions (Velden et al., 2014; Inslicht et al., 2011; Ma et al., 2011; Anderson, Litzenberger & Plecas, 2002). Evidently, an emerging rate of stress associated with the policing occupation has attracted many researches, to investigate the impact of these stressors on the psychological and behavioral skill requirements of the police personnel (Collins & Gibbs, 2003; Finn & Tomz, 1996). From a general perspective, stress can be formed in a number of ways derived from both internal and external sources. In this context, conflicts amid members within the family structure and/or within the occupational environment and deficiency of self-confidence amid the personnel can be identified as the most common stressors affecting police officers. Arguments have also been inclined towards examining if stress can also be fabricated by the officers due to their minimum involvement in the entitled job responsibilities (Sigler & Thweatt, n.d.). Taking into account the severity of stressors on police officers, the primary purpose of this research paper is to critically analyze the key issues that influence police officer stress. The discussion also highlights initiatives taken by the officers and agencies to address the growing concern of stress in the policing occupation. An intention to determine whether police stress is simply an issue developed by the hierarchical officers or it is a persisting concern, which is frequently ignored by the agencies, has also been ventured through this research. Understanding and Analyzing Key Issues Causing Influences on Police Officer Stress As the field on interest expands to unveil policing occupation, the key factors associated with police stress have emerged at a more apparent level. As argued in Collins and Gibbs (2003), there are various key influencing factors identifiable as the rudimental determinants of stress within the policing occupation. Few of these major factors include organizational structure and management practices, administrative policies, police organizational stressors, organizational policies and practices, community relations and a versatile range of different internal and external job-oriented activities. Organizational Structure and Management Practices In the recent phenomenon, the extent of police stress has been critically identified as dependent on the organizational structure along with the managerial practices conducted within the police agencies. Such a relationship has been recognized as a long standing issue of police stress. Police officers, from a general perspective, have to face multiple types of hazardous situations and are exposed to experience numerous types of conflicts as compared to the other high-stress occupations identifiable within the modern society construction. These differences may be witnessed in part as the operational roles and responsibilities frequently involve numbers of consequences such as fear of unknown, extreme physical abuse or even death (Collins & Gibbs, 2003). As stated by Velden et al. (2014), these consequences often lead to severe psychological and physical stress on police personnel. The policing occupation involves a number of hazardous substances that may lead to create extreme working environment hazards with a range of strenuous activities, imposing strong influence on the psychological stance of the police personnel. In addition, it has also been observed that the quasi-military environment associated with the police agencies often breed alienation between the police officers. It is fundamentally because the officers in this occupation require utilizing superior level of discretions while strictly controlled by the administrative policies and other senior supervisors. Therefore, it can be stated that the organizational structure often negatively impacts on the cognitive behavior of police personnel and impose various types of psychological stress (SAGE Publications, n.d.). Social Isolation Stressors Social isolation has also been observed as a major stressor for the individuals policing in a particular community. In general, the policing occupation generally involves strict regulations that are likely to bind police personnel to get involved in any type of social activities or events. The roles and responsibilities of the individuals in this particular occupational cohort create alienation between the police and the community, which further exposes the police officers to stressing conditions isolating them from the social life to a certain extent. Moreover, the regulatory policies of the agencies along with their strong provisions often expose the police personnel to face discriminations when getting involved with various types of community related services. In this context, social isolation stressor can evidently be stated as one of the major components negatively impacting the mental and behavioral stability of the police personnel (Finn & Tomz, 1996). Organizational Stressors Organizational stressors in the policing occupation, accumulatively, can also be considered as a major determinant that may have significant influence on each individual officer. The organizational stressors include numbers of elements such as administrative philosophy, performance measure techniques and changing policies and practices that often create disagreements within the workplace (Lanterman et al., 2010). Moreover, internal investigation processes of the agencies often create a feeling of insecurity and humiliation to the officers, by making them believe to be continually watched and rarely trusted by the superiors. The police officers occasionally feel that they have fewer rights than the other members within a particular society or the offenders, who are being apprehended. Additionally, lack of recognition for performing exceptionally along with insufficient training and development programs often lead the officers to face traumatic stress situations (The University of Minnesota, n.d.). Psychological Stressor Due to the immense influences of regulatory policies and tight controlling mechanisms, radical psychological trauma amid the police officers has become much apparent in the recent phenomenon. Strict time schedule and continuation of long standing working regulations have also been observed to radically impact the officers to experience severe stress on their daily working behavior. The process also lead the officers to experience lack of relaxing hours and cause insomnia due to their shifting works, which further increases risks to various psychological illness amid these professionals (Rajaratnam et al., 2011; Wirth et al., 2011). Concerning the psychological perspective, social isolation and alienation from the communities also raises the possibilities of strong negative impacts on the mental health conditions of the police officers. In the similar context, lack of adequate stress management activities and ineffective training and development practices of the agencies emphasizing the development of the officers to cope stress has further been observed to hinder their psychological well-being to a substantial extent (Collins & Gibbs, 2003). Working Schedule or Shift Work Stressor The burden of law enforcement has been witnessed to put officers in various types of physiological and psychological ailments, such as insomnia, high blood pressure along with several types of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). According to the findings of various researches, the shift working schedule in this regard is one of the major influencing factors, which may lead the police officers to develop various types of depressive behavioral traits (Wirth et al., 2011). In this context, considerably long frequency of working hours in day or night generally enables the law enforcement officers to increase the level of ambiguity during the working hours, which further influences stress on their physical and psychological conditions and hence, can be attributed as another key stressor affecting the psychological firmness of the police officers (Baker, 2008). Stress Management Practices of the Law Enforcement Agencies Employee stress management has long been considered as a holistic approach that not only helps to perpetuate the wellbeing of the workers, but also provides adequate opportunities to the organizations or agencies to improve the productivity skills of each individual. In relation to the recent phenomenon, practicing continuous stress management approach has been recognized as an effective and productive measure for the law enforcement departments or agencies. In this context, the law enforcement department of the US had emphasized the significance of stress management program in the year 1981 (Dempsey, 2012). In order to critically address the issues, the stress management initiatives of the department have been viewed to conduct a series of stress management programs aiming at each individual officer across the different agencies of the nation. The stress management programs of the law enforcement agencies have also been observed to conduct numbers of effective practices to reduce the stress level of the officers and improve their productivity on a continuous basis. The law enforcement agencies within the nation further rely on three major key areas of stress management and mental health programs that commonly include internal, external as well as hybrid programs (MacMillan, 2009). Internal Programs The internal activities in policies agencies, relating to stress management programs include various types of effective rehabilitation practices that easily helps the agencies to identify the officers with stress problems along with critically understand the key areas causing stress on those officers. This process helps the agencies to provide more reliable and salient rehabilitation services to the police officers in order to keep adequate control of their psychological and physiological behaviors. The integration of internal physicians and psychiatrists further helps the officers to provide detailed information about their depressive behavior and seek effective services. Although the agencies are likely to involve consulting with externally sourced psychologists on any particular case basis, the internally recruited mental health experts of the department are involved in maximum occurrence to obtain adequate medical cooperation and proximity to support individual police officers under stress (MacMillan, 2009). External Programs The external programs of the law enforcement councils are mainly focused on employing stress management service providers from private sectors. In this program, the specialists are selected from the external healthcare arrangements, having adequate knowledge and understanding concerning the emotional characteristics of police officers. Moreover, the external psychiatrists are also selected in accordance with their experience in providing effective training and rehabilitation services to the law enforcement officers. The process helps the agencies to critically identify the level of stress and provide adequate medication and other rehabilitation services to the respective officers (MacMillan, 2009). Hybrid Programs The hybrid programs in the police officer stress management process combine elements or activities from both the internal and external stress management programs. In this process, the agencies are likely to provide adequate rehabilitation program through critically consulting stress related issues of the officers with both internal and external specialists and developing effective rehabilitation program(s). The hybrid stress management programs of the law enforcement agencies include various external activities while developing required rehabilitation and medication processes for the officers. In this regard, peer counseling has also been observed as an effective process to reduce police officers’ stress (MacMillan, 2009). The peer counseling activities can be considered as one of the most effective and highly accepted tools for the agencies to address the law enforcement officers suffering from stress and different other types of psychological problems. The process tends to keep the officers mentally healthy as it involves other officers from different operational levels who have also dealt with similar types of issues. The process has been considered as an effective medication treatment as the peer counselors are able to easily realize and reveal major issues faced by their colleagues experiencing traumatic stress, as compared to the effectiveness of a medical expert (MacMillan, 2009). Determining if Stress is an Issue Manufactured by Officers Themselves or a Real Problem being Neglected Stress in policing occupation has emerged as a major issue causing severe consequences on the professional, psychological and physical well-being of law enforcement officers. The continuous threat of physical harm along with unceasing need for participating in violent incidents can be advocated to cause traumatic problems for the police officers as compared to the other individuals engaged in different occupational backgrounds. The continuous involvement of the officers in various situations is often cited as the key potential factors leading to traumatic stress amid police officers (Ellison, 2004). In order to defend the notion that stress in policing are not manufactured by the officers, rather they are real problems witnessed by the agencies and departments, references have been drawn from peer-reviewed empirical evidence based researches, conducted within the recent decade. According to the cohort analysis of Rajaratnam et al. (2011), the online screening survey of 4957 officers revealed that 40.4% of the total respondents suffered from sleep disorder issue, mainly owing to their shift working structure, increasing their level of stress and challenging their coping mechanisms. Moreover, 33.6% of the study population was observed to have suffered from sleep apnea and 6.5% are having moderate to severe insomnia problems that signifies major problems of physical and psychological stress amid police officers (Rajaratnam & et al., 2011). Again, Velden et al. (2014) also stated that the functional activities of the police officers consider higher risks in terms of various types of mental issues. The survey of 647 police officers including both male and female members has revealed that apparent symptoms of severe depressive behavior anxiety and hostility are frequently observed amid the police officers as compared to the employees from different other professions. Correspondingly, mental health problems were also identified as more prevalent with the police officers than the other groups of professionals as per the findings revealed in Velden et al. (2014). With reference to the aforesaid cases, it is evident that the police officers face high risks of severe depressive and stress problems than the other professionals. In this regard, it can be evidently stated that the police officers are unlikely to manufacture the stress; rather they are imposed to face those types of psychological challenges. In relation to the recent observation of the law enforcement agencies across the US, numbers of cases revealed that police stress causes barely as a consequence of being manufactured by the officers themselves (Velden et al., 2014). This certainly proves that police officer stress is a real problem. However, arguing that the agencies have been neglectful towards the serious issue would be unjustifiable, given the extensive numbers of training programs launched by the US police agencies to assist the officers to cope with these stressors. Nevertheless, these programs possess certain shortfalls, which in turn limits their effectiveness in their practical application and thus, are required to be amended with significant priority (Hasselt et al., 2008; Finn & Tomz, 1996). Conclusions With reference to the various observations, police officer stress has long been recognized as a serious concern for the law enforcement agencies in the US. The law enforcement departments and agencies within the various states have experienced numbers of officers’ stress that have further contributed to dreadful events, even causing death of the police officers. Although the law enforcement departments and agencies have also been witnessed to take several strategies and measures to combat the issue, the stress within the police officers can be demonstrated as a major concern for the departments to protect the health and wellbeing of each individual while policing the communities. In relation to the major factors associated with the concern, the stiff and highly strict regulatory policies and practices of the agencies or administrative officials, scarce motivational and recreational events have been significantly considered as few key aspects that can lead to various psychological problems identifiable amid the officers. In this context, the policies practiced by the agencies often restrict or isolate the interests of the law enforcement officers and increase their risk towards depressive behavior. Additionally, the factor relating to working schedule can also be considered to extensively influence the physical and psychological wellbeing of each individual police officer and make them develop work related stress. The evidence based learning section within this study has also revealed few major cases witnessed by the law enforcement agencies across the different states of the US. These case examples evidently revealed that factors which could have led to the manufacturing of stress by the police officers are negligible to shape the issue at such a magnitude. Rather, the factors such as organizational structure, departmental interferences, shift works, isolation from the society and law enforcement policy change by the government play a stronger role in causing the stressors faced by police officers. This particular finding justifies that stress amid police officers are a real problem. However, evidences rejected the claim that law enforcement agencies have been neglectful regarding the issue, arguing on behalf of the fact that although with certain limitations, the agencies have been practicing stress coping mechanisms to assist the officers in overcoming the problem. References Anderson, G. S., Litzenberger, R., & Plecas, D. (2002). Physical evidence of police officer stress. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 25(2), 399 – 420. Baker, L. (2008). Researchers investigate impact of stress on police officers physical and mental health. Retrieved from http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2008/09/9660.html Collins, P. A. & Gibbs, A. C. C. (2003). Stress in police officers: a study of the origins, prevalence and severity of stress-related symptoms within a county police force. Occupational Medicine, 53, 256-264. Dempsey, J. & Forst, L (2012). Police. New York: Cengage Learning. Ellison, K. W. (2004). Stress and the Police Officer. 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