The Highs and Lows of Emotional Labor of Police Personnel - Assignment Example

The Highs and Lows of Emotional Labor of Police Personnel Undeniably, every job that entails serving citizenscomes with its varied package of emotional labor (Guy, Newman & Mastracci, 2008). This is especially to the staff serving the public at different capacities whereby the recipients their srvices have high expectations believing those responsible will deliver as necessitated. Some of these personnel comprise patrol officers, dispatchers, CSIs and parking authorities. However, due to varying responsibilities of every staff in the mentioned categories, they end up experiencing different levels of emotional labor.

Emotional labor usually increases in proportion to the level of interactions with citizens who on their part deem the responsible personnel ought to deliver and surpass their respective expectations. Comparing with other security personnel, CSIs are the most affected people by emotional labor. This is due to the nature of their work (Schreiner, 2013). In most cases, CSIs ought to work even during odd hours such that the available evidence does not fade with time or tempered by changing weather conditions, for instance, rain.

This is extremely demanding because they cannot opt to take a break either to refresh or hang around like patrol officers (Schreiner, 2013). Therefore, they end up working with the intention of attaining adequate evidence that will aid in administering justice within a very short time possible. Hence, meet the affected victims’ expectations who during the entire process may not be themselves or traumatized. Another demanding process encompasses when trying to probe further information from witnesses, whereby at certain instances may entail interrogating victims themselves.

As a result, this poses extra challenges to the CSIs thus end up devising strategies on how to interview victims without augmenting their pain especially during rape investigations. However, CSIs experience “highs” events when they manage to get all the required information that will act as evidence to enable victims receive justice in the court of law (Mastracci, Guy & Newman, 2011). Patrol officers on their part do not experience persistent emotional labor compared to CSIs though they ought to be alert all the time to ensure order in their assigned regions.

This entails being able to scrutinize people’s movements with heightened acumen in order to track those who intend to violate law. However, this activity comes with its own package of emotional labor especially when they are safeguarding a certain crime scene where CSIs ought to collect essential information (Mastracci, Guy & Newman, 2011). This entails interacting with citizens in a reasonable manner without using force, which is an extremely involving task. Another incident that may yield to emotional labor on the part of patrol officers is especially when the public proves to be uncooperative in giving out the necessary information.

Hence, prompting the police to be at risk especially when dealing with criminals. Dispatchers and parking authorities seem to experience almost the same level of emotional labor though emanating from varied situations. The latter’s source of emotional labor is due to uncooperative drivers who in most cases defy parking guidelines. Hence, “intimidate” other drivers as well as parking personnel because they think they can get away with anything especially rowdy youths or drunkards. However, they also enjoy incidences of “highs” especially when dealing with classy people whereby most of them comprise diplomats or people of the same caliber.

Conversely, dispatchers while in their quest to avail appropriate information (inform of messages) that will win the trust of their respective clients, they experience immense emotional labor (Guy, Newman & Mastracci, 2008). This is because they do not know exactly outcomes of their activities despite undertaking them in good faith while serving citizens. ReferencesGuy, M. E., Newman, M. A., & Mastracci, S. H. (2008). Emotional labor: Putting the service in public service. Armonk, New Year: M.E. Sharpe.

Mastracci, S. H., Guy, M. E., & Newman, M. A. (2011). Emotional Labor and Crisis Response: Working on the Razors Edge. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.Schreiner, E. (2013). What Are the Risks of Being a Crime Scene Investigator? GlobalPost. Retrieved on 23rd August 2013 from