How Can Stress Affect a Police Department?
Police officers enforce all of the regulations that are in place to keep citizens safe and healthy. However, police officers have one of the highest levels of stress of any occupation. The very nature of the work ends up having negative impacts on the police department, and these impacts may carry over into the public sector. Recognizing the causes and impact of police stress may help departments control it, at least to some degree.
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Stressors
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In a speech reproduced on the Heavy Badge website, Dan Goldfarb identified four major stressors that police officers face on a daily basis while on the job. These include killing someone while on duty or having their partner killed, not having support from department members and leaders, having family life and rituals disrupted and dealing with negative situations and people routinely. Additionally, Terry Constant on the website Tears of a Cop identified three additional less obvious stressors, including having to be continually on guard (especially during traffic stops), having the professional responsibilities to the public conflict with protocol, the military atmosphere of the department and feelings of isolation.
Health
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According to Science Daily, the constant stress officers face may result in unstable levels of a chemical called cortisol. This instability lowers a police officer's ability to fight off disease, particularly cardiovascular problems. They also may suffer from problems like insomnia and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These issues may result in officers taking more sick days and decreased productivity.
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Sensitivity and Attitude
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According to Constant, police officers deal with their stress by becoming gradually less sensitive and feeling. This may impact how officers of the department come off to the general public and to each other. A police officer also may become less able to respond to the requests for police assistance effectively because he loses a sense of urgency for his work or loses a sense of how violently or compassionately he treats criminals and their victims. Goldfarb noted that police officers become more cynical over time.
Suicide
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Both Goldfarb and Constant assert that suicide is a major problem for police officers. Any time that a police officer commits suicide, the members of the department who remain have to deal not only with the loss of a friend and colleague, but also with the change in personnel that is necessary to replace the lost officer. To make matters worse, the job is not conducive to allowing time to grieve these losses and changes properly.
Ways to Help
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Police officers bring the stress of their job home with them, as their high rates of divorce prove. Constant thus recommends that therapies that address police stress address both the professional and personal problems officers have. He also recommends that officers get involved in leading positive organizations in the community to combat isolation and feelings that the public is completely negative. Additionally, he maintains that departments should employ qualified psychologists or chaplains and that the department should establish specific procedures to help officers through trauma.
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References
- Photo Credit Police image by Zeno from Fotolia.com
