POLICE STRESS

It has long been assumed that police work is the world's most stressful occupation, but comparative studies of occupational stress have revealed that other occupations, such as business, emergency medical services, and correctional work are more stressful than policing (Patterson 1992).

   

The symptoms of police stress may be different, however. For one thing, the effects are usually delayed, more closely resembling the symptoms of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) or burnout (sometimes called cumulative stress reaction, but burnout, a disease of overcommitment is the more reversible condition characterized more by temper flare-ups). The symptoms appear one day from "out of the blue" in officers who have not shown even the slightest early warning sign. Research has shown that officers with six to ten years of service usually have the highest mean stressor scores (Violanti & Aron 1995).
 
 

Another thing different about police stress can be one of two types chronic ( long term such as organizational stressors) or it can be acute stress or "burst stress", which means that there is no steady stressor one incident that last for a short time. Officers go from periods of complete calm to periods of high activity in sudden bursts, much like a military "hurry up and wait" drill. The Heavy Badge web site has a good explanation of burst stress. One of the first to draw attention to this aspect of policing was W. Clinton Terry (1985) who coined the term "police stress syndrome" to characterize police stress as special and not due to danger, insecurity, or job dissatisfaction like normal job stress. Other have referred to police stress as the "police paradox" (Cullen et. al. 1983) because both the safe and unsafe aspects of the job combine to produce the symptoms.

The third and final thing different about police stress is the fact that good stress is just as bad, if not worse, than bad stress. Stress consists of eustress (good stress) and distress (bad stress), according to the founder (Selye 1975) of the General Adaptation Syndrome (see defintion below), but we know as little about eustress today as when the term was invented. I know it's hard for starving students to imagine, but in public service work, you sometimes feel like you didn't deserve that raise, that a promotion can be as stressful as a man with a gun, that new job is hard because you are starting new; and these supposedly good points in your life can turn into disasters. You feel guilty, you party, you spend, you gamble, you drink, you go into more debt, and these are the times when you start looking to fool around. Promotion is difficult because you have to discipline your old buddies.

General Adaptation Syndrome- GAS is used to describe on the biological level how stress can incapacitate an individual.The GAS encompasses three stages of physiological reaction to a wide variety of stressors.There are three stages:(1) alarm, (2) resistance, and (3) exhaustion.
 

Sources of Stress

• person’s daily living
• personality and
• job.

Daily Living or General Sources of Stress

• Changes/transitions (marriage, separation, divorce, death, moving, job change/loss).
• Relationships (continued conflicts, lack of support).

• Life-style (inconsistent with values, too committed).
• Money problems (inflation, credit-card debt, poor investments).
• Loss of self-esteem (falling behind professionally, accepting others’ expectations).
• Fatigue or illness (poor diet, lack of sleep, lack of exercise).

Personality as a Source of Stress

• Type A personalities: are aggressive, hyperactive, “drivers” who take on too much and think they can accomplish it all.
• Type B personalities: have the opposite characteristics

Job-Related Sources of Stress

• Mandatory overtime is frequently required
• Employees have little control over how they do their work
• Consequences of making a mistake on the job are severe
• Workloads vary greatly
• Employees must react quickly and accurately to rapidly changing conditions
• Personal conflicts on the job are commonplace
• Few opportunities for advancement are available
• Employees deal with lots of red tape to get things done
• Staffing, money, and/or technology are inadequate
• Pay is below the going rate
• Employees are rotated among shifts
• Employees generally are isolated from one another
• Employees have little or no privacy
• Meal breaks are unpredictable
• Work is either sedentary or physically exhausting

• Stressors Internal to the Police Organization: Poor Supervision (too lenient/too tough); Absence of Upward Mobility; Absence of an Extrinsic Reward System; Offensive (annoying & silly) Policies and Procedures; Excessive Paperwork; and Poor Equipment.
• Stressors External to the Police Organization: Absence of Career Development & Lateral Entry; Jurisdictional Turf Battles; an Ineffective Criminal Justice System; Biased Press; Minority Attitudes; Derogatory Remarks; Political Interference; and Lack of Community Resources/Referral Agencies.
• Stressors Connected with Police Work: Role Conflict and Strain; Rotating Shiftwork; Fear & Danger; Relinquishing Cases to the Detective Division; Victim Pain & Anguish; and Employee Review Boards.Reactions to Stress

Physical

• Abdominal pains
• Diarrhea
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Increased pulse rate/pounding heart
• Overeating or hunger for something sweet
• Sleep problems
• Stomach upsets
• Weight increase or decrease

• Boredom
• Defensiveness
• Delusions
• Depression
• Disinterest
• Emotional illness
• Hostile Attitude
• Loneliness
• Mood Changes
• Nervousness
• Tenseness

Behavioral

• Accidents
• Anger
• Crying
• Irritability
• Lack of concentration
• Lack of control
• Neurotic behavior
• Nail biting
• Rage
• Rapid behavior changes
• Violence
• Withdrawal

On-the-Job Behavior

• Make many more arrests for even minor infractions
• Often become verbally abusive to people
• Often become physically abusive to people
• Like to use their authority to push people around
• Drink on duty
• Refuse to become involved
• Look for any excuse to book-off sick
• Get into arguments with fellow officers
• Deliberately place themselves in danger

Suicide -- Police officers kill themselves at a rate six times greater than in the general population, and police officers kill themselves at a rate 8.3 times greater than those who die at the hands of criminals (Violanti 1996). Although you often don't see it coming and there's usually no history of counseling beforehand, police suicides, via psychological autopsies, have been linked to diagnosable mental disorders, most often involving depression, alcohol, or drug abuse. It seems to be a phenomenon restricted largely to urban police officers.  The reasons for police suicide have been identified as:

There are some differences in who does and why they do commit suicide

Younger officers

• more likely
• related to alcoholism, physical illness, retirement

• Higher than normal absentee rate prior to and immediately before the officer’s regular day off.
• Complaints of insubordination by superiors.
• Complaints by citizens of misconduct in the form of verbal and physical abuse.
• Intoxication during regular working hours.
• Involvement in traffic accidents while under the influence of alcohol on and off duty.
• Reduced overall performance.

• erratic work schedule
• constant presence of a gun in everyday life
• overprotection of family members
• problems with children
• hardening of emotions
• sexual problems - these include a lack of participation ( no sex life - stress does that to you) or just the opposite as described below.

Stress in Middle Managment

In middle management, stress comes from all sides, from unsupportive superiors above, and from subordinates below who need to be disciplined. There is a pervasive feeling of lack of control over one's work in middle management. There is some evidence that alcoholism is associated with middle management stress, although there's more evidence that the older the officer, the more likely the alcoholism. FTO's (Field Training Officers) may experience the most stress under the burden of being both trainer and role model for a never-ending stream of recruits. Detectives experience stress from not having secretaries, working odd hours, seeing the criminal justice system be too lenient, and pressure for solving cases quickly. Top executives suffer stress from budgeting deadlines, program development, and resolving complaints. Crank et. al. (1993) found that sheriffs are consistently under more stress than police chiefs. The lower the level of education for a top executive, the greater the stress. Both female and minority officers experience unique stress. Females must deal with the sexual harassment, public stereotypes, and need to gain acceptance from male officers. Minorities must deal with the racial prejudice and their minority group's dislike for police officers, and, by association, them (a double whammy effect). Even the impact of community policing is stressful, most notably on sergeants (Lord 1996).
 

It is important to note that there is a difference between employee discipline and employee punishment, and that employee assistance is altogether different. It is a type of help aimed at the relief of stress in average, normal, healthy, productive workers at risk of developing an unresolvable, degenerative mental disorder. It bears some resemblance to psychological fitness testing, but is more than that. The history of employee assistance programs is informative:

• Traditional Programs -- (1950 era) The supervisory attitude was to (1) ignore it; (2) assign the employee to a desk job; (3) refer the employee to Alcoholic's Anonymous; or (4) refer the employee to the Chaplain. Unfortunately, most paper-pushing desk jobs these days are being taken over by civilians.
• EAP Officers -- (1960 era) A staff person, usually the Public Information Officer, would be in charge of granting employees, who requested it, a sick leave with no questions asked (and no pay while on leave). The employee assistance person would refer the officer to some outside mental health agency or counselor.
• In-House Stress Units -- (1970 era) A staff person, usually in conjunction with a union official, would meet with the employee to attempt some resolution, mediation, or arbitration of the problem. The idea was to turn stressed employees into change agents. Sometimes, an outside counselor would be brought in, but this was usually for debriefing purposes after some major incident. Often, the unit would also be responsible for conducting stress seminars within the department, but again, this was sometimes contracted out. Visit this site for a review of what Police Psychologists have recommended.
• Ministry Programs -- (1980 era) Employees would be assigned/referred to a victim survivor group, a police officer support group of some kind like Concerns of Police Survivors, a chaplain's group, a church-sponsored retreat, or some other kind of religion-, group-based program. Rarely were these programs used exclusively, but the notion of pastoral counseling was something that caught on during this time period.
• Critical Incident Stress Debriefing or CISD -- (1990 era) Critical incidents include line-of-duty deaths, suicide of a co-worker, death of a child, failed rescue attempts, mass casualty incidents, and where victim is known to responder. A critical incident is presumed to be a precursor for PTSS if not responded to within 24-48 hours by a debriefing team usually consisting of one mental health professional or a member of the clergy and one to three peer support personnel. Visit this site for a good overview of what CISD is all about.

Administrators should also consider expanding the psychological testing and screening program, if they have one. Regular mental as well as physical exams go a long way in maintaining a healthy organization. Police executives should demand better psychometric tests, ones tailored specifically to police work, not ones requiring extensive interpretation to fitness for police work. Periodic psychological fitness-for-duty evaluations are important. Some departments have a police psychologist for this; others contract out or share resources with another agency. Often, a local college or university has someone willing to provide testing services. Confidentiality is of utmost importance in this regard as it is with any employee assistance program, but the programs should be set up to avoid any injury to "macho" images when seeking help. Other things a police administrator might do include:

• Establishing employee athletic intramural events
• Devising other "fun" activities for employees, picnics, etc.
• Give recognition in the form of distinctive badges or patches, money, or media publicity
• Allow little or no shift/beat rotation
• Require complete retraining every five years
• Provide second career/softer job retraining for retirement planning

References:

Web sites: Hal Brown's PoliceStressLine, Central Florida Police Stress Unit, Inc.,Oklahoma City Peer Support Program, South Carolina's Another Day Ministries,National Center for Police Officers with PTSD, Gene Sanders: Police Psychologist.
Books & Articles other than Law Enforcement Magazines:
Crank, J., J. Hewitt, B. Regoli & R. Culbertson (1993) "An Assessment of Work Stress among Police Executives" Journal of Criminal Justice 21:310-21.
Cullen, F., B. Link, L. Travis & T. Lemming (1983) "Paradox in Policing: A Note on Perceptions of Danger" Journal of Police Science and Administration 11:457-62.
Heiman, M. (1975) "Police Suicide" Journal of Police Science and Administration 3:267-73.
Kroes, W. (1976) Society's Victim, The Policeman: An Analysis of Job Stress in Policing. Springfield: C. Thomas.
Lord, V. (1996) "An Impact of Community Policing: Reported Stressors, Social Support, and Strain among Police Officers in a Changing Police Department" Journal of Criminal Justice 24:503-22.
Mitchell, J. & G. Everly (1993) Critical Incident Stress Debriefing: An Operations Manual. Ellicott City: Chevron.
National Institute of Justice (1991) On the Front Lines: Police Stress & Family Well-Being. Wash DC:US GPO.
Niederhoffer, A. (1969) Behind the Shield. New York: Doubleday.
Patterson, B. (1992) "Job Experience and Perceived Job Stress among Police, Correctional, and Probation/Parole Officers" Journal of Criminal Justice and Behavior 19:260-85.
Selye, H. (1975) Stress Without Distress. New York: Lippincott.
Terry, W. Clinton (1985) Policing Society. New York: Wiley.
Violanti, J. & F. Aron (1995) "Police Stressors: Variations in Perceptions among Police Personnel" Journal of Criminal Justice 23:280-91.
Violanti, J. (1996) Police Suicide: Epidemic in Blue. Springfield: C. Thomas.