Police Officers And The Police Enforcement

Suicide among police officers is a dramatic example of what can happen when those entrusted with the protection of others fail to protect and care for themselves (Suicide and the Police Officer, 2006). Police officers tend to create an identify for themselves in order to seem powerful, in-charge, and unwavering in the line of duty, when in reality the persona that they create can lead to officers breaking down physically and mentally (McCord 368). After an officer joins the police force, they are expected to accept the fact that there will be violence and trauma in their line of work. There are no mental health checkpoints that officers are required to meet in order to continue working in these stressful conditions, forcing

Although some officers do not seek or receive help and never end up developing PTSD, there are some officers that receive treatment that doesn’t come close to helping. After traumatic events occur while on the job, police departments need to implement treatment so that the officers involved can relieve their overwhelming feeling after the event, “if this is not discharged, then people become habitually distanced from their emotions, and do not have the full range of emotional breadth and depth (Rese and Smith 274)”. This is where departments fail, by dismissing trauma counseling and overlooking the seriousness the effects some of these calls and events that their officers go through only hurt the department in the long run. If an officer doesn’t receive the therapy or debriefing after an event they can lash out, use excessive amount of force in the future while on the job or even at home that can result in an investigation or law suit on the

Skolnick begins by concentrating and analyzing certain elements pertaining to the law enforcement profession. The elements Skolnick identifies are danger, authority, and efficiency in the eyes of the public, which all produces unique cognitive and behavioral responses as officers. To Skolnick this is the working personality aforementioned. Understanding this, Skolnick begins the discussion of how police culture plays into a policeman’s working personality. First it is important to realize that police officers are required to respond to assaults against citizens of the community, as well as the properties and possessions of those people. This has several implications. First, “The policeman, because his work requires him to be occupied continually with potential violence, developed perpetual shorthand’s identify certain kinds of people and symbolic assailants, that is, as persons who use gesture, language, and attire that the policeman has come to recognize as a prelude to violence,” (Skolnick, 143). This concept can be trouble to some, as it seems to have a discriminatory feeling

According to Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Gugliemi, “they don't track PTSD numbers, Nationwide, it's estimated as many as 18 percent of police are suffering from PTSD”(Doane). He once described it as, "a hidden enemy. We don't really know it. We don't really understand it," Gugliemi explained. Leaving officers untrained in the matter of mental health illness has led to many officers not getting the proper care and treatment individually. Some may argue that counseling is given, and that police officers are able to go to these sessions. However, the “counseling [offered in the force] is not mandatory” (Doane). Making counseling mandatory would remove the stigma of asking for help, and would also [hopefully] help the officers who are dealing with or have experienced on the job traumatization. Asking for help can be very degrading, and could make someone feel weak in the eyes of society. Having a shrink/therapist is frowned upon and opens doors to nasty comments and hushed whispers. You might even be labeled crazy or something just has to be wrong with you, why else would you have one? For police, their job is high demand and their emotions are often tucked away as soon as they step into their uniform. Mandatory counseling will inform and help police officers and their superiors who have preexisting trauma, dealing with, or is being exposed around possible situations that can lead to

Police “working personality” is limited by an unquestionable tacit within the police subculture, surrounded by shifting perceptions, depending on the situation.

When it comes to evaluating a police departments new formed program in-house counseling services for police officers, which is intended to reduce stress among police officers, several factors must come into place. In making this evaluation, we must first put officers into groups by age, time served on the force, and areas which officers are patrolling. In any police force, psychological evaluations should be given on a monthly basic to head the problem before it gets out of control. Because police officers have so many negative views throughout society, it can put extra stress on any individual. Out of 100 police officers, they would be split in 2 groups of 50. The first half would be evaluated on mental and psychological status, and the second

Police officers are faced with a wide variety of threatening situations on the job every day, they go through an intensive training at the academy to prepare them for the safety keeping job they have. The use of force may or may not be a significant predicament but it should be viewed by the community as well as the police. Often police officers find

Table 2 shows the number of results found based on the keywords as well as the studies that are used from EBSCOhost. Overall, two studies from EBSCOhost were used and two studies from Google Scholar were used as shown in Table 1 and Table 2. Harris conducted a study based on police officers observations by a neutral third party who recorded information during police citizen contacts (Harris, 2009, p.30). The study was consisted of a systematic review, which included independent/psychological variables, situational/sociological variables and organization variables. Independent variables were used to measure the characteristics of police officers. Characteristics such as the officer’s attitudes towards their job, the length of service, the race of a two-man patrol team, officer’s attitudes towards citizens, attitudes towards the use of force and an officer’s education. On behalf of Harris’ study, the length of service did not have an effect on improper force, nor did the officers attitude towards their job. However, white patrol teams were comprised of a greater percentage of improper force incidents than mixed race or black patrol partners (Harris, 2009, p.32). White officers who had a negative outlook on black individual’s had the highest percentage of using improper force compared to others

Despite the fact that law enforcement officers deal with a great deal of stress, for fear of being labeled weak, troubled, or ineffective, officers generally avoid seeking help. According to numerous research investigations noted in the article, training active-duty or retired law enforcement personnel to be mental health paraprofessionals has been a successful way to reach out to officers in need of crisis intervention following a critical incident. By using a paraprofessional that is already integrated into the law enforcement culture and providing them with some crisis intervention tools under the supervision of a licensed mental health worker, law enforcement officers are provide with access to mental-health critical

Lieutenant (guest speaker) has worked 25 years in the criminal justice field and told us about himself, how does the police academy work, how psychology plays a big part in this field, why communication is important, responsibilities as a law enforcement, and love for the field. In the book (pg-17) what is criminal justice? Is the study of criminal behavior and the study of human behavior which involves with sociology and psychology. The Lieutenant mentions how we are going to deal with different types of people and we have to be empathy

When one is beginning the hiring process for the police workforce, they have to overcome many obstacles that will test their general knowledge, psychological background, physical strength, etc. With each one of those subcategories, there are multiple ways to test each of their reactions. New police officers will have to go through various hours of training and examination of those above them. To start off the hiring process one would be tested on their common sense and general intelligence; following that will be interviews, tests, examinations, and background checks.

Cooperation between the public and the police force is a key element in the peaceful coexistence of the law administrators and the citizens that they guard. As a social artifact, the research study achieves its importance through investigating why communities are subjected to the options of whether to or not to cooperate with the police force, an extension of the criminal justice (Murphy & Cherney, 2012). With the results and the statistics and data from the field study, determine the social and legal factors affecting the decisions made by the public and the elements bringing about their attitude towards the police force. The study further seeks to analyze how the relationship between the public and the police

“You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you.” Most of us know exactly who says this and what it means. The only problem is that this quote is the extent of our knowledge as an outsider to the Greensboro Police force. I was able to get an inside look at what really happens in a day in the life of an everyday police officer. I spent two days at the department observing the officers and riding alongside one in the police car. Throughout my experience I learned that most of the stereotypes I had about police officers were completely wrong.

This paper will examine the advantages of psychological testing for current and future police officers and firefighters. Both the fire and police services put the men and women who have chosen these professions, in situations that the majority of the population will never see. What do these situations do to a person and their mental health? What does it take to be mentally fit to perform the job and deal with the stressors on a daily basis? These are the questions that departments and training academies need to address as they seek out their new recruits. These professions are ones with many highs and many lows, little sleep at times, along with very physical demands on a daily basis. The totality of these demands can place handicapping mental stressors on our emergency service workers. Psychological testing can be one way in which instability can be identified before it affects those on the job. This type of testing can also assist with identifying Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which can occur even after many years on the job. Through research and collected data we will examine this testing procedure which can save many emergency workers from the disastrous effects of too many traumatic scenes.

Police use of force policies are used by all types of law enforcement officers. There is a concern for a balance of ethical decisions. There are mutual concerns for the rights and lives of civilians and the wellbeing and lives of officers. Upholding excessive stress-free standards for employed law enforcement is detrimental to police use of force mandates. Police organizations can reduce some of the scenarios that cause use of force outcomes. There is a need to find what process can identify potential issues prior to events or actions that cause criminal misconduct by law enforcement. Police training and development needs reassessment. There needs to be an administration of logic and reasoning prior to the use of any force, especially deadly force. Most of the police operations that incite these negative outcomes are avoidable with the implementation of proper training.