stress and law enforcement Essay

Have you ever wondered what’s it 's like to be a cop? Or what cop’s families go through on a day to day basis? This book Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement written by Kevin M. Gilmartin, Ph.D. gives us an outline on the difficulty and stress that law enforcement officer and their families face on daily basis. Dr. Gilmartin discusses the stages of hypervigilance. And the long-term effects of hypervigilance and the toll it takes on the officer and his or her family.

As crime coexists with humanity, the presence of the police force ensures the suppression of crime and the safety for our society. Every occupation has its own work stress. What is unique is all the different stress found in one job. Aside from the heroic services police officers perform in their duty, they experience overwhelming stress in their daily duty. Police stress refers to the negative pressures related to police work (Police Stress, n.d.). In order to maintain peace and order, there must be an effective police force up and running. For that to happen, departments need to be aware and deal with the negative effects caused by police stress. Whereas, police officers must conquer their stress in order to work at their

Officers, stress plays an important role in the effectiveness of a police officer both on and off duty. Police officers face several types of stress while on the job. The most common stressors come from internal and external factors. Eustress is a common type of stress that is normal and good, even considering the nature of the job of police officers. Distress is behavior outside of the normal range and is harmful to police over a long period of time. Within the department, internal stress factors include officers facing long hours, constant shift changes, issues of pay, lack of promotions, and excessive paperwork. Some external stressors include overly critical media coverage of police activities and investigations, lack of community support, overly lenient courts, and an ineffective criminal justice system.

A police officer must never let his feeling get in the way when it comes to doing his/her job. The officer must also remember that he/she is before all a professional, and when the officer puts on a uniform, he is not only representing himself or herself, but the corporation the officer is working for. The officer must be able to

Most new recruits come into the law profession as idealistic young men and women with the goal of changing the world. These views soon begin to change as the job becomes more and more consuming and they accommodate the job parameters that are placed upon them. As discussed in the book, more and more situations begin to be viewed as bullshit and the more people they encounter are viewed as assholes. The average person is not exposed to the situations and people that law enforcement must deal with daily, and have a difficult time understanding the stress that is placed on officers. The perception the officers have of the world begin to changes due to the everyday encounters they experience. This leads officers to begin to withdrawal from society and loved ones, ending with a cycle of depression and isolation. They begin to place more of their attention on the job and forget about anything and everyone outside of that. This, to most agencies, is overlooked due to the fact that the

I have made a note that in my research paper to include why officers get PTSD and how it might be prevented. In this study it showed that a lack of support was a major cause. This could be from the community, to supervisors, to even the family life. If an officer feels they have no support system then this can make them depressed and feel as if they have no one to turn to. A lack of support can be a career ending for an officer. This could also make an officer do unethical

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

Although many believe that law enforcement agents are usually men and women that are emotionless individuals that do not sympathize and feel what the ‘wrongly’ accused victims have felt, yet they have not seen the silent side of the effects being in the force against crime, leaving a deep impact in officers and such. PTSD in the body of police officers isn’t widely known, but it is a tolling factor in their career. This is a problem that is slowly taking surge, much like a tumor or a virus.

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

Interestingly, physical danger is ranked low on the list of stresses by police officers! A study of 2376 Buffalo NY police officers found that compared to the white male population police officers had higher mortality rates for cancer, suicide, and heart disease (Constant). Suicide is one of the worst effects that stress can have on police officers.

Law enforcement officers have encountered some very deadly days. The life of a law enforcement officer is one of constantly being aware of your surroundings, dealing with the uncertainty of not knowing the individuals you have to approach, and being able to cope with the visual images seen after vicious crimes. The life of a law enforcement officer, who protects and serves, is both challenging and rewarding. The first law enforcement system was established in Boston, Massachusetts over 350 years ago. During this time in the Colonies that were not heavily populated, the sheriff served as the main law enforcement officer. During the 1800’s, 24-hour law enforcement service and systems similar to what is used today began to emerge (NLEMI). Law enforcement officers face incredible dangers. With over 900,000 law enforcement officers nationwide the Federal Bureau of Investigations reported approximately 1,165,383 violent crimes in 2014. Approximately one law enforcement officer dies every 61 hours (NLEMI).The law enforcement profession is the most challenging and dangerous career, because officers must be aware of every law and action they take at all times, manage constant training and stress, and protecting others as well as themselves in the line of duty.

No matter where law enforcement officers are they should maintain their professionalism. For instance, it does not make a good impression on the public if an officer is off duty and out with his buddies at a bar getting drunk and belligerent. If other patrons know he?s a police officer, it damages his reputation and public image as well as the department he works for. Police should also always be careful of what they say. You never know who could be listening. Perhaps a co-worker?s wife stopped in at the department store for something and another officer made crude comments that were over- heard by the wife. Not only is an incident like that downright rude and unprofessional, it could also be interpreted as harassment. Police officers must realize that they are expected by the community to maintain a level of integrity that others are not held to. This off-duty behavior could be misread as the officer being insincere about his job when on duty.

In addition, police officer exposed to high levels of stress relate to their job have been at an increased risk for adverse health problems, including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder, (Grant & Terry, 2012).

New officers need to know that no profession demands a higher ethical standard than law enforcement. Whether or not there are other careers that require a similar dedication to doing the right thing, it is undeniable that there is a tremendous degree of expectations placed upon police officers. Every officer knows, or at least should know by now, that they live in a fishbowl. Friends, relatives, neighbors and strangers watch every move law enforcement officers make, both on and off duty. The fact is that the public scrutinizes police officers more than most other professions, either because they are cynical or hope to catch them screwing up or because they are hopeful

Many factors can contribute to this problem the police force is having with police officers abuse of power, one of them being the psychological health of police officers where they aren’t fit to serve and protect the people they sworn to protect. After the shooting of an unarmed woman at Capitol Hill, The National Allegiance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) started what is to be the most Comprehensive Police Officer mental health program in the country, this 40 hours crisis intervention program is available in 45 states as well as the district of Columbia, excluded are the state of Delaware, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas and Rhode Island. Needless to say a few departments are working hard to improve the quality and integrity of their officers to eliminate the raising percentage of officers committing abuse to those who they sworn to protect.