Stress Inside Police Departments
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Stress and the Police Officer
Author: Katherine W. Ellison
language: en
Publisher: Charles C Thomas Publisher
Release Date: 2004
"Good policing is not impossible. The reactions that have been associated with stressors are not inevitable. Many officers retire in good physical and emotional health and 100 back on their careers with pleasure. In a situation where stressers have led to maladaptive behavior on the part of individuals or organizations, change is called for. Change must be constant, as social conditions in the world around us vary. The police represent a force for the order necessary for society to function. It is not an easy job, but it is one that is worth doing well."
Stress Inside Police Departments
This book offers researchers, police practitioners, and policymakers a platform for organizational reform and an understanding of how the police organization creates stress, which contributes to reduced officer performance. This book, based on an in-depth study exploring the relationship between perceived organizational stressors and police performance, indicates which features of the police organization generate the most stress affecting performance, and provides a model of organizational stress that applies to police agencies. While much stress research portrays the operation of policing as the greatest source of contention among officers, this research shows the ever-present rigid hierarchical design of the police agency to be contributing factor of stress that affects performance. Ideal for scholars, police personnel, and policymakers who are interested in how the police organization contributes to lower officer performance, this book has implications for policing agencies in the United States and worldwide.
Stress in Policing
This analysis of police occupational stress draws primarily from a study conducted in two police departments in upstate New York. The study combined several methods of inquiry, including interviews, focus groups, personal observations, and questionnaires. One of the departments had undergone diversification and the other had not. Although the departments differed in diversity, both agencies were pursuing community-policing philosophies. The analysis focused on the relationship between stress and police reform, notably ongoing changes related to community-oriented policing and diversification of the police force. Older officers reported being more stressed than did younger officers. This was typically related to cumulative exposure to client problems, slower-than-hoped-for advancement, or less-than-anticipated recognition. Another primary factor was exposure to turbulent work environments over time, which became the occasion for discomfort with approaching retirement. Organization-related stress, compared with person-related stress, was identified by officers as the principal problem underlying stress. Organizational-related interventions, therefore, are required in preventing and ameliorating stress. There are current trends in policing that involve greater involvement of line officers in the organizational factors that affect their occupational duties. One is problem-oriented policing, which can include solutions to problems within the organization. Interventions have highlighted the importance of police union involvement and team efforts. Organizational peer interactions were also identified as a source of stress. These were based in gender-related and race-related diversity among personnel. Organizational reform to prevent and ameliorate stress must be based in an analysis of the roots of stress related to organizational practices and environments. Officers must then be involved in systematic efforts to plan and implement interventions that can relieve the organizational circumstances that cause and perpetuate stress.